In examining this we must distinguish between surface theatrics and core substance in our democracy. This is not to scoff at a sensible measure of theatrics. We need rhetoric to identify and support our goals and ideals. But to stop there and to forgo, even corrupt, the underlying substance is inexcusable. The real quality of government turns on the substance, not the words, and only from this can we know whether the public interest is served.
Examples are plentiful.
Let's first look briefly at several undisputed luminaries in American political rhetoric, heroes to most Americans. Thomas Jefferson Jefferson justified our Revolution with his history making declaration that all men are created equal, this at a time when he personally owned a substantial corps of slaves. The discrepancy is often softened a bit by reading him to have meant that the opportunity to be what they can and want to be is the Creator's great gift to all then. But there is no need to make feeble excuses for his choice of words. His phrase was pure rhetoric, designed to express an ideal, a goal, and to make a start on its realization.