CMV: The USA is not a functioning democracy

I say this as someone who is examining democracies holistically from the outside. The USA is not a functioning democracy. From my standpoint I can see that elections are meaningless when it's the same group of wealthy people influencing politicians on every side, that the wealthy can heavily influence who runs for office and which policies get passed, that even in office the wealthy can grease the palms of politicians, the politicians cannot be held accountable for their actions which allows corruption to fester, the politicians also have a massive incentive to only represent the interests of the wealthy because they need to stay in office to do anything, the politicians hold their positions for long periods of time, which often leads to abuse of power and corruption, and more. I'm not saying that the US is like a dictatorship, but it is what I would call a flawed democracy. As someone who is from a country that has a functioning democracy I can see that what the US has now is not that. I would rather just have a discussion about this. I'm not going to try to debunk your points in every iteration like a lot of other CMV threads, but I want to have a discussion on the legitimacy and functionality of the USA.<br><br><br>Edit: Surprise! This blew up. I thought it might get some attention, but unfortunately this is an issue that needs to be addressed. I will try to read your comments, and I'll try to respond to a portion of them, but I may get swamped by the amount of comments. I really, really want to respond to every single one of you. I appreciate every single comment, even the angry ones. Thank you all, and please remain civil. I do appreciate concerns about accountability, I will take the list of things I mentioned off of this thread in a week or so, or when I've answered all the comments, and compile it into a short page I will link in my profile.