We bought a lemon

"The contemporary Republican party seems brilliantly suited to the modern age, for it has perfected the art of maintaining political power in the midst of democratic decay…

"As men of commerce, Republicans naturally understood marketing better than Democrats, and they applied what they knew about selling products to politics…

"The conduct of contemporary electoral politics is like what would happen if an automobile company decided to fire its engineers and let the advertising guys design the new model. The car they package might sell. It just wouldn’t run very well."

- William Greider, "Who Will Tell the People: The Betrayal of American Democracy," 1992