>>But we blame the politicians, because they're supposed to show leadership.
Here's a quote from Tamra, fictional future Princess of Tonga and then Queen of all Humanity:
"Once upon a time, democrats overthrew monarchs for the promise of freedom. What a laugh! As if responsibility and accountability were something people wanted for themselves! Freedom means finding somebody else to worry about all the little details for you, and all the
big details you're too immersed in your own life to see. People don't want a dictator, obviously. Quite the contrary: they want a
dictatee, a conscripted functionary who can be endlessly blamed and imposed upon. It is democracy, for all but the monarch herself."
(Thought it might be helpful to provide a slightly shorter explanation from another fictional character apart from John Galt. ;-) )
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1