Where everything is bipartisan until it is not.
The deliberate process of reconciling conflicting parties and facilitating agreement between previously hostile groups—diplomacy's greatest hits album.
The past tense of making a solemn promise you may or may not keep, often involving money you don't have yet or commitments you'll regret later. It's the formal act of committing to something, whether that's donations, support, or allegiance, with varying degrees of legal bindingness. What politicians do constantly and donors do optimistically.
An arrangement where two legislators on opposite sides of an issue agree to abstain from voting, canceling each other out, allowing one or both to miss the vote. It's the gentleman's agreement of parliamentary procedure.
Political Action Committee: a legal entity that bundled campaign contributions for candidates, because corporations are people with free speech rights.
The preliminary elections where political party members select their candidate for the general election, essentially a brutal pre-game tournament before the actual championship. These democratic bloodbaths force candidates to campaign extensively, spend ridiculous amounts of money, and occasionally say things they'll later regret when trying to appeal to the broader electorate. It's democracy's way of making sure politicians are thoroughly exhausted before they even get to the real race.
The margin between what polls predicted and what actually happened—usually blamed on pollsters rather than on the people who commissioned the polls or acted on them.
Government funding allocated to projects that benefit a specific constituency primarily to boost a politician's re-election chances—because nothing says 'I care about you' like a bridge to nowhere.
An official ban on something people definitely still want to do, proving that making things illegal just makes them more expensive and exciting. It's the formal act of forbidding specific activities or substances, most famously applied to alcohol in the 1920s with predictably chaotic results. The government's way of saying 'trust us, we know what's best for you.'
An initial election within a political party to select the candidate for the general election, allowing party members to choose between ideological variants of basically the same group.
Insider shorthand for a politician—a word used by political reporters, lobbyists, and cynics who don't have time for full syllables. It's the verbal equivalent of a knowing smirk about the state of governance.
An organization formed to collect and distribute campaign contributions, legally separating corporate money from direct campaign coordination (wink, wink).
Progress to Goal; a political campaign metric tracking phone banking and text outreach volume to measure volunteer productivity.
A bureaucrat, politician, or institutional mastermind who designs rules from the comfort of abstraction, confident that other people will deal with the messy reality. Policymakers craft the grand strategies while staffers handle the actual paperwork.
When two parties disagree so fundamentally that nothing gets done; democracy's way of ensuring everyone leaves equally frustrated.
A verbose person who talks constantly and says almost everything in a misleading or dishonest way; basically all words, no truth.
A religious office granting authority to perform sacred rites and represent a religious community spiritually. In traditions like the LDS Church, it's a hierarchical system of spiritual authority—basically religion's version of a corporate ladder.
A legislative official whose job is to enforce party discipline by convincing, threatening, or bribing fellow party members to vote the right way, which sounds dystopian but is basically just normal politics.
A political approach claiming to represent the interests of ordinary people against an elite establishment—essentially harnessing anger and resentment into a coherent governing philosophy.
A heavy grille of metal or wood with sharp points at the bottom, designed to be lowered vertically to block a castle gateway or drawbridge entrance as a defensive barrier.
The practice of granting favors (like government jobs) to political allies as rewards for support—basically organized nepotism with a government paycheck.
When political parties move to ideological extremes and refuse compromise, making the center disappear. Democracy's current mood disorder.
A conflict where two powerful rivals fight through smaller nations or groups instead of directly confronting each other. Cowardly war for the nuclear age.
Using technical rules and parliamentary procedure to delay or block action without a substantive argument against the underlying policy. It's what you do when you know your idea is bad but still want to prevent others' ideas.
A policy provision attached to an unrelated bill, usually a spending measure, used to bypass normal legislative review by forcing an all-or-nothing vote.