Opportunism and Electoral Politics
If you set out to devise a system for rewarding opportunism, you would be hard pressed to improve upon the efficiency with which democratic electoral processes do just that. No person who finds it revolting to act opportunistically advances past the level of dog catcher in today's American politics, and at the level of contests for the national presidency, the level of opportunism is pathological. To the extent that other Americans regard these powerful men as role models and emulate their conduct, we can expect this disposition increasingly to be manifested in every form of public and private interaction within our society.