According to the American Heritage dictionary: “Potempkin Village: Something that appears elaborate and impressive but in actual fact lacks substance.”
Wikipedia says: “In politics and economics, a Potemkin village is a construction (literal or figurative) whose purpose is to provide an external facade to a situation, to make people believe that the situation is better than it is.”
This is a Russian term, the history of which can be looked up by the reader if one is so interested.
However, one sees this all of the time in the movie industry. The production studio may have different sets with buildings as only a facade to look like a western town, or a French war time village. Or, say in Russia in the last century, something that looks like a prosperous town.
This is the tool of a totalitarian governments in order to hide the degradation and social rot from people that are outside observers such as reporters or foreign dignitaries.
Abraham Lincoln said: You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”
All politicians try to fool their public on occasion. Professional politicians, try to fool others to cover their ass, or to paint themselves in a good light, to “embellish” their past record by claiming laurels they did not earn. Can you say Tim Walz?
John Kerry was, in my estimation, the poster boy for this, though this might be long forgotten by those that are younger.
One of the first things he did after returning from Vietnam is to appear before congress to accuse his comrades in arms of various atrocities. Though there is not much doubt that there were atrocities that occurred, his testimony made it appear that this was a standard operating basis among his comrades rather than the outliers of the men over there.
The impression that was left was picked up by the movie industry with a plethora films that carried on this notion about the war and the personnel that fought it, resulting in solders coming back to taunts and being spat on rather than the cheers they should have been receiving.
Later, Kerry sought to cash in on his military service when running for president in 2004. He, fortunately was stymied in his efforts by many veterans who formed a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which called out his service, claiming Kerry dishonored his country and cannot be trusted. Some said he did not deserve his bronze star or purple hearts.
Kerry I suspect was encouraged run because he had one or more purple heart medals and apparently a bronze star and because the Democrats were perceived to be weak on national security issues.
Those in the Democratic Party thought Kerry's chest full of metals would dispel that perception, despite the fact that he in 1971 in protest of the Vietnam war was to “renounce the symbols which this country gives...and that was the medals themselves.”
The perception of Democrats being weak on national security issues was, of course, correct but they continued to put up this facade using Kerry at that time. This continues into today, with the help of the legacy media (I call them the “Pravda Press”*), who will attack those that call out anyone that tries to correct the misleading and often outright lies of Democrats running for office.
Progressives got such a bad name in the early 20th century that the Democrats stopped using “progressive” and started using the term “liberal” instead. At some point people start looking beyond the curtains and see the wizard, manipulating the smoke, the mirrors, the bells and the whistles to distract from the consequences of their policies.
Recently these policies are getting such a bad name some politicians in the Democratic Party are calling themselves “progressive” again, instead of “liberal”. Walz the newly minted VP pick is one of them.
Some now believe they have enough people behind them to drop their smiley face mask, just a bit and proclaim their progressiveness without consequence. No matter what you call it, the progressive ideology is bad for America. The smiley face has to be kept in place for those that do not look too closely until the next election is won.
In present time, the press is now trying to “memory hole”** the embarrassing past comments of both the Democrat candidate for President and her Vice President.
Forget about “lipstick on a pig”, the best plastic surgeons have been employed to make that pig appear to be the girl you fantasied about in high school. After the election you'll be gobsmacked by the new reality like when you see that girl ten years later at the high school reunion, sodden, slack faced and mean.
*the Official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
** From George Orwell's novel 1984. It is a place where document and messages are destroyed to erase the past and control the present.