If by the string-pullers you mean the people buying off the politicos, that goes precisely to Sowell's point.
The truth of the matter is that the politician is a self-selected subgroup of Homo sapiens that is populated on the whole by a bunch of power-hungry, corrupt mediocrities with poor self-images.
We need to get rid of the careerist in DC and go to the founders' original idea: the citizen-politician.
I always thought that wanting to be president should be an automatic disqualifier.
It's easy and can be done in a couple of election cycles. Anyone with a beef with government can send a message by voting the Democrats into extinction. It's a painless, non-violent, inexpensive start to a solution.
Amen!!
I'll second that!!