Why all the talk about the Constitution? Sure, it's nice to have a set of principles that your government will operate by, but no piece of paper is going to pro

Why all the talk about the Constitution? Sure, it's nice to have a set of principles that your government will operate by, but no piece of paper is going to protect you if you don't do your fucking job as a citizen of a democracy, and Americans have been asleep at the switch for decades. Leftists love to bitch about the American ruling class (and they are pretty terrible), but all they did was fill in the void left by the American public when they decided that defeating communism, winning the War on Drugs, stopping terrorism, and killing whatever other bullshit bogeyman they like to make up to scare each other, was more important than self-rule. Americans love to talk about democracy, they've been brainwashed to after all, but so few of them really know what it is, what it means, and most importantly what it demands of them, that how can anybody be surprised when it stops working? I mean, if you're not going to do the work to run your own fucking country, how can you complain when someone else does it for you? You mention health care, and I completely agree with you on the ruling, but what you have to realize is that this is the best America can do. You had a President who made it a centerpiece of his campaign, who came into office with commanding leads for his party in both houses of Congress, with strong public support in favor of reforming the system up to and including total nationalization. All of this, and after 18 months of hyperventilating over death panels, of talk about mass importing of drugs from Canada - a country 1/10th your size by population - as a matter of national policy (because apparently just implementing the same price controls that Canada has is out of the question), and my personal favorite "you can't legislate health insurance companies out of existence, they'll all lose their jobs!" non-argument, this is the best you idiots could come up with. You don't think there was "a very public extended debate period" over health care? I suppose it depends on what you mean by "debate", but in America, where not knowing what the fuck you're talking about doesn't mean your opinion is any less important than that of an expert, I'd say you got it. So as for your supposition that you don't have a say in your government, yes you are right that you basically don't and that sucks. It's not really something that's instituted from the top down but rather the laziness, indecisiveness, incuriousness, and acrimoniousness of the average American. I'd say your government has shown considerable restraint, considering what it has to work with. If a charismatic right-wing figure were able to seize control of your government, put his political enemies to death, and rule with an iron first, about 30-35% of your population would welcome him with open arms. (These people are called Republicans.) Most of the brutal fascisms of the twentieth century did more with less.