The first time watching the video I couldn't make it to the finish. At Jenny's suggestion, I started watching around 8 minutes.
But I disagree, we do have control, we just don't exercise it wisely. In fact I will say the vast majority of voters are too damn lazy to take control. It would mean they have to actually do some research and ignore the man (or woman) on the tube.
One thing that could dramatically change the political system is to change the campaign laws. For starters:
Eliminate all campaign contributions. This would mean big money loses it's direct influence over politicians. They would have to transfer the money under the table and risk prosecution. Right now anyone, from anywhere in the world, can make campaign contributions to U.S. candidates. Anyone see a problem with that?
Allocate a certain amount of tax revenue for political candidates. By eliminating campaign contributions and therefore the debt elected officials have toward their contributors, we will save tax dollars. That saving comes from the tax dollars spent on special interests, giving big money tax breaks and all the other things politicians spend our tax money on to keep their campaign contributors happy. Some of that savings could be used to pay for the new TAXPAYER FUNDED campaign costs. And if the candidate sees those funds come from ALL of the voters, and not just the rich ones, who will they be indebted to?
I'm sure there's a number of other things and I know what I propose would need to be better defined. But so much of the problem with the system now is the lack of simplicity. And it lacks simplicity because those we elect don't want a system that can easily be criticized. Their motto: "Baffle them with bull>-bleeped-<."
