Where everything is bipartisan until it is not.
To officially tweak, fix, or improve something—usually a document, law, or agreement. Amended means you're not scrapping the whole thing; you're just making it less broken than it was before.
The number of people who show up to an event, election, or venue—the metric everyone obsesses over to measure success or engagement. High turnout = good; low turnout = panic.
A retaliatory system configured to launch automatically if a nation is destroyed, ensuring mutually assured destruction.
A fancy British title for a woman who's done something impressive enough to earn royal recognition, or a pantomime staple where a man in drag steals the show. Definitely not your average dame.
Involving multiple political parties working together in uncommon unity, usually because the problem is too big for petty tribalism. Rarer than a meteorite made of pure gold.
A voluntary act of kindness or political support given without obligation. In government, favors are the unspoken currency of influence, though they're technically supposed to be transparent.
Using personal attacks and negative accusations against a political opponent rather than discussing policy.
The legal process of transferring an accused criminal from one jurisdiction to another for prosecution.
A formal written agreement between nations on matters like trade, military cooperation, or human rights.
Sauerkraut rebranded during WWI as a patriotic alternative to remove its inconvenient German associations—proof that nationalism has always had a flair for absurdist marketing. It's the original example of renaming food for political optics, predating 'freedom fries' by nearly a century.
A political action committee that can raise unlimited funds and spend unlimited amounts on political campaigns, though not directly coordinating with candidates.
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 nation's ability to influence others through culture, values, and persuasion rather than military force or coercion.
The official end of a legislative session or meeting, either temporary recess or permanent end-of-session conclusion.
A verbose person who talks constantly and says almost everything in a misleading or dishonest way; basically all words, no truth.
A slow-moving parade of expensive vehicles designed to make traffic worse for everyone else while protecting one important person who probably could've just taken an Uber. The automotive equivalent of 'get out of the way, peasants!' Example: The presidential motorcade shut down downtown for three hours.
Supreme control, sovereignty, or ownership over a territory or domain—the kind of power that gets historical empires to wake up sweating. It's dominance with a fancier medieval accent.
A joint conference between House and Senate to resolve differences in bills they've both passed, where haggling happens behind closed doors and the public gets whatever they decide.
A collection of routine, non-controversial items that legislative bodies vote on as a package without individual discussion, assuming nothing controversial got snuck in, which is always a dangerous assumption.
Playful acronyms for Men in Black and Women in Black—the tongue-in-cheek term for federal government workers, especially those in military, intelligence, or Homeland Security who always look like they're about to ruin your day.
Placement of a legislator on a specific committee determining their influence over certain policy areas, sometimes rewarding allies and punishing critics.
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.
The mere possibility that a senator might filibuster, which is so powerful that the actual filibuster almost never happens anymore because the threat alone kills the bill.
Historically, a Christian missionary; today, especially in the LDS Church, one of the twelve top church executives who set doctrine and policy. It's the ecclesiastical equivalent of being on a religion's board of directors, except your decisions are treated as divine law.