man, even though i'm an immigrant (came here in 2000), my knowledge of the US history is much wider and deeper than your post, thank you. Being the immigrant though, i don't have that emotional baggage of the history like you that would clutter my vision and perception of the current reality, and thus i was able to observe and form my opinion about political forces here from scratch. With regard to quality of my information collecting and opinion forming - I have pretty good education and analytical skills, i.e. high GPA MS in Math from one of the best math schools in USSR/Russia.