When politicians say that something is "owned by the public", what they really mean is "owned by the government". CIA headquarters is "public property". Does that mean that any member of the public can walk in whenever they want and look around? Umm ... no. You'll get into a lot more trouble trying to enter "public property" like CIA headquarters than you will for entering private property like the employees only section at Walmart. There is no such thing as true public property.
If you demand all or nothing, you usually get nothing. I used to be an officer in a pro-life PAC. We regularly found that we could get our friends in the legislature to introduce a bill that would reduce abortions by 80% or 90% ... and other pro-lifers would actively oppose it, because by eliminating "only" 90% of abortions we were "allowing" or "condoning" the remaining 10%. And so we not only had to fight the pro-aborts but the absolutists in our own ranks. If you don't agree with me about abortion, not the point here, the same applies to any issue. The idealist demands a total, instant fix, which is usually politically impossible, and so he ends up with nothing. The wise politicians proposes a minor change in the desired direction, and when he gets that, comes back next year and asks for just a little more. It's better to ask for a 10% improvement and get it than to demand a 100% improvement and not get it.
When politicians say that something is "owned by the public", what they really mean is "owned by the government". CIA headquarters is "public property". Does that mean that any member of the public can walk in whenever they want and look around? Umm ... no. You'll get into a lot more trouble trying to enter "public property" like CIA headquarters than you will for entering private property like the employees only section at Walmart. There is no such thing as true public property.
If you demand all or nothing, you usually get nothing. I used to be an officer in a pro-life PAC. We regularly found that we could get our friends in the legislature to introduce a bill that would reduce abortions by 80% or 90% ... and other pro-lifers would actively oppose it, because by eliminating "only" 90% of abortions we were "allowing" or "condoning" the remaining 10%. And so we not only had to fight the pro-aborts but the absolutists in our own ranks. If you don't agree with me about abortion, not the point here, the same applies to any issue. The idealist demands a total, instant fix, which is usually politically impossible, and so he ends up with nothing. The wise politicians proposes a minor change in the desired direction, and when he gets that, comes back next year and asks for just a little more. It's better to ask for a 10% improvement and get it than to demand a 100% improvement and not get it.