> The CCP is 100 million people, FYI.

Are you trying to say that all 100 million of them have meaningful influence on CCP policy? Like some sort of great big Athenian democracy?

How much meaningful influence do you have on American policy?

There are lots of facets and levels of politics -- being a CCP member kind of necessitates being engaged in some way, probably at the local level for the vast majority of them.

> How much meaningful influence do you have on American policy?

Very little, that's why we refer to the actions of the American government rather than the actions American people.

This thread started with a heartfelt plea from 9th grade civics about how America is an Accountable Democracy, though.

It turns out that "corruption" (or choose your metric) isn't a binary proposition, so the argument, "but the US has corruption too!" kind of misses the point.