All Politics Is Local

By Deane Barker • • tags: idiom, politics •

An idiom that describes the reality of staying in political office.

Most politicians (especially those in Congress) are elected by a comparatively small geographic area, no matter how large their responsibilities become when in office. This means that they have to keep the voters from their district or state happy, because those voters don’t care about larger, national concerns. For the voter, the only issues that matter are the ones that affect them every day.

Why I Looked It Up

I was reading Tip and the Gipper and this was apparently one of his favorite phrases. It’s something I had heard for years.

Links from this – Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked July 19, 2021
Before he was a news show host, Chris Matthews was chief of staff to Tip O’Neill in the 1980s. During that period, Tip was the most prominent Democrat in the country as Speaker of the House, and he was the constant adversary to President Ronald Reagan. This book chronicles the six years from 1980...