You're so going to get hammered for spouting pseudo-cynical "Everyone is the same kind of rotten" crap that turns mainiac berserk...
And rightfully so, too. In the fight of revolution vs reform, 99% of the time those advocating revolution are either idiots or have a hidden agenda.
Wha, what? I
don't advocate revolution. I don't think I've made a single post in this entire forum seriously suggesting violent action in real life, and I've been here since my awkward teenage years. (so please don't actually comb my posts) Hell, I even think reform is going to happen. I just don't think politicians are going to be the source of it without outside pressure. Its like... I dunno, people haven't changed since the US came into existence? People are probably doing corrupt shit now and at some point they will probably be called on it, because that's what happened in the past.
More to the point, if you widen your definition of "manipulating elections" as much as he does, it actually become meaningless. What is campaigning if not an attempt to influence the result of elections after all?
My list of examples was political machines, ballet manipulation, and gerrymandering. I'm like 80% sure that all of those things are illegal.
I think I'm talking past some people, because originally we were talking about an offhand comment I made about Maniac's link and I'm no longer talking about that. I would agree that the linked article doesn't reveal any kind of hidden corruption. That's never what I was saying. Its more that it sort of fit into my existing feeling that people are probably messing with elections behind the scenes? And that wasn't clearly expressed because it was an offhand comment and I never expected to have to turn it into some kind of rational arguing point.