The American political landscape is a joke. The theory that America is a democracy or even a republic is a joke. America is a $$$$ocracy and the halfway intelligent ( but totally immoral ) $$$$ guys are pandering to the right wing mediocraties that flock to politics like lemmings. If most of the social conservative religious nut cases are sincere sooner or later the shit is going to hit the fan when the $$$$ guys and the Jeebus guys have a parting of the ways over how far to push the lunacy. Someday, if the present political atmosphere does not become more rational, the U.S. will have it's own version of a French Revolution. It won't be nice and orderly like the "Glorious" one of 1689 in England or the one informed by the noble sentiments of the American Declaration of Independence of 1774. It will be more like what happened in Russia in 1917. One % of the population owns 25-30% of the total wealth of the country now and the middle class is sinking further into underclass status by the day. When a critical mass of the wealth is in the hands of the top few % all hell will break loose. Fortunately I'll be dead by then.