> It feels like more of our government is broken or perverted than is actually functioning correctly and beneficially.
I don't mean to excuse any of the B.S. that's going down, but I feel it's important to take the long view, to see the thing in the light of history. Not for nothing is it said, "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.", eh?
1. the history of democracy is very short, it's no foregone conclusion that it is the best option regardless of pithy quotes from Churchill or what we would like to believe (and yes I know that "best" and "worst" are doing a lot of work in our statements)
2. there are many implementations of democracy possible and extant, so even if we think democracy is the ideal government that is still no defense of the US
I would say it's the best option so far. Conventional wisdom holds that autocracy is better, if-and-only-if you have a good autocrat. It's said the old women wept when the King of Bhutan decreed Democracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhutanese_democracy
I don't mean to excuse any of the B.S. that's going down, but I feel it's important to take the long view, to see the thing in the light of history. Not for nothing is it said, "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.", eh?