"Incremental change" is a Third Way lie.

[dreamnightwind]

73. There may be enough "exceptions" to disprove your point

Obama literally went to Nigeria to promote a large effort to create computer programmers there. There are countless examples. His base, for the most part, is corporate donors not citizens seeking incremental change. Our entire foreign policy is driven by monied interests, and it changes rapidly to respond to the needs of the donors to both the congress and the administration. Maybe I am misunderstanding you, or maybe I think you are making a distinction without a difference.

Lobbyists would be fine if their lobbying was limited to presenting their client's wishes, with no perks in return. Industry should have a voice in government, I certainly can't tell a politician what the telcom industry needs to have done. But their interests should have to stand on their merits with no benefit to the person or party they are lobbying.

Sorry I don't get you broader point, can't tell if I don't get it or if I disagree. It seems to me administrations are very agile when sufficiently motivated.

Administrations control the military (ok not entirely) and the State Department, also Treasury. They are supposedly independent of the Justice Department but in practice not so much. I think they don''t upset the status quo because we get a very narrow range of candidates for POTUS to choose from, pre-approved by TPTB.