What characterizes American government today is not so much dysfunctional politics as it is ruthlessly contrived governance carried out behind the entertaining, distracting and disingenuous curtain of political theater. Played out on the national stage and eagerly broadcast to a captive audience by media sponsors, this farcical exercise in political theater can, at times, seem riveting, life-changing and suspenseful, even for those who know better. Yet as constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead points out in this week's podcast, the realm of political theater with all of its drama, vitriol and scripted theatrics is what passes for “transparent” government today, with elected officials routinely performing for their audiences and playing up to the cameras, while behind the scenes, those who really run the show are putting into place policies which erode our freedoms and undermine our attempts at transparent, accountable, representative government.
