[Frost1x]

Yet people keep voting against their own interests and supporting behaviors that act against their own interests.

With proper organization, the majority of Americans could force changes within a few weeks (peacefully) by rejecting the current system as it stands, forcing their concerns to be addressed. The continued belief and support of our system that incentivizes moral and ethically questionable behavior and disproportionately rewards a select few who are increasingly contributing less to society at large is toxic and self-perpetuating. It will ultimately lead to non-peaceful action by society at large so it's best to fix things before we get to that point.

[munk-a]

Sorta, it's also a broken political system. Polls about whether we should increase the stringency of background checks prior to gun ownership are overwhelmingly in favor of increased checks but nothing happens. In this case it's not a populace being tricked into expressing an interest in policy that harms them - it's politicians just outright ignoring the populace.

I agree about the way this is going and, well, I've emigrated, I hope the rest of my family follows.