Tomorrow’s just one part of our political participation

An undeniably positive byproduct of the past four politically tumultuous years is that more Americans are paying attention to Washington, D.C., than ever before.

It is good for the people to see how the sausage is made because the more we understand the harder it is for the sausage makers to lie to us about the process.

In the past few years Americans have been paying attention to the White House press briefings. They know who Sean Spicer, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kayleigh Mcenany are. True, half of the people in the country consider them prodigious liars and the other half consider them superstars, but they witnessed the process at work.

Could most people outside of the media name President Barack Obama’s first three press secretaries? George W. Bush’s? Bill Clinton’s? Probably not.

Likewise it is good that Americans saw the exchanges the media had with this administration’s spokespeople. Were reporters fair?

Were they grandstanding for cameras? Did the media disseminate the most important news of the day or just news that paired well with their agendas?

In Congress Americans saw the Senate Majority Leader enthusiastically hold hearings for a Supreme

Court nominee in a presidential election year when he indicated four years ago that President Obama could not be afforded the same privilege.

Hypocrisy? Probably. But had most people been watching the Senate for the last decade as closely as they had the past few years they would know that this was not the biggest example of cynical politics in Washington, D.C., but merely the latest.

Most politicians brush off well-founded charges of hypocrisy because their voters give it a pass if it benefits their team.

In the last few years media organizations have brought on “fact-checkers” and begun tabulating what they consider to be President Trump’s lies or misstatements. Fair enough, but if we are treated to a President Biden for the next few years let’s keep those guardians of truth around and see what they come up with.

All politicians lie. This should not be news but sadly to many it is. Politicians lie because they are trying to win favor rather than claim the moral high ground, though they are happy to do both.

Although the country was split on the accuracy and efficacy of the Mueller report it was good that the citizens got a peek into the world of federal investigations, Justice Department processes and corruption inside and outside of government.

It is good that Americans cared because when they don’t care bad actors will quickly fill the void in accountability and harm is done to the country. We have seen this again and again.

Scrutiny of Attorney General William Barr is a good thing and there are questions to be answered but the scrutinizers have no axis on which to determine equilibrium if they did not also scrutinize Eric Holder, Alberto Gonzales, etc.

Regardless of what happens tomorrow, let us all pledge to pay attention to our national politics. Right now you may just want to change the channel on the whole scene, but a strong familiarity with the workings of Washington, warts and all, will ultimately diffuse every fantastical headline as a cause of heightened anxiety and temper the ability of elected officials to play on those fears.