Quote Originally Posted by earcutter View Post
Money buys policy here - the pubic be damned. Hence, saying the Americans want it is factually incorrect. I know that they push fair elections around the world bla, bla, bla... but elections are bought and sold here. Many citizens here feel as removed as some feel in fasciest states lol!
From certain point of views that is correct, but the buying and selling happens with the willing participation of the voters. The days of stuffed ballot boxes and direct exchange of money/goods for votes are pretty much gone, or more correctly they exist as a straw-man smokescreen that those who do the real vote purchasing use as a distraction.

The way it works is that more money buys better advertisement and louder advertisement and a lot of votes are based on that. And of course people are convinced they vote the way they do because of their principles, beliefs, self-interests, etc. - that's why it works so well. Choosing to live in a self-selected bubble of ideology beats dictatorship any time.