I just heard a conversation about American politics.  I am now feeling
quite elitist, so I will now introduce my Theory of American Democracy:

1.1. THEORY OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
"Most Americans are either too stupid or too selfish to be trusted
with American Democracy."

This is a conversation I heard between Bongo, a Malaysian orangutan
(est. IQ = 90) and a typical American voter.

BONGO (swallowing a banana peel):
"Why did you vote for a Democratic Congress and a Republican president?"

VOTER: 
"Uh, duh, I dunno."

BONGO (picking fruit flies from his fur):
Why do you reward politicians who do what you purport to hate
(cater to the whims of so-called "special interests")
and punish politicians who are brave enough to do the right thing?

VOTER:
"What?"

BONGO (scratching his butt):
For example, take the deficit.  You're mad at Congress for not reducing
the deficit.  Now, as I recall from my last IRS Tax booklet, here is the
budget: 

15% of the Federal budget is spent in debt or paying the interest on the debt.
20% is for defense
40% is for entitlements (like 70% Social Security, the rest is Veteran's 
    benefits, welfare, etc.)
20% is for other stuff (NASA, FAA, DOT, DEA, FBI, education, etc.)

Now, it is quite obvious to the casual observer that we have to cut
spending, and raise taxes.  Tell me what happens to a politician who
wants to raise taxes.

VOTER:
"TAXES? Did anyone say TAXES? LYNCH THE BASTARD!"

BONGO (snorting):
Chill dude.  Now we need to cut 15% somewhere. We obviously can't cut
defence down to 5%, or we'll have the Cuban Army in Orlando.  And the
other stuff is already pretty bare bones, so even taking out a little
will severely reduce services like education, NASA, FAA, DEA, etc.
Take more out of that and will have planes crashing in Dulles, drug
lords in Virginia, potholes the size of bomb craters, and kids as dumb
as you.  Its obvious that we need to reduce entitlements.  And that's
fair, since why should rich old people get paid fat SS checks?  Social
Security was meant to keep retired people who didn't earn that much
when they were working from going into poverty, not to fatten up the
accounts of affluent geezers so that when they die, their rich sons can
inherit it.   But mention taxing or cutting Social Security, and ...

VOTER: 
"SOCIAL SECURITY?  what? what? TAX? what? hey I got big plans for my
retirement- I say, I'm looking forward to 65: my IRA's worth $500,000,
my social security paycheck's gonna net me big bucks, yes sirree, and
I'm joining AARP to make sure those dirty polititicians don't get one
penny!"

BONGO (shocked):  "But what about future generations? Whose going to
solve the deficit? How will we get out of the recession?  The
population is getting older, so if we don't control the growth of
entitlements, what are our future citizens going to look forward to? 
A quarter, or a third of their paychecks to retired people?"

VOTER:
"HA HA!  Screw you! By then, I'll be six feet under!  I'll be pushin' up 
daisies!  I'll be long gone!  SUCKERS!"

(At which point Bongo got seriously disgusted and started shrieking.  
The conversation deteriorated from there.)