@Frank Apisa,
Explain this to me Frank...
If the American voters were intelligent, then the successful politicians would be the ones who presented in depths, substantive arguments with nuance. An intelligent politician would be able to discuss both sides of an issue and to present the pros and cons to take a well-reasoned position.
Why don't we see this happening, Frank?
What we have is character attacks, bumper sticker slogans, ridiculously expensive 30 second campaign ads and half-truths.
Our politics are run like this because this is what the American voter responds to. American voters aren't given nuanced reasoned arguments because they don't want reasoned nuanced arguments. Intelligent arguments lose elections. The American voter punishes nuance in the harshest way.
This coming election (like the ones before it) will be fought with slogans, "War on Women", "Don't take our guns", "Tax and Spend", "America is a country of immigrants".
This is what people will vote on... slogans. Most Americans will never understand the policies behind them in any real way. They will never hear the reasons from more than one side. They will never have a nuanced discussion or listen to any explanation of either side that takes more than a minute.
Americans could be intelligent and informed, but they choose choose not to be.