"Social / Economic Issues": Distraction or means to an end?

The panel discussion at the independent voter conference in New York earlier this month entertained the concept that independents could and should get involved in ideologically-determined "issue-based" organizing, such as education or healthcare, the deficit, the national budget. I think...not so much. The dysfunction or paralysis of some of these programs and policies can serve as a means for addressing the root cause of our policy woes--our too narrow and too elite political process.
Case in point: if your net worth has plummeted in the last few years due to the financial meltdown then ask yourself why haven't we enacted any serious financial regulations? What have we done to prevent this from happening again and why hasn't anybody gone to jail?

The answer is we haven't done a thing to prevent it from happening again (officially). We haven't enacted any real reforms to insist on some basic honesty on Wall Street. Why?

That is a complex answer all bundled up in the two-party system and our persistent backroom methods of selecting candidates or more particularly the process by which candidates are paid to line up behind policy created in smoke filled backrooms. We haven't got a prayer of addressing policy and ideological reforms until the process can be addressed.

link to Rolling Stone article: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-isnt-wall-street-in-jail-20110216