Why couldn't we have a shadow government that didn't suck?!

Like a hypochondriac who won’t go to the doctor because he thinks he’s just being hypochondriacal, I have doubted my own assessment that the US government is controlled—essentially owned—by wealthy oligarchs who pay for the elections and votes of our politicians, that the Executive and Legislative branches (at least) of the US government are simply an elaborate puppet show designed to appease the masses with illusions of self determination. Finally, much to my chagrin, a former chief economist at the IMF says I’m right. Fuck! I knew it all along—wishing whole-heartedly I was wrong. (Original article.) This dude at the Rolling Stone takes a different tack to say practically the same thing and spells it out with more detail in a ridiculously long article. So, all you paranoid conspiracy hounds, rest easy; there really is a “shadow government” controlling your nation and your fate.