Is the American political system broken and if so, how do we fix it?

It depends! That's the answer! It depends on what you think America should be...

When you compare the United States to other countries, it is the only country that doesn't stand for something. Is America pro-abortion? Is America pro-death penalty? Is America pro-homosexual marriage? Who knows? America is NOT ONE country! It is 50 different countries, with 50 different sets of laws. You can cross a border from one state to another and be driving illegally without even knowing it, and if you happen to move there, you will be required to retake all tests and qualify for a new driver's license, as if you were moving to some foreign land. In certain professional fields, you are unable to move out of state and get a new job without passing yet another bar exam, medical exam, pharmaceutical exam, real estate exam, and so on and so forth.

It depends whether or not you think that money should be the main contributing factor to get elected. Money seems to be the major factor for just about everything else in America - whether you can buy yourself or your children an education, whether you can buy your way out of jail, whether you can buy your family health care... it's all about money!

It depends if you support an electoral system that favors minorities over the majority. The last time I checked, democracy still meant that the majority rules. When representatives of a state favor the minorities to gain their votes and be re-elected, the democracy is long gone, and the minorities rule.

It depends if you see yourself as a part of the human race, with a duty to support and help one another, or if you hide behind the law of survival of the fittest to clear yourself and the whole community from any responsibility toward helping your neighbor whose child was born with medical issues that will put the entire family on the streets.

It depends if you stick to the very narrow-minded definitions of what Democrats, Republicans, liberals, and others stand for, as in "ALL Democrats are pro-abortion, irreligious people who promote laziness, welfare, unemployment, social services, socialized medicine, and such...," or if you realize that this type of mindset only considers extremes and forgets that there is a middle ground between all and nothing.

It depends if you are pro or con so-called earmarks, or political blackmail, that allow Democrats and Republicans to pass laws, not one at a time, but in groups, as in, "We will let you have this, if you let us have that," and more often than not on completely unrelated issues.

It depends if you agree that dead people should vote. Many dead people vote in America, thanks to the convenient vote-by-mail system.

It depends whether you stand for centralization or decentralization and understand that many of our current issues stem from a false decentralization system. You have 50 states, unruly and demanding spoiled brats, who claim their independence and think they can and should be allowed to "do their own thing," but keep crying to Daddy, the Federal Government, for money and help. Their federal funding is based on the "case" they build for themselves. Therefore the money is not alloted based on where there is the greater need and where it would be best spent for the country as a whole. It is spread among 50 beggers whether they plan to spend it wisely or waste it. If they don't spend all of it, their federal funding gets cut the following year. So, their only incentive is to waste whatever budget is leftover at year-end on unneeded things in order to get as much money the next year. the states never have an incentive to save. You see similar waste at lower levels of government - counties, cities, etc. - for those very reasons.

It depends if you like a spirit of competition that undermines the greater good. When the CIA, FBI, and Secret Services compete against each other instead of sharing information, they endanger national security, and 9/11 follows.

UNITED we stand? No, we stand corrected, as we are anything BUT united - and division creates weakness or, as they say in France "L'union fait la force."

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