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I kind of take objection to the entire concept of 'political capital', spoken of as if it's an exchange currency that gets used up and permanently goes away when you spend it. It stinks of corrupt and opaque backroom deals and quid pro quo. And, as is the case here, it creates and justifies self-defeating attitudes, where politicians very often don't dare to do the right thing, because they can't risk 'spending' their precious 'political capital' on the right thing when they're saving it up for something else they might possibly need it for later. How many politicians have ended their terms with 'political capital' still left unspent in their account? That shit has an expiration date -- it makes no sense to hoard it!
Instead, just do the right thing (to the best of your ability to determine what the 'right thing' is) immediately and unrelentingly, at every turn. Never hold back.
And I also only ever hear it as an explanation of why Dems "can't" do the right thing. When have you ever heard Republicans talking about how they can't do something because they 'don't have the political capital'? No, they just do it. And if their bill/resolution/whatever fails to pass, they just do it again. And again. How many times did they try to repeal the Affordable Care Act? They obviously didn't have the 'political capital' to pull that off, but it didn't stop them from trying over and over again anyway. Why can't the Dems have a bit of that energy when it comes to doing things that might benefit the country? (I know, trick question. The real reason they can't do that is because they're bought and paid for by corporate interests. 'Political capital' is just another convenient excuse they trot out in the all-too-frequent case of when the interests of their donors aren't aligned with the interests of their voters.)