Doesn't mean they themselves are miserable

Did I just hear someone being uncivil? Image from Sardonicky.

David Brooks, via Driftglass:

Then the second thing to be said is I do cover politics very closely. I interview politicians every single day. I would say they're better than our system. If you spend a lot of time with them, then you get uplifted because they're actually decent people. They are usually in it for the right reason. They're caught in a pretty miserable system right now but that doesn't mean they themselves are miserable. They're trying their best within the system that exists around them. Actually, I find the people who are away from politics, who just sort of look at it on cable TV, are more cynical than the people who are actually in the middle of it. Many of them are doing remarkable work for the right reasons.

I.e., if you could hobnob with the élite the way I do instead of being an ill-informed ordinary person, you'd have a clearer sense of how beautifully our democracy is working!