“Politics is war by other means.” This reversed version of the famous quotation from Carl von Clausewitz means that politics, with its imperfections, implies that when war can be avoided, politics is a better means for solving the same problems.

One example of the triumph of politics is the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which solved enough conflicts between the large and small states to let the union continue. Another is the way in which the abortion divide has been settled in Europe at the ballot box. The extremes have been shunned, the center rewarded, and the results acceptable enough to most of the people that no further unrest has occurred.