Lots of misguided 20-something folks here in the U.S. are aligned with the Republican party because they think the Republican party is the party of opportunity. I say that's hogwash! Sure, the Republican party will support a person's ambitions to become richer and more powerful, but only if his net worth already exceeds a billion and his annual income exceeds 1E8. If you're only a hundred-millionaire, they don't care about you and, in reality, want to tax you into oblivion.

Please, please, please do not mistake the current administration with the Republican party. The Republican party does believe in opportunity for all; the current group of thugs in the White House believes in opportunity only for the rich. They call themselves Republicans only for political expediency--they likely wouldn't get elected if they called themselves Fascists, which is closer to the truth. BTW, I'm a Republican, Bush isn't.

Don't even get me started on the subject of public education here... The public education in the lower K-12 (kindergarten through grade 12) system is totally in the toilet,

Ah, but the K-12 system is working perfectly, in that it's accomplishing its goal--churning out good little consumer sheep who will do what they're told by their corporate and political owners.

You can still get a good university education in the U.S.