frankly, what I think we're doing here, is documenting the last gasps of democracy. Updated

[Divernan]

144. No one actually IN the elite would be posting here

That holds true regardless of which political party said member of elite belongs to. They are wheeling and dealing in their mansions and multiple homes (Gstaad, St. Bart's, Martha's Vinyard, etc.), on their mega-yachts, private islands, etc. And based on my experience of nearly a decade as a judge of elections, which includes seeing the names on the return envelopes of those who submit absentee ballots in my wealthy community, I don't believe that the elite bother to register in political parties, let alone vote at all. What we see on web blogs are hangers-on to the elite. I think of the elite, i.e,. the One Percent, as akin to sharks, i.e, voraciously devouring every bit of wealth they come across. Sharks are often accompanied by remora fish. When scuba diving in tropical waters of the Caribbean and Pacific, I have seen as many as 3 remora fish accompanying a single, large shark. The shark is quite oblivious to these fish. But the remoras have chosen to rely on the shark for their survival.

The remora benefits by using the host as transport and protection, and also feeds on materials dropped by the host. Controversy surrounds whether a remora's diet is primarily leftover fragments, or the feces of the host. In some species (Echeneis naucrates and E. neucratoides), consumption of host feces is strongly indicated in gut dissections. For other species, such as those found in a host's mouth, scavenging of leftovers is more likely. On rare and even more rarely filmed occasions, such as the 2010 episode of Shark Week known as "Shark City", remoras that associate with sharks may end up as their prey as was the case of a lemon shark devouring a remora that attempted to adhere to it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remora