There is a popular expression in French that explicits a worthy distinction: “Politique politicienne”. It literally means politician politics, or politicians'

There is a popular expression in French that explicits a worthy distinction: “Politique politicienne”. It literally means politician politics, or politicians' politics (a politician is a political figure, like an elected official), and it very derogatorily qualifies all the noise, the blablabla, the unimportant chatter in politics — Wherein politics speaks of egos, not ideas; the part that seldom leads to actual or worthwhile "policy". When a leader is said to be making “de la politique politicienne”, it basically means that's degree zero of intelligent discourse, and solely aimed at tackling political opponents. Cue false claims, supporting opinions you provably don't believe yourself (but party line prevails), etc. It's an old expression, before my time (1980s). It's fallen out of flavor. Probably because 99% of politics has now become de la politique politicienne...