The Root Cause of the mess we are in today?

[lonely bird]

49. Well, yes and no

The media, Newt Gingrich, the Neocons, trickle down economics etc are all symptomatic. They are not the root cause.

The root cause can be traced back centuries. This country has never been The UNITED States. Except for a handful of times it has been torn apart internally by a host of factions North, South, Midwest, and far West. The document allegedly created to form a "more perfect union" in point of opinion actually did the opposite. It created a government that was purposefully anti-democracy and which sought to protect the interests of wealth. The potential catastrophe of the electoral college overturning the election of Biden was actually supported by, at least in theory, by Federalist 68. Hamilton saw the electoral college as preventing the election of someone unfit for office. Yet that very mechanism could have been used to overturn Biden's election.

No, there is far more at work here in terms of "the problem". Grappling with why we are what we are as well as disabusing ourselves of any notion of exceptionalism is required.

I will not hold my breath waiting for such action to occur.