Politics has often been aptly compared to a circus: Political parties must first organize themselves in local, state and national groupings and then every two years, each party scrambles to control elections. If fact, parties are always organizing, around broad themes, like taxes or guns, around new and old candidates, or simply formulating positions on the issues of the day. But parties represent only one set of actors in the circus of politics; don't forget politicians in office, such as the President, Senators, members of Congress and governors. And what about the money for all of these endeavors? Enter the lobbyists, any product, service, or group you may possibly imagine probably has a lobbyist in Washington pushing their interests. 

Finally, there is also the media. We often reify "the media" as a single behemoth, manipulating our every desire and distorting our knowledge of politics or for that matter, any information whatsoever. Obviously, the reality is much more complicated. From huge media conglomerates to your neighbor- down- the- street's political blog, all types of media and the stories they generate have weakness and strengths. However, ultimately all our collective intake of media represents our window to the outside world. What would you know of your politicians without the media, or of Washington, D.C., or anything else? Our world is too large for any one of us to experience all of it first hand. Why do we address the media in government? The role media plays has been compared to the "fourth branch of government"; the media holds our representatives accountable for their good (and bad!) deeds. As Thomas Jefferson once said, “were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” 

In summary, in this frenetic, no-safety net circus of politics, we have political parties and their adherents at every level (yeah federalism!), politicians, interest groups, and the media. Have I left anybody out?... Right - for that the last act, don't forget your audience participation, because collectively, each one of us acts as a ringmaster, every time we vote, or hold our politicians accountable, or care about politics enough to stick our head in the circus tent and find out what's going on...