This fourth branch of the US government is the Media branch. Currently, the Liberals have a majority in this branch of our government.
The fourth branch has many characteristics:
- It is apparently defined by the Constitution under the "Freedom of speech" and "Freedom of the press" clauses.
- It it more efficient than the other two branches in that there are no elections or other matters of inconvenience to impact the allocation of the majority position.
- While the Legislative Branch was initially chartered with initiating legislation, this has proven problematic since the typical time to complete legislations (months) is longer than the typical attention span of the Media Branch (days).
- Ideas are proposed and promised by the Executive Branch, the ideas percolate in the Judicial Branch until the Media Branch finds a correlation between a bill and a crisis at which time the national agenda (the exculsive responsibility of the Media Branch) steers toward that item.
- It is the only branch of the government that does not undergo scruitiny, review or need to be accountable to the country as a whole. This makes it easier to do the job of managing the national attention and steering the agenda. The horrors of prisoner treatement at Gitmo can be the issue one week, the death toll in Iraq can be the issue the next and it can swing through Global Warming, to Gasoline prices and to the economy just as quickly. It is very freeing not to be accountable.
While the President only has 8 years, and Congress only has 30 years (re-election rates being what they are) the Media Branch is able to maintain continuity through multiple generations.
The Liberal majority wields sufficient influence that it is able to rule the Fourth branch with the efficacy of a good Cuban Dictator. Alternative points of view are labeled "hate speech". Note that Concervative media is labeled "Right-Wing" but the mainstream media avoides the term "Left-Wing".
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