Started reading the latest
Michael Moore book, and again I continue to be very thankful I'm Canadian. It's not like we don't have political deception, cronyism and scandals here, but the scale is just so frighteningly different.. in that respect, we look rather quaint by comparison.
It's hard to see how things could be different in the USA though. With a political system that focuses so strongly on money to route power (election campaigns, lobby groups, etc.), politicians are forced to kowtow to interest groups and supporters. That we end up with political decisions driven by the need to generate business for large corporations rather than actual public interest is little surprise.
What's particularly scary is that given the complexities of the world and how little people can comprehend of it (see Thomas Homer-Dixon's writing for some good elaboration on this), it's hard to imagine how the government can keep front-and-center anything other than protecting their own interests and supporters. Public interest and broader policy would have to take a back seat, virtually ignored as leaders struggle to sort out the already intricate demands of their supporters.
It's not like leaders don't want to do the right thing. But you can just hear the back-room discussion... "you can't accomplish anything if you're not elected [or don't stay in power], so..."
