GUEST - I am not suggesting that most politicians are "bad people". I don't think that at all. Nor am I suggesting that they don't try hard on behalf of their constituents...many of them do that. I am suggesting that a party-based political system is a system which rapidly devolves into corruption and influence-peddling by the big financial powers in a country, REGARDLESS of the good intentions and good character of our elected representatives, and that there really isn't much we can do about it, given the nature of the system as it exists.

To think otherwise is, IMO, naive. I've met a lot of politicians, and I think most of them are well-intentioned people with a real desire to serve the public, but they are hobbled by a system that is divisive and dishonest by its very nature.

It's unfortunate.

Do you think a politician who told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth would get elected? I don't. I don't think she'd even get nominated in the first place. Not a chance.

Our existing political system is built on deception, evasion, and false propaganda. It's like selling snake oil used to be. The good people who are in it soldier on and try to deal with it as best they can. Most people are essentially good people, in my opinion...politicians included.

- LH