system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
I don't think the American government is of the people anymore. CMV

To my understanding, the government of the United States was designed so that any natural born citizen had a workable shot at political aspirations.  Obviously not just anyone can be an elected official, candidates need to be intelligent, tactful, good with people; but given that you were capable, anything was possible.  My disillusionment begins here.  Money runs everything.  If you don't have money, or friends with money, you have no real hope for political success.  A caste of leaders has formed, strictly reserved for the upper echelon of society.  The one alternative, the third party platform, is almost always viewed as radical, or crazy.  I will admit that this is in part due to the astronomical expense of campaigning, which leads me to my next point.  Even once elected, lobbyists and rich benefactors get an uneven say in what happens behind closed doors.  If that's the case, then the government is no longer of the people.  Instead it's an exclusive club that sits up on Capitol Hill and metes out judgement and legislation, successfully dooming "The Great American Experiment".  Please CMV.

EDIT:
There is a ton of interesting viewpoints below that I would have never thought of on my own.  I will definitely read through them all as soon as I'm out of class for the day.
gpt
Here's the thing: the US isn't an actual democracy.  It's a representative republic.  It's an important distinction.

The Founding Fathers didn't trust the average US citizen at the time of its inception to be able to pick the right people or make the right decisions- this is why we have the electoral college.  Technically, when you vote for President, you don't actually vote for a President- you vote to install certain people who will then vote for that President.

Our government was never supposed to work with the common man being the representative that was chosen to create legislation or enforce the executive branch.  The system they designed was made to allow the more intellectual and capable citizens hold those roles- but also ensure those same people were answerable to the general populace for the decisions they make.

The government is "of the people," not because the average man will be a legislator, but because the legislator has no choice but to represent the will of at least his majority of constituents in order to remain their representative.  The public's will is still enforced, but it's diluted through the (hopefully) more intelligent and qualified individual representing them.