4 things every American knows about politics (but are completely wrong)

If you start to talk politics with a group of people you're bound to run into people who claim to be very politically astute, but clearly are morons, and people who will tell you that they don't "know much 'bout them politics" until you hit on a particular issue or idea that they are sure they've mastered. While they'll freely admit they don't know whether farm subsidies are a good are a bad thing, they'll know exactly how taxes should be handled or what the true intent of the 2nd amendment was. While these people often make for entertaining Presidential candidates they can be absolutely infuriating to talk to. So here are 4 things that almost every American (on both sides of the aisle) are absolutely sure of, but are obviously wrong.

The government should be transparent.
During his campaign there was one promise that President Obama made that always disturbed me; that his administration would operate with more transparency. It was full of good intentions to be sure, if you're doing things right, then you've nothing to hide, let the people see how their government is working for them, etc. But perhaps he had forgotten the old adage that "there are two things you never want to see being made; laws and sausage".
Yes Washington is full of smoke-filled backroom where deals are made; because that's the way it has to be. When Congress debated healthcare on TV nothing got done, the Representatives posed and preened for the cameras and stuck to talking points that their constituents wanted to hear. Their main job was to try and use that as a stage earn votes. But when the cameras were turned off and the doors were shut a deal got made.
Because in those backrooms they are free to make deals that the "folks back home" may not like, but that they know are best for the country. When we free politicians to do what they think is best, and not what they think will get them reelected they are able to do amazing things. Besides it's not like they're some kind of secret Illuminate/Freemason/Pentavirate meetings in there.

there's a reason those rooms are always smoke filled

Campaigns are dirtier now than ever before.
Everyone always complains about the political ads during campaign season. We laud candidates who run "clean" campaigns, yet every election almost every candidate will run some attacks ads. Why? Because they always have.With the Supreme Court ruling that "corporations are people too" and money rolling into PACs and Super PACs which candidates can officially distance themselves from, attack ads are bound to find new teeth.But this kind of dirty politics is nothing new. When Andrew Jackson ran for President his opponents went so far as to attack his wife's virtue; something that was perhaps a bad idea given Jackson's penchant for dueling.

And then there's Abraham Lincoln, who's opponents said that if he was elected the country would be split in half. That is one campaign promise a bunch of losers actually kept

High voter turnout is a good thing.
Every election is full of new voter registration drives and of course the ubiquitous MTV Rock the Vote! All in an effort to get more people in the US to vote. Why? Because it's our civic duty to vote, if we care about the future of our country we'd participate in the process. Still the US has atrocious voter turnout. We should be ashamed, I mean even in Iraq where people risk being killed just for showing up at the polls they have 62% voter turnout. And do you know why turnout is so much higher in Iraq? Because Iraq sucks.

Americans by in large don't vote simply because they don't care enough to make it down to the polls. Are they lazy, apathetic, or generally indifferent? Probably, but most importantly they're relatively comfortable. People vote more when they're unhappy with the current government; people show up in droves to vote in Iraq because they're sick and tired of being blown up just for voting.
So when you're lazy friend can tear themselves away from their all-day Game of Thrones marathon to be bothered with voting don't think of it as slothfulness, think of it as a vote of approval.

The founding fathers knew what they were doing.
Whenever you feel yourself losing a debate on politics just throw out a "That’s how the founders wanted it". It doesn't really matter what the topic or which side you're taking at some point one of the "founding fathers" said or wrote something that could be interpreted as agreeing with your point of view.
And there's the first problem with using anything they said; they fought and bickered with each other and disagreed on some pretty major issues.

Franklin you were a genius

Of course if two people on opposite sides of a debate both quote founders you must refer to the founding fathers' quotation table. Each founder is listed in descending order, thereby trumping the founder's below quote.
Washington
Jefferson
Adams
Franklin
Paine
A Washington quote is the ultimate trump, although unless you're debating the proper way a gentleman should be seated when in the presence of a lady, good luck.
Ultimately the problem with the founders is that they were just men. They weren't perfect or divine. They didn't possess some kind of wisdom that has been lost to the ages. They were smart, they were driven, they were steadfast, and they were flawed. Besides the obvious issue of slavery these were men how believed women should hold a secondary status to men, and thought powdered wigs looked good.
Are they a good starting point? Yes, just as they used the writings of Locke and Bacon and built on them we too and take what our founders said build a 'more perfect union' upon those foundations. And that IS how the founders wanted it when they built a living constitution that could be amended as our society progressed.