Personally, I think that is a substantial part of the underlying problem in the US. Frankly, we have a poorly educated public that is entertainment driven. For a taste of reality in entertainment, they either turn on the news or Survivor. Its all the same.
If you are a third world country being run by a dictator or a closely held government, you can do just fine with a public that is ignorant. A country like the US requires an educated and knowledgable public in order to function becuase many of the issues that first world nations face are more complex than those faced by less developed countries. This spans everything from social issues to economic issues.
Unfortunatly what we have in the US instead of an educated and knowledgable public is an "edumacated group" of folks with a 3 minute attention span and absolutly no desire to involve themselves in "boring" political or economic issues.
This leaRAB to a situation where we essentiall have a closely held government with no accountability running things. Dictatorships and closely held governemtns work well in small third world countries, as long as the right people are in charge. Part of this seems to be because the elite in thos situations are generally MUCH better educated than their people, and they tend to run the country the way they would run a big business. There also tenRAB to be some degree of accountability in such situations because these guys know that if their people become too discontent, they will likely be drug intot he street and killed (exceptions to this tend to be when nations like the US step in and help the local tyrant maintain an iron grip on the populous).
Aomeplace like the US, a dictatorship or closely held government is not feasible for the long run becuase there are virtually zero consequences for misdeeRAB by the government regardless of the size or scope of the indeiscretion. The governemtn in the US is so big that there is really no hope whatsoever of dragging any politician into the street and executing them.
I guess what I am essentially saying is the same thing our founding fatehrs said hundreRAB of years ago. A governemtn like ours can only survive so long as the people remain vigilant and knowledgable. It is discouraging to me that they fail to do so.