you basically have two big parties, each of which is somewhat extreme in one way or another.

And it's interesting, because I see all the time people saying that the two main parties are effectively no different from each other (usually the libertarians/third party folks). And I think in terms of corruption and forgetting where they came for as soon as they're gone, that might be true. But in other ways...

I think in the US, politics for a lot of people is a spectator sport... people argue for/against politicians and parties the same as they do for sports teams.