Tim Burke tells us that we have to stop believing the narratives of politicians and public figures. We have to stop believing the lies about their politics and personal lies. Let's support the politicians with flawed personal lives and push away politicians who fail to live up to their promise. We have to see past the marketing package and evaluate the actual product.

For our own velvet revolution, for at least a possibility of moving
the ball forward past this stagnant, curdled moment in American life, I
think what we’ll all have to do is take the risk of authenticity, to
develop a grown-up taste for the rough edges and honest imperfections
of lives as they are lived. In our politicians, in our public figures,
in ourselves. To stop carrying water for liars or telling simplified
fabulisms because we think that will serve some end that we deem
necessary. To drop our deflector shields. Living and speaking within a
world of acknowledged ambiguity, uncertainty, and imperfection is an
end in and of itself.

Otherwise, 21st Century American life is going to amount to just us,
the online comments threads, and those wonderful people out there in
the dark…a long slow fading as we dreamily revisit over and over again
our old glories, waiting endlessly for our close-up.