On "Political Capital" ... and Self-Fulfilling Prophesies

So many political careers become ensnared by the concept -- probably invented by "political consultants" (*) -- of "political capital", often to the point of fecklessness: "I dare not do anything the voters really want, if powerful interests don't want it, lest it cost me 'political capital' and leave me unable to do something the voters really want/"  The zero-sum nature of  "political capital" becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Now, while Trump 1.0 *did* do some of the important things Trump ran on doing, in the end, that administration was stymied by a combination of traitors within and the fear of expending  "political capital".

But, so far at least, Trump 2.0 is showing us that "political capital" doesn't have merely to be expended in a zero-sum exercise, but that it can also be invested, so as to increase one's "political capital".

(*) Political consultant -- an expert at siphoning money from political campaigns into his own bank account.