No one else has the stakes, nor the numbers, that the People do. It’s the way our system of government was designed to work, and it cannot work otherwise.

An educated, morally sound, informed and engaged populace jealous of their freedoms is a must. From such a populace can be drawn better politicians, and their overseers.

But umpires are by their very nature objective appliers of rules. Politicians are by their very nature people who are likely to want to usurp power and take advantage of the rules. The politicians are not really there to enforce the rules but to abide by them. The politicians are more analogous to the players, and the people and the judges more analogous to the umpires—and the judges are suspect because in many cases they are appointed by and approved by the politicians.

And the pundits are there to sell newspapers and/or increase TV ratings.

No, in the end it is up to the people.

To use a sports analogy. The spectators don’t need to know all the rules of the game – but we expect the umpires/refs to. We count on them to get it right, and they do most of the time. Of course, if all the spectators know nothing then they wouldn’t know if any mistakes were being made. And to keep with the theme – we couldn’t count on the sports writers to point out any mistakes (since they are in favor of the team they are rooting for).

It’ll be funny if in a few decades the US is dark as hades at night seen from the sky, just like North Korea, except for the Democrat communities that get power due to special favors.

I’m not wearing shades now either.

His three Press Secretaries – Gibbs, Carney, and Earnest (what a perfect name) – all seem to have attended the Baghdad Bob school of journalism. They prevaricate perniciously.