I'm Actually Surprised...

... that it took as long as it has. I am talking about how this country is today. We have been a representative Republic since 1789 (ratification of the Constitution) yet it took many decades before the politicians figured out how to "game" the system.

I am of the belief that every political system eventually gets corrupted. I am not sure when ours did but I am fairly sure it did not happen immediately after ratification of the Constitution. Call the corruption of a government entropy of a sort; a gradual decline into disorder.

It happened to the Roman Republic (which we would not recognize as a republic but as an oligarchy) wherein the rise of Imperial Rome was a symptom. Rome was already in decline before the rise of Julius Caesar and Rome was already an empire by then.

In my opinion, the politicians always learn to manipulate the people to their benefit in any system. It's just easier in monarchies and dictatorships because they start out as corrupt systems where rule from above is the norm. Republics and democracies take a little longer.

In our system, it might have been a hundred years or maybe a bit more or less. John Wilkes Booth considered President Lincoln to be a tyrant... which led him to partipate in a conspiracy to assassinate him. That would mean less than 80 years but I think it took longer. possibly because our system was more complex than most at the time. Or simpler (you might want to think about that). Perhaps you might consider the rise of the monopolies (the Robber Barons) but I don't. I see the rise of the Robber Barons as a testament to taking advantage of the free enterprise system. I have heard some of my liberal friends complain that the rich white men who were behind the founding of this nation designed a system that would ensure their prosperity. If that was true then the Washington family and the Jefferson family and the rest would still be powerful both politically and socially.

Instead we have the Kennedys, the Clintons, the Roosevelts, and the Bushes on top; the major players. Things change in a dynamic society and one of them is the ruling families.

The politicians learned that Americans tend to vote on name recognition and that we tend to be selfish. That is, we want things from government and, once we get something, we do not want government to take it away. So politicians do their best to cater to those desires. And we, the voters, tend to not vote against our self interests even if we know the best interests of the country are counter to them.

So Social Security must stay solvent and Medicare must not fail and any politician who says otherwise is not trusted.

I fear we may never regain control.