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erikk said:
I believe America's most developed talents are hypocrisy and self-justification. If we want something we'll self-justify anything, anyhow to attain it. Hypocrisy is just so rampant because we seem to have lost the ability to think critically.

I believe the American system of government is BROKEN for a variety of structural reasons. First, the politicians determine the district lines. The politicians choose their voters when they draw the districts. That's why the maps have been fought over in court recently. Republicans are in power in the TX Legislature and naturally drew as many "safe" districts for Republicans as possible and as few Democrat or mixed districts as possible. If you live in a solid Republican district like I do then it's almost a waste of time for anyone to run, even a D, but far more futile for a 3rd party or independent candidate.

Then you have the Elections laws that make it difficult or impossible to run as an independent or 3rd party. So then the easy route is to run as a Republican or Democrat but the party bosses and PACs decide who gets organizational help and $$$. The establishment backs the candidates they like, which often puts the establishment incumbent/candidate ahead of potentially more worthy/honest candidates in the Primary elections (which too few Americans pay attention to anyway). Then the November ballot ends up with two establishment candidates from the two established parties. I believe people delude themselves thinking the parties are much different. They're both dominated by corporate campaign contributions and Wall St. Each administration whether R or D for the last 3 decades at least has appointed key Wall St/Big Bank people to the various Executive branch positions. Dems gave the corporations NAFTA and China WTO status under Clinton, Bush gave the banks/Wall St. the financial bailout and the drug companies Medicare Part D, and Obama is giving the medical insurers Obamacare/ACA. Bush tried to give SS to Wall St. but the public uproar and financial crash killed that (for now, they won't forget to try later).

This game is rigged against the American voter. More and more money is funneled to the top 1% (actually more 0.001) from the taxpayers. Those folks have FAR more money than they need so they buy Congressmen and Presidents. Do you or I have K Street lobbyists running around D.C.? Nope, but the corporations do. Even any Congress-critters who want to do the right thing are just destined to get bound up in group think. Everyone around them says/screams/repeats such and such and the oh-so-distant voices of the actual voters back home are maybe a whisper by comparison.

I believe the system of governance we have is fundamentally and structurally broken. There seems to be no adherance to the Constitution by either party. Whatever power they can grab and get away with they excersice in their own self-interest. We used to have a much more functional and honest system but the 2-party power structure has changed laws to cement their dominance, even if individual elected positions flip-flop parties. It's like a game of musical chairs to them and only Ds and Rs are let into the room to play.

A complete reset is warranted, with public financing of campaigns so the $$$ power of corporations and PACs is made a thing of the past. Equal access to the public airwaves should be restored. Ranked choice voting would allow everyone's vote to count. No more worries of "wasted votes" and I believe we'd see viable alternatives to the Ds and Rs come forth. Ranked Choice voting would also ensure any eventual winner did at least have a majority of the voters willing to have them be elected. And for goodness sake abolish the Electoral College. That's whips and buggy era thinking. Direct votes for the President is not only fair but logical.

This system we have will struggle and stumble on until it ultimately fails. I don't see the will by the PRICs (People/Politicians Really In Charge) to change or adopt these good-governance measures. What we have is what we get until it all comes crashing down.
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I agree 100% that all of the things you mentioned are current problems with the system. But I think that all the things you mentioned are symptoms of a much deeper societal problem in general that goes back to the early 1940s. At this point, the plane has already crashed and the boat has sunk, so what we are looking at this point is the wreckage. What I am saying is, even if we could somehow snap our fingers and fix all the ills with the current system, if we did not fix the problem of voter ignorance and laziness, we would be right back where we are in short order.

I have studied government and politics in several countries and at one point I considered a career in politics in this country many years ago. At one point I had had a large group of people pushing my to run for governor of Texas. I decided against that road for two reasons. 1. My soul is more valuable to me then saving this country. 2. Most Americans are too ignorant (lacking in knowledge of reality), and too lazy and selfish, to make the sacrifices necessary to fix what is wrong.

Let me give you an example of what I am talking about. Years ago, the City of Lubbock was dry (no alcohol sales in the city limit). A big push was being made to bringing making Lubbock wet to a vote. A group of pastors came to me for advice on how to stop it. Knowing that they were unaware of the true nature of the problem and to prove my point, I proposed that they get all the pastors in Lubbock to get 20,000 signatures from their members on a commitment contract to only buy their groceries at a store that would not sale alcohol. We would then takes this contract to United Supermarket and present this to them guaranteeing United that they would not lose customers if the did not carry alcohol. All the pastors liked the idea but most felt that it would not work. I knew this would be the response (I was leading them to the problem), so I asked them why that felt that it would not work. They all agreed that, even though many of the church members would sign the contract, very few would actually adhere to it, because most people would just not bare the inconvenience to their life to change where they shopped. At this point I pointed my finger to the sky and said, "AhHa! and herein is the root of the problem! You have just confessed with your mouth that you know that the members of your very own church have so little commitment to change that they will not even bare the minor inconvenience to change where they shop to effect change in their community."

This is the root problem. There are many good people in this country but those good people just want the evil people to stop being evil. They do not want to stand up for good if standing up for good is going to cost them anything, even a minor inconvenience to their life.

There is an old saying that still holds true, "All that is necessary for evil to prevail, is for good people to do nothing". It is stupid to expect evil people to stop being evil, but it not unreasonable to expect good people to stand up for good. This country was born because of good people making extreme sacrifices and standing up for good. But their descendants have not followed in their example. Freedom is not free, it was purchased at a high price and it bares a high cost to each generation to preserve it. Unfortunately, many generations of Americans have been unwilling to pay the price to preserve it here at home. While our soldiers have paid the ultimately price to preserve our freedom overseas, we have lost the battle here at home to save what they have been fighting for. And they know it too.
 
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Thank you so much for your help! I knew one of my buddies on here would be able to help. So blessed to have all you guys!
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I blame the current state of the United States on antidepressants. They have been given out like candy and have produced a generation of apathetic @$$ sitters.

....did I say that out loud?
 
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Here is video that I thinks accurately articulates the difference between the mentality of those that founded this country and their descendants today. This is a very moving and emotional narration with a few historical slides that will touch and inspire you.

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