The sad reality is that our society and "representatives" have fallen so far that those that should be the most eloquent among us are not. When you read the debates of the founding fathers or even politicians from the last century you can see how far the standards have fallen. Its important to acknowledge that this all happened under democracy. Democracy isn't some magic thing we can sprinkle on a society and make it awesome. Nor is freedom for that matter. Would I choose to live under a dictator or a socialist economy? Nope, but there are deep problems that democracy and markets can not solve.