Where does the real power reside in the US? Is the model of the media's process the same as the actual mechanisms that take place?

[the watcher]

Can you actually name who represents you?
"I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this—who will count the votes, and how."
said in 1923; Boris Bazhanov The Memoirs of Stalin's Former Secretary (1992)