Alice: In democracies, politicians garner support by emphasizing the differences between their opponents and themselves.
Alice's 1st Statement
In democracies, politicians emphasize the differences between them and their opponents in order to win support.
Elwell's Response?
He seems to accept that this is true. In saying, "Despite election rhetoric", he seems to acknowledge that while campaigning, politicians will SAY lots of stuff about how different they are from their opponents.
Alice's 2nd Statement
In democracies, politicians must rule in accord with their rhetoric.
Elwell's Response?
He seems to resist this idea. He thinks that there's a difference between what they say in their election rhetoric and how they actually act once elected. He thinks that politicians usually soften their stands once they are actually ruling.
Alice's 3rd Statement
In democracies, policies fluctuate wildly as one party succeeds another.
Elwell's Response?
He would probably disagree with this claim too, since he thinks politicians soften their stance once elected. In other words, they may seem to be a more extreme liberal or more extreme conservative while trying to get elected (emphasizing differences), but once in office politicians need to put together majority coalitions (which is code for "working with your opponents"). So he thinks that politicians soften, compromise, and "move towards the center" in order to get people with different views to form a coalition with them.
Thus, he wouldn't think that policies would fluctuate wildly because he thinks the actual policies enacted are probably moderate.