It's weird to have two political parties who have the most similar political ideal be so adverse to each other.  There is far more in common with the Democrats and Republicans.  In fact, their political ideals are very close to the same, middle of the road.  However, since there is not a strong third party we are stuck with bipartisan politics.  Dialectic forces can be balancing, however, the more diverse the input the more diverse the output, and the more accurate the representation.

A true democracy would work from the people upwards rather than the executive, judicial and legislative branches of the federal government down.  These three branches are suppose to balance each other as well.  However, each seems to represent their own political agenda's like warring factions with corporate conglomerate divisions for money and power.  Capitalism is what drives our country, consumerism, and corporations are running the show!

The United States is not a true Democracy.  We are a Democratic Republic based on Greco-Roman era politics thousands of years ago.  The electoral college votes by state for their constituents.  However, this does not represent majority vote, which is true Democracy.  If we were a true Democracy and people had the power we would have never elected Bush to begin with.  He did not have the majority vote, but the structure of the electoral college and whatever else went on in Florida changed the course of our history enabling Bush to take power.

We lost respect in the world's eyes during the Bush administration.  His bully nature over 911 and plane idiocracy, along with repression of constitutional rights and political profiteering took our country to the lowest of lows.  We may never fully recovery now.  Our economy is not sustainable.  The government and it's people have been living outside their means for decades on borrowed money to sustain a lifestyle which cannot be maintained.  Just the interest on the debt we owe China is almost too much to pay.  They own us, but we carry on because we are the biggest consumers and they are one of the biggest producers.  They need us to consume their goods.  Besides, there is nothing of real value other than fear and acceptance which gives our monetary system any real value.  Our economy is just numbers in computers sometimes represented by paper. The false economy continues to evolve to maintain it's life.  Numbers are manipulated to keep the idea of value acceptable.  Money is just an idea. 

After WW2 America was the biggest industrial producer.  The fifties were the birth of the suburban bubble middle class which set a standard of living we have lost the ability to support.  Capitalism evolved to force manufacturing abroad for competition and better pricing for us to consume more goods.  United States moving manufacturing overseas built China into the powerhouse it is today.  They do not have a strong middle class to support.  They have mainly rural and urban environments.  These are some of the factors for China's success and the unsustainability of United States culture.

We need to reign our troops in, protect ourselves from ourselves and enforce legal immigration.  We can't keep trying to dominate the world if we are to maintain.  We can't even deal with all our citizens and immigrants breaking the laws in our own country!  Yet, we attempt to enforce "Democracy" and the idea of Freedom over other countries we destroy so we can attempt to rebuild and control!  Every society which has attempted this eventually fails.  We need a balanced budget.  Miss appropriation of government budgets can be better prioritized to actually take care of it's citizens rather than pursue self interest for world domination.  Why waste trillions of dollars on space programs launching billion dollar machines to crash into the moon to find out if their was water there at one point.  Do we really need to know whether the moon could have ever supported life?!  And Hubble has produced beautiful images while the international space station falls apart because the world is no longer working together.  How does this help humanity survive?  Perhaps, the space program is our parachute, are way out of our self destruction? 

Anyway.  Whatever?  Right?  Apathy, laziness, selfish self center materialistic consumerism disables individuals motivation for change.  As long as we are fat, happy, and have reality of TV nothing else matters?  The fat needs to be cut back, and it is.  All things have a nature and life that ultiamtely requires balance, even in change.  However, every voice should be heard!  But our education system does not foster individual thinkers, or citizens that know anything about life, relationships, money, parenting, law, health, life support, etc.  We waste trillions of dollars and children's lives teaching them to be ill prepared for life and full of useless information which obscures the truth.

In doctor Daniel G. Amen's book "Magnificent Mind at Any Age" he uses brain scan imagery and case studies over decades to discuss types of mental health issues, treatments (natural and pharmaceutical) while laying out the do's and don't for brain health.

One of Amen's discoveries is that watching television regularly reduces brain function as much as smoking marijuana regularly!  Often, these activities go "hand in hand" so who is to say the net loss ; )

Television is like a drug in that it induces passive receptive states of mind while functioning like meditation altering brain chemistry.  The stimulation from television can cause dependency over time.  The brain learns to need it to function "normally".  The more time spent watching television, the more mediated your perceptions become as the images on television move and change far faster than in reality.  This, I posit adds to ADD and ADHD issues in our society as we are programmed to constantly change our perspective and perceptions unnaturally.

Both audio and imagery are optimized to transmit a message as subliminally as possible.  The mere fact that television causes passive receptive states of mind, means we are taking information in without thinking much about it or filtering it, so it literally programs us!  Not only this, but advertisers take it a step further by compressing audio to sound louder in commercials to get your attention and also using basic human desires to associate product with personal fulfillment.  Your material desires, including financial, sexual, and reputation are vied for by each and every advertiser during commercials.  Now channels advertise with pop ups during regular television as well.  The science behind marketing, media, and advertising is state of the art, and constantly being refined to gain greater control over your thoughts, feelings, beliefs and actions to make the most dependent consumers possible.

Norm Chomsky discusses how media was invented to control the minds of the masses and create mindless consumers out of us.  What I see, too, is that are lives, not only what we buy are being affected and controlled.

Movie has become the new religion of our society.  people find their sense of otherness and understanding from the movies they watch.  Movie stories have replaced biblical stories in much of our sense of selves, not only individually, but collectively as well. 

The bottom line is that those in power, those who have the money to control the government are using media, internet, television, movies to control society and maintain wealth and power over everyone.  As Niestche posited Religion was the opiate of the masses, film and media have replaced religion in becoming the dominant opiate of the masses!  So whether you sit down to watch a movie, surf the internet, or watch television and spark up a joint or not, you are losing brain function as those in power gain more power over us breeding an apathetic society which is most easy to control!