Reply #8: I remember your previous post and agree but I think you missed

[tech9413]

Our political system still works pretty well but it has been distorted by our predatory capitalist system. The weakness of our political system originally allowed an outrageous concentration of power to financial elites. That weakness is our tendency to think everything is all right if We don't feel any pain. Those elites used that concentration of wealth to further empower themselves and mask their intention.
To quote your post:

"We have to look at the actual mechanisms of power--and of our power as a collective entity: We the People. And we really can't do that if we think that everything is basically okay in the U.S. It is not. The most basic thing of all has now been taken away. Privatized vote counting is both a cause and symptom of everything else. It's my opinion that whatever "deals" went down--and it's pretty clear that something went down--"We the People" were not at that "table." And the main reason we were not there is that we've lost control of the vote counting--our main power and very nearly the definition of our sovereignty. We give power to them, to run the country in our interest. That equation needs to be restored, beginning with vote counting in the PUBLIC venue."

These things did not happen in a vacuum. They occurred over decades where we felt comfortable that those elected representatives or the elite would not overreach. We didn't feel much pain from political policy (at least not right away) or accepted the narrative sold to us by those in power.

Right now both our political and economic systems are both broken. The problem is we don't have the power to fix the political system until we remove the influence of the economic system.

The only solutions my feeble mind can see is to let one of the two fail or make it fail. In either case it will be painful. If it's the economic system we will all lose much of what we worked for over the years. It will be years of trying to re-learn how to fend for yourself or organize a community where you take care of each other. That would be my preferred method.

The other option is the failure of the political system. This is much more frightening to me. Historical precedent suggests moving toward a total authoritarian leadership (doesn't it feel like that to you?) or a more progressive (aka USA circa 1930's) response. I don't think most are accurately informed to make that choice.

I'm not a well studied student of history but much of what I remember shows that political system failure will result in an authoritarian regime that will not be comfortable and could extend itself for far longer than recovery from economic failure would take.

I don't plan to live forever and have no progeny to consider but I wouldn't wish the future on my worst enemy.