Practical politics consists in ignoring facts.

The line is a sardonic definition: “practical politics” is not the rational application of facts to public problems, but the strategic sidelining of facts that threaten a desired outcome. Adams implies that political success often depends on managing appearances, simplifying complexity, and avoiding truths that would fracture alliances or expose contradictions. The quote also critiques a common defense of political compromise—calling it “practical”—by suggesting that what is labeled pragmatism can be a cultivated blindness. In Adams’s worldview, this is not merely personal hypocrisy but a structural feature of politics, where incentives reward persuasion and power maintenance more than empirical accuracy.