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I think that was true once upon a time, but the politicians seem as caught up in the partisanship as the voters these days. I also think an awful lot of confide

I think that was true once upon a time, but the politicians seem as caught up in the partisanship as the voters these days. I also think an awful lot of confidentiality is abused or, in less extreme cases, simply reduces public engagement. I'd like to see the sausage-making being a lot more open, and the public becoming more tolerant of imperfections in our elected officials. Naive as that may seem, it actually seems more achievable to me than that the political class becomes less dysfunctional in the absence of any consistent oversight.

AnimalMuppet 7y ago
> the politicians seem as caught up in the partisanship as the voters these days. In public, yes. That's the point. One could hope that in private, there's more sanity and less theater. I fear that it's just the same in private as in public, but one can hope.
- SuoDuanDao 7y ago
  I could see two possible positive outcomes to making a private conversation of that nature public. One, we find some impure but pragmatic horse trading, and the voters breath a sigh of relief at the revelation that the politicians aren't as caught up in partisanship as we'd feared. Two, we find out the reason they aren't caught up in partisanship is that the partisanship is less a disagreement over how to serve voters' interests and more distraction from how they serve their own interests. Making a private conversation public is an extreme measure, but it also seems very appropriate in extreme circumstances.