DaveO and PoppaGator, particularly, are giving remedial civics lessons here--and they haven't yet gotten into what the idea that "All politics are local" really means, or how, in spite of appearances to the contrary, our political parties and our government are based on cooperation--and the processes of compromise and negotiation, also despite appearances to the contrary, are the tools by which cooperation is achieved.

The problem that a lot of folks have is, they don't like the idea that the other guy often wants something different than what they want, so if he gets it, or some part of it, they tend to think that the system is "corrupt"--