Washington political culture
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Washington political culture, in John Kiriakou's telling, is a subject he claims standing on by duration rather than office: "I've been in Washington for 44 years."

His verdict on the present is unqualified. "It has become a hideous, angry, ugly, backstabbing city."

The comparison he draws is social rather than legislative. When he arrived, the working day ended and the party affiliation ended with it: members of opposing parties on Capitol Hill put their differences aside, shared group houses, went to church together and played poker together on Friday nights. "Those days are gone," he says, replaced by "active hatred and disgust of one another", and the consequence he draws is causal rather than aesthetic: nothing gets done, and the country becomes more and more polarised.

He offers this as the explanation for a pattern he was asked about directly, that attempts on public figures keep being absorbed and moved past rather than examined. Asked whether the country should stop and ask how and why it keeps happening, his answer was that the polarisation is the key.

See also

- John Kiriakou
- Butler rally shooting
- Charlie Kirk shooting
