Active participation needed to make political system work

Like most Americans, I mutter with some regularity about the failings and stupidity of our government on all levels. At almost the same time when I hear of some particularly gross or lethal action on the part of another country, I shake my head and say to whoever is nearby, 'Aren't you glad we live here and not there.' The idea being that for whatever our faults, we still provide the standard of good government for the rest of the world. It's a comforting thought. Someone once said, 'God protects little children, drunks and the United States of America.' An appealing concept, but true? I don't know. Surely the same laws of politics apply to us as to the rest of the world. Maybe we have just had a spectacular run of luck.