Politicians are, from time to time, still troubled by irresponsible journalists and authors – just as journalists and authors, from time to time, are still troubled by irresponsible politicians. But it is a tragic fact that there are few groups where the problems of the politician are given as little genuine comprehension as they are among the writers, who seem to possess that talent for finding the right and wrong on all questions with none of the difficulties that face the politician. ... Certainly I do not seek any cessation of the writer's critical faculties in their application to my profession. For it is one of the hallmarks of the totalitarian when criticism is directed only against the enemies of the state, rather than against the state itself. ... And in few other professions but politics is it expected that a man will sacrifice honors, prestige and his chosen career on a single issue. I do not say that authors, teachers and others do not face difficult decisions involving their integrity- but few face them as does the politician in the spotlight of publicity. And few bear the continual weight of temptations and pressures to take the primrose path of never-ending compromise. Torn between his obligations to his constituency, his concern for the welfare of his family, his gratitude to his supporters, his loyalty to his party, his personal ambitions, his sense of public duty, and his awareness that right and wrong on most issues are almost inextricably mixed, the politician stumbles along, seeking shelter from the slings and arrows of his critics- most of them interested, only a few disinterested.
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