Candidates are built out of appearance, voice, the ability to deliver one-liners, out of everything except what is inside them. The inside of a candidate, the reason for a person to behave as he or she does, is not considered an element of the product. Thus, we usually learn who politicians really are after they're in office. The goal is to look like the genuine article. As a result, everything in our culture looks pretty good these days.
Cars look good.
Clothes look good. People who work out at the gym look good, and you look marvelous. The generation that has produced these well-made objects grew up on television, which may be why so much of their work comes in a box. In a way, America is formatted to television. There it is men - Omaha Beach dead ahead.