"The government is too powerful, I agree. Most millionaires and billionaires aren't in politics at all, was my point."

Are you denying that the parties are run by the super-rich? And you claim I'm naive and deluded?

In what way is the system of 'equal interlocutors', since all but the rich are priced out of voicing their opinions, particularly since all campaign finance laws were scrapped. How is the average person not complying with the political opinions of the filthy rich?
You think I am not compliant or having my ideological correctness checked in the USA? Get real. There are plenty of legal prohibitions against communists in the public sector or in labor work, not to mention significant FBI coercion. Get off your high horse.

@Putin33 I totally agree, money needs to get OUT of political campaigns. Donations should be at the individual level, capped at $666 dollars, and on public record.

I'd go a step further and make donations anonymous to the party being donated to. You can't buy favours if you can't buy favours.

Bias can be quite easy to see, even for someone like me.

The American article mentioned a major international conference, that other countries were tripping over themselves to follow America's great leading amendments and, although it didn't say, strongly implied the conference was in America.
The USSR's one was similar but pro-USSR, at least mentioned where it was (Paris) and what it was about (a pre-Kyoto environmental conference on climate change).
Canada's had more about what it was about, an inflated view of Canada's influence, and that the African nations, that were being affected by climate change at the time, were strongly in agreement in opposing America's amendments that changed the agreement from mandatory to voluntary.
The British article was similar to Canada's, but stated that the British role was a small one and had a longer and more thorough analysis of the conference.

I think all funding should be through party membership dues, which should be set at a fixed level for both parties. General election season should also be limited to 1 month in duration, and primaries should be scrapped.

If you want to vote in the nominating process, join the party and become elected as a delegate at the national nominating convention from your state. As of now, conventions are meaningless theater.

When Bush was in power, some (socialist) relatives of mine in the states said that they were being regularly harassed in the streets. Their political activism was the crime of running a food coop...a grocery store.

And yeah, being a communist in the states is a brave act in and of itself.

I like Putin's funding idea even more than mine.

@Theodosius I'm not sure if that's deliberate bias, as much as it is nobody at the (unnamed) publication giving a fuck about a pre-Kyoto environmental conference in Paris. It was probably some intern who wrote it in an hour, taking a shit with Krellin. Why would anyone bother "strongly implying" a vegan-chix-nugget Orly Budgetel conference was in America? Prestige? Good Christ.

Actually, talking with reporters from America, they have to give a strong pro-USA bias or it doesn't get published.

And the other two articles, which were not about environmental issues, had similar bias. The bias had nothing to do with environmentalism, it had to do with media expectations.

@tendmote

"vegan-chix-nugget Orly Budgetel"

Dude that is histrionic.

I'm just not picturing churrascaria and sushi at a minor-league environmental conference.