Got to man, this's America...

So, I was thinking about the over-arching themes of the whole series, and I remembered the first scene, first episode, before the opening credits. In it, McNulty talks to some thug at sitting on the stoop, and asks why, if Snot always snagged the cash from the game, they kept letting him play. His answer, of course, is "Got [...] America. Well, this statement is logically questionable in the scenario laid out, but it does point nicely to some of the American ideal that the creators of the series are questioning throughout. Specifically, I'm thinking of the meritorious and equal opportunity aspects of the ideal American state. That is, by working hard and being good at ones job, one will advance to the position one deserves. Ideally, merit is the driver of the system of advancement. What I think is interesting is that in the series, the of the two systems we are presented with (criminal organizations vis a vis the three arms of the law judicial/executive/legislative), one seems to embody that ideal in much more closely than the other.
I refer specifically to the way that the slingers and hoppers etc move upward in their respective organizations, and even the way their leader replace and succeed one another. It seems to me that the most common way is by being good at what they do. Prop Joe, Slim Charles, Marlo, Barksdale, Bell, etc. all got to where they were by being shrewd and careful. Cheese, on the other hand, is a bit of an idiot and thinks in a very limited way about his business future. And he's capped pretty quickly.
On the other hand, the cops, media, lawyers, and politicians that move upward successfully seem to be largely good at something other than their jobs. This is not to say they are categorically bad at them, but along with being at least mildly competent, they all possess a conniving, selfish drive to move upward at almost any cost. I realize that on both sides there are exceptions to this rule, but the overall feeling I got was that, in the sense of America as a Meritorious, rather than Elitist State, the street seemed to embody in a much clearer way the sentiment expressed in that first episode.
Part of this may be due to the fact that many of the politicians etc were either born into money of some fashion, or into political connection etc. This is definitely conducive to the propagation of an elitist system. However, if we look at the best cops, Kema, McNulty, Lester, Bunk,etc, it seems that the ones that are actually good at their jobs are not moving vertically in the system, rather their unwillingness to play the game seems to get them moved laterally or downward. What does this say about the effects of large scale government on a supposedly meritorious system? To what extent can politicians actually represent the people, and does the best man for the job ever get elected, or is it the best looking, most connected man for the job. The answers are probably pretty depressing, even in places where the effects are far less severe than West Baltimore.