I still think you credit career politicians too much, but maybe I have read too many muckraking stories about too many of them. Maybe it is the old disconnect between folks who think people are basically decent, generally do the right thing and so do not need a pile of laws DEMANDING it vs. folks who think people bastard coated bastards with bastard filling who will murder you, steal your valuables and burn down your house if they think no one is watching. Which of us is the cynic again?

I will give them this: Most federal elected officials, Senators, most House members who have managed re-election once or twice, know about the issues than nearly 99% of the people either of us talk with regularly. Maybe not all the issues, but most of them, and certainly all the issues to which they devote much time. Of course, as you noted, encyclopedic knowledge does not preclude error; it is like that QotM I recently saw Camilla provide (from the Doctor, I believe,) that logic just allows us to be wrong with authority. The flip side of that internet rule that says he who knows the least knows it the loudest (yeah, yeah; shut up. )

The trouble with Congress is that winning nearly any seat requires, in addition to a fair amount of brains and luck, the ability to BS people and collect money (which requires even more ability to BS people.) Honestly, the best I expect of most politicians is that they ARE BSing their donors as hard as they BS the rest of us. They may be selfish, short sighted mercenary SOBs, but as long as they are not actively pursuing a malicious course, or in the pocket of someone who is, there is always the random chance what they believe serves their interest will incidentally serve mine and the countrys.

Say you're a Congressman (and you know the rest. ) You have a choice:

Read emails and letters from me and a few thousand other people (or have your staff do it) then try to synthesize that into a policy decision to get another 10,000 votes next election, if any of us remember your help longer than a month, and knowing EVERYONE it enrages will, or

Lunch with a half dozen potential corporate lobbyists whose donations to you, your PACs and your *NC will pay for TV, radio and newspaper ads calling your opponent a dog rapist that deliver 50,000 votes next election, whether anyone remembers this week or not.

Where is your time best spent? Even if you have all those noble Mr. Smith ideals that have driven you since your patriotic childhood, a politician cannot be a statesman unless re-elected, right? Remember Russ Feingold painting his campaign platform on his garage door so every voter could drive by and see it, calling up the DNC and yelling at them to pull the soft money attack ads they ran in WI because he made a pledge not to use soft money? Remember how that ended? At least we still have Lieberman and his "I will keep demanding 'just one more' concession to vote for Obamacare until I singlehandedly strip it of everything but the kickbacks for my states biggest 'industry.'" Heck, look at the debt ceiling deal: A routine vote suddenly became a show down over the countrys very solvency. The POTUS, Senate and even the Speaker of the House agreed in principle to a deal slashing the national debt 25% over the next decade, but all reports say it blew up because Boehner could not get his own House delegation (mostly the you-know-who-freshmen) to put aside partisanship for a deal he knew in the nations best interest and everyone elses.

Short form: The anti-deficit, anti-spending Tea Party singlehandedly cost us $2 trillion in debt reduction. The system works!

My faith in the system is simply spent, man. Someone call Obama and tell him what happens to a dream deferred, 'cos at this point Hillary looks every bit as "noble" and a lot more competent. I follow the issues less closely these days, not because I do not care (right there with you on apathetic electorates; get the government they deserve,) but because I care too MUCH and knowing it does not MATTER is frustrating and depressing. Our next president will be Romney (R-MA) or Romney (D-IL) but none of the policy that has worked SO well all my life will change.

The dollar has lost 80% of its value since I was born. I am part of the first generation in US history worse off than its parents. We produce nothing but debt and little Americans. Twenty percent of America is working part time or not at all, which is why an equal number are on the brink of foreclosure. Three YEARS after we bailed out banks that knowingly sold bad mortgages to unwitting borrowers Obama is FINALLY floating a bill to help those people. The banks got $1 trillion; homeowners get $25 billion, in DESCENDING order of need. The more help you need, the less likely you are to get any: The new American Nightmare.

We ain't licked, but we need to get up off the mat REALLY soon, and the first stap is realizing we are there.