Where everything is bipartisan until it is not.
Political Action Committee: a legal entity that bundled campaign contributions for candidates, because corporations are people with free speech rights.
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 matters that directly affect voters' personal finances—jobs, taxes, healthcare costs. The issues that actually determine elections, despite what pundits discuss on cable news.
A brief legislative meeting with no real business conducted, held solely to prevent the chamber from officially adjourning and thus blocking recess appointments or pocket vetoes. It's political theater where everyone admits they're just going through the motions.
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.
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.
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.
A verbose person who talks constantly and says almost everything in a misleading or dishonest way; basically all words, no truth.
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 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.
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.
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.
An organization formed to collect and distribute campaign contributions, legally separating corporate money from direct campaign coordination (wink, wink).
The practice of granting favors (like government jobs) to political allies as rewards for support—basically organized nepotism with a government paycheck.
Progress to Goal; a political campaign metric tracking phone banking and text outreach volume to measure volunteer productivity.
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.
When two parties disagree so fundamentally that nothing gets done; democracy's way of ensuring everyone leaves equally frustrated.
When political parties move to ideological extremes and refuse compromise, making the center disappear. Democracy's current mood disorder.
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.
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.