Anthony, I respect your argument and appreciate your interest in making my country better, however this statement makes it obvious that you're half a world away. Perceptions on the outside are no doubt different than from within.

My perception:
These are not the Revolutionary days of "for the people, by the people" when ordinary citizens created and ran the government. These are the days of career politicians, these are the days of corporate/special interest and lobbying. You often need lots of money and influence to change things around here, not the voice of the majority. The American people are more removed from the government than they used to be.

Probably had more to do with lobbying and generous campaign donations.

I will not debate the guns issue, however I will point out that your example comes from the Bill of Rights, a document created over 200 years ago. Again, these are very different times. In today's America the amendment would never have passed.

I respectfully disagree, Upstream.

We had a candidate running for President who took NO campaign contributions, NO ONE owned him. His platform ran on "change", a platform he's been preaching for years, not for just the last year like Obama. I'm not "dissing" Obama, but the "change" platform is not something he invented.

Unfortunately, the citizens of this great nation must love politicans who are owned by special interests groups because they continue to vote for big money politicians.

Maybe I'm naive, but I do believe that this country needs a revolution, if only enough people believed we could make a change. The power really is in our hands if we really want it to be. Personally, I think too many living in this country are brainwashed.

Just my 2 additional cents.

Best,
Rachel

bargh! I'm a mess -

"We had a candidate running for President who took NO campaign contributions" -

From lobbyists, I should add.

Big money politicians pay talented people big bucks to manipulate the publics perceptions and feelings through the media.

Most definitely! Or they vote strictly for one political party, or are apathetic.

As citizens we don't get to vote on the individual issues, we just get to vote on our favorite representative in hopes that he/she will do right by us. What needs to change isn't the structure of our existing government, perhaps it's not even the American people. It's the way we choose and elect individuals to serve. It's the way the public is educated on the candidates. It's who has the means and opportunity to become a candidate.

The forefathers didn't believe in political parties, and quite frankly, I don't either. The political parties and special interest groups need to go... not that it's going to happen any time soon.

How I believe elections should work in this country... candidates are banned from spending any money on their campaign. A fair process is set up by which the public is educated on the candidates, and the candidates get equal face time with the public. The candidates are narrowed down in stages until someone gets a majority vote. Perhaps this is done by an independent organization funded by the local government.

Take the money out of the equation from the start!

Just my opinion...

Upstream,

I agree, mostly. But I think you are forgiving the American people too much. Why the majority of Americans allow the media to spoon feed them a presidential candidate is beyond me. We should take more responsibility for our actions.

Best,
Rachel

Yeah but often times by the time I get to vote in my state I only have two or three candidates to choose from... we have to resort to voting for whatever spoon fed crap tastes better. I'm at the mercy of earlier voting States such as Vermont...

And out of this we will have the North American Union.. And the end to local sovereignty as we know it. This is like Orwellian prophecy being fulfilled as we see it, people just dont have the critical thinking to connect the dots.

Your Governments not real bright with their recent ploy of pumping $200 billion into the credit arena on loan to them. That doesn't get them out of the shit, it just delays the impact once again... your Government is trying to delay being bought out from other countries, as they are losing control of US assets.

I don't know anything about that... though it always baffles me that our internal affairs get so much attention internationally. Where do you get this stuff? Is it on the nightly Australian news or does the rest of the world read our papers online?

Don't forget the $600 checks/individual we all will be getting from good 'ole Uncle Sam come May. While I am looking forward to paying off some more of my credit card bill, I happen to think that all this is going to do is make those with money have a tiny bit more and those without it spend the cash as fast as you can say "Walmart."