Nicholas Weininger on In Practice

So let's unpack that city council member's mental model of politics a bit. They evidently take it for granted that "we can't do it without the support of the firefighters' union". Why? Did you get any explanation from the council member or was it just that flat blanket statement? If, as I suspect, the explanation is that the firefighters' union endorsement, or non-endorsement, seems to the council members to be a likely determinant of their re-election: how do we change that? That in turn unpacks into a couple more questions: -- how much of the council members' view of that endorsement's importance is perception vs reality? What would induce someone to take a chance and test that? Or, more ambitiously, what would it take to make the YIMBY endorsement seem at least as important to the council members as the firefighters' endorsement?