Scientists have to list all the sources they use. And they quickly get called out for doing mistakes in that regard and suffer a loss of trust in their work.
What would happen if everything politicians say or write had to contain sources?
Speeches are prepared anyway, so you have to publish all the sources of your speech right after you held it. Saying things differently than in the source would be illegal.
I think it would be quite interesting, and a completely different way to do politics.
We used to have a nonpartisan office dedicated to researching and informing Congress on political and scientific issues and the effects of prospective legislation. You can probably guess what happened to it.
It’s astounding how much fuckery can be traced to just a handful of names. 😞
FYI, a similar office was established in the GAO recently.
https://www.science.org/content/article/house-democrats-move-resurrect-congress-s-science-advisory-office
https://www.gao.gov/blog/2019/01/29/our-new-science-technology-assessment-and-analytics-team