Lessons in Lobbying 12 #Don’t argue with reality

I think it is insane to oppose reality.

When I argue with reality, I lose – but only 100% of the time.

If you want reality to be different than what it is, you might as well try to teach a cat to bark.

I’ve seen people try and argue with reality.

When I was getting treatment for cancer, I saw some people second guess world class oncologists on the right treatment.  When they checked out of hospital, they checked out.

After reading Vaclav Smil, I see that securing 100% renewable energy by 2050 for all sectors of the economy, without any serious impacts on our current standards of living is a denial of reality.

And, many deny political reality. By that I mean a denial of having enough votes firmly in the bag to secure the goal you want.

 

Tools to avoid the denial of political reality

There are two good ways to get a sound grasp of political reality.

The best is to go and listen to the people making and influencing the decision you are working on. If you listen carefully, don’t speak too much, you are likely going to hear if key decision makers are on side or not.   If they are on side, that’s great, continue as you were. If not, re-calibrate your plans, and see what you can do differently to get enough support. If you choose to ignore the signals of political reality, and go ahead blindly as if you did not know, or care about reality, you’ve embraced political insanity. It may make you and others feel good, and give you a warm fuzzy feeling of well-being, but you’ve signed up for defeat if you go there.

I find a one on one conversation with a group of key players in the Commission, EP and the Member States gives you are good idea of where political support really is. This takes a few hours, but it is better doing this at the start, than avoiding political reality.

The second best option is to look at the recent past similar votes on the issue. I use the excellent Vote Watch EU. I find it gives you an accurate insight of where the political forces lay.

If you want to bark at the moon go ahead, but don’t do it in public, it comes across as insane.