Well, I am going to differ with Mr. Miller. Government isn’t broken. Government today just works only for certain people. It has been bent and forged and mutilated so that government now is in place to serve only a certain group of people. And those whom it now serves are not as yet satisfied with the product so it must be twisted and welded and rerouted some more to make government yet more compliant in serving their needs.

Big money has spent the past 30 years on a relentless drive to transform the shining city on the hill into yet another playground for their pleasures and accumulation of yet more and more money.

So Tuesday is merely a speed bump in the relentless drive of the super-rich. The election serves as a kind of decision point for them. After the returns are in, decisions are made as to which tool in their tool box will be used to achieve their desired ends.

 – Will it be using their media propaganda arms to spread lies and distortion of reality?
 – Will it be rousing a fake grass-roots group to go out and raise hell against their own best interests in an indecipherable rally?
 – Will it be giving talking points and walking instructions to mid-level elected officials to stop federal programs such as health care reform, or to inflame the fires of immigration reform?

The key will be to follow the money, follow the money, follow the money. Where is the lobbying money rising? Who is getting donations for their next campaign early?  Are there new groups popping up in an area, or new bloggers focusing on specific issues?

This election will tell folks like the Koch brothers where to “invest.” It will give Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes guidelines on what their “news” outlets should cover and how it should be covered. 

The one thing Tuesday's election will not do is stop the money from flowing. Whether the money that was poured into this election buys the government they want or not, their main focus will be between elections. Those who seek to, shall we say, influence government will be doing their behind-the-scenes work starting Wednesday.  We will see some occasional public outcroppings of their work in issue oriented ads – “call your congressman NOW” –  but most of their work will be covert and unreported.

So America now seems to be considering putting back in power the same people who have misshaped this government to serve the interests of the rich. In doing so, many Americans see themselves as thinking independently, never realizing that their opinions have been shaped by a massive misinformation campaign.

And how can it be stopped? Getting money out of elections would be a big start. Even if money was removed from elections, we would still need to greatly regulate and monitor lobbying. Setting rules for access to members of Congress would be extremely difficult. And then something would need to be done about the massive misinformation and distortion campaigns that pass for news these days.

When I think about our current mess, I think of the Jay Gould quote from well over a century ago. As a filthy rich person he stated the cynicism with which we lowly people are viewed:

“I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half.”

Teach your children critical thinking skills. Teach them a healthy skepticism.