I used to think Hillary! had no shot, and prayed that she would win the primary, so that she could go down in defeat.
Not anymore, not after the last election. This country has a voting public who, by and large, are not as well educated as your average FReeper with regards to politics and the system. We like to herald the demise of the MSM here on FR (and I do believe it's weakened over the years), but in reality, to the average soccer mom, or your bank teller, or your grocer, or your bar owner or your dry cleaner, or your kid's teacher, or your co-worker, they remain the only source of news. Nowadays, people may go online to read their articles, but that's not really using the Internet as a source, that's just accepting the MSM spin on your own time, instead of at 6:30 PM on the TV.
I don't know how to stop this continual slide into banal materialistic pleasure seeking that is the root cause of our nation's political apathy. People would rather keep up with their fantasy football, or the local gossip at the salon, or vote in their favorite American Idol than actually educate themselves about politics. "It's too much WORK, and they (politicians) are all the SAME anyway, so why bother?", they moan.
I've said this before on FR and got flamed for it. I think Nov 7th proved my assertion though. Until we, as a whole, convince our fellow Americans that it IS more important than fantasy football or American Idol, it's not really going to get much better.
One third of the American colonists remained loyal to the King and to the mother country; one third were completely indifferent; one third supported the independence movement but feared revolution and war with the mightiest military in the world at that time.
Many colonists refused to support Washington's army by selling food or blankets while making a dandy profit selling to the British.