"DSK" wrote
Vito wrote:
Each political party is designed to be run from the bottom "grass root"
level.

??? Maybe 100 years ago that was true.

The handles and knobs are still there but nobody uses them.

.... You did take part in this process didn't you?

No, all I did was vote. That *should* be enough... this (the U.S.) is a
democratic republic, right?

Ummm - wrong. That's why we were forced to choose between village idiots,
one from New England and one from Texas.

Aha! Now we get to the root of the matter... money. Politicians feel
beholden to those who give them money... big surprise. But does money
put them in office? No, the voters do. So what do they do with the
money? Buy expensive campaign ads, and hire top-salaried consultants to
tell them what to say about the issues.

Yes! Money does put them in office. All candidates are *trained* to find out
what you (voters) want to hear and say it as loudly and often as possible -
even if they plan to do the opposite! The one who can find out what you
want to hear most and say it the loudest will inevatibly get your vote.
That's the guy who can afford the best pollsters and campaign ads. Sad fact
of life and politics.

Voters have been complicit in this process by electing the people who
spent the most money,....

If the only time a voter pays any attention is in the weeks before election
all he is going to hear is what pollsters tell the candidates he wants to
hear. He listens then votes for the one who says it the loudest. Then the
winner does whatever the folks who paid for the polls and advertising tell
him to do. Any similarity between this and his promises is coincidental.

Again, take the last presidential campaign. We had to choose between a
draft-dodger who'd needlessly suckered us into another quagmire and a slave
to old money. But the draft dodger's pollsters found that many believed war
protesters like Kerry had lost us the war. Then he spent so much $$$ telling
us that that somehow Kerry's combat service in 'nam became less honorable
than Bush's drunken parties - and enough good christian voters believed it
to re-elect him. But the sorry thing is that these two loosers were our
choices.