Reply #35: Very true. Sad but true, nonetheless... and remedies are imperative for these reasons.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

I struggle mightily with our culture for the very reasons you note.

How can one argue that "our government works" when:

i. +40 million Americans lack health insurance because they are bad risks, underemployed, or not poor enough to qualify for Medicare.

ii. Our system is based upon an antiquated electoral college and congress that place too much power in the hands of the few; (a) Gore won the popular vote by 537,000 but can't win the electoral vote because of the simple fact that small states' electoral votes are more heavily weighted than those of large states (forget Florida--if 1 EV = 1 EV, then Gore would have won the electoral college, too), and (b) two Senators representing the few, with homogeneous populations and far fewer socioeconomic issues (WY) can cancel out two Senators representing a large, heterogeneous population with diverse and complex socioeconomic issues (IL).

iii. The Constitution works? If something can so willfully and egregiously be disregarded, it's broken and needs to be fixed (period!)

iv. We can "theoretically" waste time and money impeaching every president (I give you Clinton and now Bush) and effectively turn them into ineffectual lame ducks, yet,--good heavens!--let's not consider wasting time and money pursuing a vote of "no-confidence" or a recall election. And let's talk about checks and balances: since the president is not elected by the people but rather by the electoral college, the people (in the case of Bush, who handily lost the popular vote to Gore in the first place) damn well should be given the right to remove him from office. Relying upon our non-representative Congress (see item 2 above) to act is pure and utter folly. Under the present system, the voice of the people has been put on "mute."

Thanks MGK for your thoughtful comments.