We are starting up with election season politics. Controversial legislation that will never stand up in court always starts popping up around this time, it provides a way for party members to safely move away from party line; people whose position is safe or will not be seeking reelection start going further to their side so those who are not as safe in their position can move (or appear to move) more to the other side and get some of those voters in the middle. We also start seeing odd things like the FBI making statements by irregular means, circumventing the traditional channels.

Edit: Part of this is likely just getting all those people who ignore politics most of the year to start paying attention.