Essentially, every single government that has ever existed on this planet has been an Oligarchy, that is, a few bossing around everyone else. A Princeton study that analyzed the data spanning over decades proved it. It showed that the USA, torchbearer of democracy around the world, is also an Oligarchy. A study showed that if the majority of voters support a bill, it has little chance of passing Congress. But if only one central lobby endorses the bill, its successful passage through Congress is almost inevitable.
Government is Oligarchic in its foundations right from the very beginning, in the first known so-called civilization, the Sumerians. There was a state run by gods and a theocracy in bed with it. Although demigods, pharoahs, kings and emperors, dictators, presidents, and prime ministers, after every epic failure, they just renamed, rebranded, and repackaged the same old and throw it back on us, telling us that it is fixed now and will work. Of course, it never worked and failed miserably every single time. We were doing the insanity of trying the same and expecting different results.
When it came to the point where people utterly refused one of the two pillars of Oligarchy, the religion, they replaced the Theistic religion with an Atheistic religion with even a bigger dogma, and continued the same old. As per official protocol, the US president is still not supposed to do anything with his hands because manual work is the job of Lulus, not the masters and their pawns. His food is cooked and served on the table with someone placing the desired items in his plate. His clothes are washed pressed and hanged over in closet, servants clean his home, someone opens the door of his car for him and drives it, documents are placed in a folder and someone hands over a pen to him to sign the documents, he is providee full service even in Airforce one, all at the expense of taxpayers.
The British queen, until the end of the last century, had someone to wash her ass after she finished doing her business. A tabloid published this, and after serious uproar from the public, that position was revoked, but I am pretty sure that they just changed the title. Elections everywhere are purely a money game. Your ability to raise money or spend the cash mainly determines whether you will win or lose. The more powerful and bigger the government is, the bigger and richer are the lobbies that determine almost every policy that the government enacts.
In the USA, political parties are now multibillion-dollar enterprises and only the presidential election costs several billion dollars in donated and super PAC money. Incredible expenses on the Senate, House, state, and local elections are in addition to all this. Money mostly comes from big banks, corporations, activist groups, big unions, foreign governments, and multinational corporations. An average voter and donor has become virtually insignificant in this whole farce. Average Joes and Marys are asked to donate to maintain the impression that the people are running the process, while voting is done to continue the illusion that the government is of, by, and for the people.
Average people still have the illusion that the entry into the political process is open and free. This is because the crony media heavily publicizes the humble backgrounds of the selected and rare candidates. The money requirements and regulations to enter the political process are so tight that even the candidates of the third-largest party, the Libertarian Party, can barely meet the requirements nationwide. No other party has that capability. The two major parties are responsible for the filtration process and make sure that no unwanted person makes it to any central political stage.
Everything from polls to the media coverage is designed to make this filtration process as thorough as possible. In 99 percent of polls, no third-party candidate is included. Even if a Libertarian candidate is provided with some coverage in corporate media, the purpose is never to project the third-party candidate. The purpose is usually to hurt the strong opponent. So, if the left media provides coverage to a third-party candidate, the coverage will be designed to break voters from the right candidate and vice versa.
This selection process has created a powerful establishment in Washington, state capitals, and even in most counties and cities. Membership in this club is highly restricted, and the establishment, with the help of major donors, makes it possible. Anyone with non-compliant views is immediately rejected and kicked out. You must have the stature of Ron Paul, Ross Perot, Denis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, Pat Buchanan, RFK, and Donald Trump to break into this. Still, these people are considered the party popers; every possible measure is taken to fail them.
Recently, every dirty tactic is used to discredit Trump and RFK. They could not do anything right. After the expression of every nonmainstream view, the media forecasts their demise. The success that Ross Perot, Pat Buchanan, and RFK had was considerable, but still limited. In the case of Ron Paul, when Everything failed, they had to move the goal post at the last moment. In the case of Donald Trump, ultimately nothing worked. Their heroes, like Hillary, Bush, and all the others, failed miserably. I am not endorsing any of them, except Ron Paul, but the point is that the whole setup is highly Oligarchic.
No outsiders are allowed. You are permitted only if your views comply with the two brands of the one political party in Washington. I mean, watch the nationally broadcast debates. These are so boring and full of bikering. Every candidate is simply trying to prove that he or she is the most mainstream and mediocre. That is why if any of the outsider candidates make it to these debates, despite the extremely restrictive Presidential Debates Commission, he starts shining very quickly.
Although Trump has his baggage, the excellent job he did in rendering the Washington power brokers toothless is highly laudable.