Americans are not stupid

"The Chinese were building a land mark that could be seen from out (sic) space  like the Great Wall"

How does rubbish like this remain in circulation?

The visibility of something from a distance depends on its minimum dimension, not its maximum. From 'space', the Wall is seen in plan-view, so the determinant of visibility is its width. This varies a bit, but not much is over 5 metres. Thus, the Wall can't be seen from any height remotely describable as 'space'.

Off topic. Sorry.

Fraser

This is only expressed metaphorically - There has been no man-made structure that is grander than this one as far as I know.

By the way, some interesting little known facts about the Han Chinese (or the Chinese as we now know) - The Chinese people were slaves and their land were colonized for nearly a thousand years (since 1127 up until 1912), when the Manchurian was thrown out eventually. The Great Wall does not serve its original purpose, that is to defend the Chinese against its stronger war-like neighbors. Firstly, it was ruled by the ancestors of the Manchurian starting from 1127, and then the Mongolian, followed by a brief independence under the Ming Dynasty and then lost the country again to the Manchurian in 1645.

I think that one of the reasons why they are so aggressive to its neighbors and Tibet recently because they want to assert themselves internationally. The Han people have been slaves and humiliated for so long despite the high culture.

It was correctly pointed out in another thread that the biggest problem in US politics is money.  When the Supreme Court ruled that corporations could anonymously donate unlimited funds to election campaigns, it fundamentally changed the nature of our elections.  The victory will now always go to the candidate who raises the most, and dominates the media with the most negative ads.

Of course, politicians have no choice but to grant large donors special access, and vote on legislation that favors their special interests.  If they don't, their money will not be available for the next election.  As a result, the country becomes controlled by a very few, very powerful individuals.

The low information voter isn't stupid.  They are tired, overworked, underpaid, stressed out, and they will latch on to any negative messaging that reaffirms their frustrations, or any vague promise of increased take home pay, no matter how unlikely that is to happen.

Unions are at an all time low, and most workers do not have anyone representing their best interests.  There has never been a time in US history where such a large portion of our collective wealth was concentrated in the hands of so few people.  It is an unstable situation, and it cannot last for long.  The only thing that stands between the mansions and the mobs is a large, stable middle class.  And unfortunately, the middle class is shrinking every day.

Hook 

The political elite do their job well.

Panem et circenses.

KR

Tony

To me, the biggest problem of American politics is that all the politicians do is run for re-election.  All 435 members of the House are up for election every 2 years.  As soon as they get in they are campaigning again.  Every vote, every speech, every soundbite is geared towards one thing -- getting (re)elected.

Well said Hook. As a union member on the public side of things we now see a concerted effort to destroy the public sector unions now that the private side have been effectively neutered. The argument should be why don't most private sector employees have decent health insurance and retirement plans, not why do public sector workers.

I am amazed by the polls. Not that Obama has been a paragon of idealistic principles, but Mitt Romney is essentially promising to make things even more lopsided for a very few at the top of a large pile of money.

+1 - well stated.

Well.   Mmmmmm.....Sort of.   Yes, all house members get re-elected every two years.  But the vast majority of elections are essentially gimmes.  Few are actually competitive. And the founders designed this.  While the house is re-elected every two years the senate goes six. So there is a check and balance between one chamber always answering to voters while another chamber can go for an extended period before the next election. It's pretty well designed

I think that the Senate USED to be that way; not so much today.  It seems that fewer and fewer senators will 'reach out across the isle,' because if they do they face challenges from within their own parties at election time.  We've had some very "partisan" senators take part in some very bi-partisan legislation over the years, my own state's Ted Kennedy being one. It's not happening today, and I'm not sure it's coming back any time soon, to the great detriment of the Country.

But I do agree with the "well designed" comment.  The balance of power built into the US Constitution 225 or so yrs ago still works pretty well today.  The biggest criticisms get aimed at the relative power of the Supreme Court, and the Electoral College (which seems like it needs to go imho).

Don't vote it just encourages them 

The U.S. Constitution, one of the greatest political documents ever written, has been relegated to an historical artifact...our government doesn't let it stand in the way of very much that it wants to do.

Absolutely.  In fact martians have come and stolen our constitution.  

What about Tianemen square? that was a protest demanding democracy. The reason there haven't been many since is the fact the military shoot them all and send the bill for the bullet to the family (ok bit of exaggeration but i cant forget clarkson on the one show)

I'm sure that if we asked the chinese if they wanted democracy the majority would say yes but the remainder wouldn't know what it is due to poor education and the suppressed media.