''Every seat in the theater in LA filled up so Bernie went outside to talk to the people ... ''

[ehrnst]

217. I've been saying many of the same things for years, too.

I would expect more than talk from a career politician after 30+ years on Capitol Hill.

However, I've also changed my opinions when I got new facts or data on a topic, because I respect expertise and scholarship. I would expect that from any person with intellectual curiosity, let alone after decades in leadership.

I think that rigidity of thought is often confused for constancy.

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson