I think that there are benefits to the parliamentary form of government where the country is not stuck with a government that is not performing to the expectations of the nation, BUT, the nation has to know what's going on. Obama was right, even if he articulated it a bit awkwardly when he talked about "bitter" people and guns and religion. Think of Ohio in 2004. The state was suffering huge job losses, but the Republicans emphasized same sex marriage and the poor jobless, but very religious and possibly bigoted voters voted against their best economic interests to protect the sanctity of marriage. It's because of such stupidity that we find ourselves in a mess. Because of the perverting of science, lying to make it fit one group's agenda, our students are behind those of other countries in academic rankings and all you have to do is look in the foreign press to see how that is lorded over us. Because we have let business take over the elected officials, we have manufacturing moved out of our country which has benefited corporations, but not laborers and not the government which gave the corporations tax breaks not only for moving manufacturing out of the country, but also allowed corporations to set up off-shore headquarters to avoid paying US taxes, yet they are still protected by the US Government as far as laws, trademarks, patents and protection by the Coast Guard and Navy while transporting foreign-made goods to market. We allow pharmaceuticals to be made in China, an armed enemy of our nation, but the FDA said it could not allow the reimportation from Canada of drugs made here because they could not be sure of their purity. The FDA is now saying that it cannot and should not have to inspect foreign manufacturers of pharmaceuticals every two years because that would be a hardship. So a Chinese manufacturer deliberately (it has been determined)dumps a toxic compound into Heparin and it sickens and kills Americans, but we can't protect our citizens because the government cares about corporations more than citizens.
This is going to continue as long as the Republicans can attract voters by appealing to religious issues and bigotry thereby causing citizens to vote against their own welfare. They frighten people about taxes, but where does the money come from for nice things like farm subsidies and defense appropriations like the ones that keep the shipyards in Pascagoula, Mississippi in business? The politicians say it's our money and it is, but the bills are ours, too. Sure there is a lot of abuse. Look at the subsides for sugar. The artificially high prices have forced candy manufacturers to move to foreign countries where sugar is cheaper. Now, NAFTA has mandated that Mexico be allowed to sell sugar to the US, but the sugar lobby had legislation crafted directing all of the Mexican sugar sold at lower prices in this country to be bought by the government at the set prices in this country and used for methanol production; no savings for the citizens from this trade agreement. This is what happens when citizens do not take a role in watching the actions of their elected representatives and do not their representatives know their opinions. Of course, in cases where the whole nation is lied to, makes decisions based on false information, and has dissenters labeled as traitors by the party in charge, we have to accept the consequences and realize that other nations that made war on us and the rest of the world had citizens that disagreed with the government's policies but were not able to stop them. Irreparable harm has been done to our country, both internally and internationally. Whether we stand up for change or let petty issues and bigotry stand in the way of reform will determine if our nation is a noble one or as bad as our damaged reputation. Of course, nations that excoriate us should not expect money with the imprint of the Great Satan. If we are to take responsibility for our actions, other nations will have to also.
I believe that a great responsibility for our problems rests with the 24 hour news media. We did not even have complete results from the 2006 elections than they were talking about the 2008 contest. They have forced non-issues to the front and kept real issues buried. They have pundits giving their opinions instead of letting us hear the actual words of the candidates. Because of media ownership rules, many citizens of this country do not even hear about important issues because the owners of the media outlets do not want that information known, or they find ways to distort the truth about it. We have media accepting propaganda from government agencies and broadcasting it without investigating the origins or veracity of it, all because the 24 hour news networks have to fill time.
