special interests and businesses having too much power over politicians I think that's such an oversimplification that it misses the truth quite significantly.

special interests and businesses having too much power over politicians I think that's such an oversimplification that it misses the truth quite significantly. It's not that various organizations have power over politicians. It's that they have power that the politicians need, and that in turn the politicians have power that those organizations need (viz regulations allowing rent seeking, etc.). This leads to an unholy symbiosis between the two, with each groups power (relative to the people) spiraling ever upward. And the people don't do anything about it because they're buying the surface rhetoric (that it's a clash between the values of the GOP and DEM, when in fact they're just two sides of the same coin) since the cost to dig deeper isn't justified by the potential payoff (see "rational ignorance", and The Myth of the Rational Voter.)