> if you are first a big person in learning, politics will not affect your halachik jurisprudence.
politics was never easy and there were places/times to stand tall or compromise. For example, R Yohanan b Zakkai successfully asked Vespasian for what could have been saved – and dreaded later in life whether he made a mistake and could have asked for more … Chofetz chaim successfully ran away from Soviet Russia and later regretted that he, and other Rabbis, abandoned remaining Russian Jews