What Is Politics For

I do think we've had decades (maybe forever, I wasn't there) of convincing people that politics is about something different than what it actually is about. Liberals and conservatives have perhaps taken somewhat different lessons from that, but there is a commonality of seeing politics as The Politics Show, to some degree, rather than more appropriately as a way in which government policy is set. It's the legislating and the implementation, damnit, not the speechifying. It isn't about who "looks presidential" or who does better at "owning the libs."

The Libs love it when Psaki owns reporters and the cons, too.

Trumpish bellicosity is more dangerous, but I find warm fuzzies about Grandpa Biden eating ice cream, or whatever, to be pretty cringeworthy, too. Enjoy what you enjoy, but putting on The President Show should be about 15% of the job, and not the 85% of it which I think is too commonly understood. A lot of reasons for that, but the obvious one is people's experience of it is largely from TV in events with TV reporters who also see themselves as part of a show.

Can't deny that this is the reality, that many people just react to charisma and vague senses of "who they trust" (or which guy seems to hate all the right people), but elite political commentators spend most of their time reinforcing this, rather than saying, "hey, uh, this actually shouldn't matter as much as it does." It's their show, too, what else do they have to offer?