It is election time and we Americans are doing what we always do……we blame the rich for all the bad decisions that this country makes. Even though we hear that we have a voice and we can be heard if we interact with our representatives…….well sports fans that is damn right FALSE!
How many times have you heard your Congress person say that they need to hear from you so that they may lay out the proper tract for any issue?
The truth is that your voice is very low and almost none existent…..the rich control the policymakers…..I know we all know this already……but how do they control the process?
New research shows the power of the wealthiest Americans to impose their preferences….
The United States of America is a democratic country. Over the past few decades, however, important questions about policy and budgets have been decided overwhelmingly against the interests and preferences of the middle and working classes. When the preferences of the rich and the middle class come into conflict, the rich tend to win.
Matt Grossmann, a political scientist and the director of the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research at Michigan State University, is working on a project to expand upon the work of Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page, whose bombshell paper last year revealed the impact of economic inequality on public opinion in the U.S. As part of his research, Grossmann examined 50 proposals in the Gilens data set on which opinions between the wealthiest Americans and the median voter diverged the most.
Source: How the Rich Control Policymaking | Al Jazeera America
We can bitch about this from now until the cows go to Benghazi……for it will not change….why? Americans do not truly want it to change. Proof? Just look at the voting for the last 25 years….your answer is there.
When the original study came out last year, it only confirmed what was obvious to anyone who has observed the American (or, frankly, world-wide in all voting countries, I’d wager….) political process over the past 50 years, with an eye to keeping a perspective on the whole history of this country. The votes of the public haven’t mattered for over 150 years, in truth, since the corporate corruption of the federal court system achieved its primary judicial decisions heralding the current mess, way back in the mid-nineteenth century. Since that time, American policies have all reflected corporate interests, not those of the voting public, who are kept completely unaware by lies, and their own willingness to believe them….
I think it was Plato who said something about all democracies end up with the government they deserve…. but, it might have been another of his peers, none of whom expressed much faith in such political theories. it seems they were correct….
gigoid, the dubious
Plato could be such a pill…LOL
I like Gore Vidal’s definition….
POLITICS is two words……”poli” meaning the people and “Tics” which are blood sucking parasites….chuq
While it’s good to see some numbers finally behind it, none of it is surprising.
Even if you put aside the massive amount of corruption & cookedness and assume the VERY BEST from everyone. (Ha-ha!) The process of the rich dominating is just very logical. Because elections cost so damn much, politicos spend a huge percentage of their time grovelling for money. It’s simply cost/time-effective to grovel to those with the most money first and work your way down. And when somebody gives you lots of money, even if you don’t mean to, you still at least lean toward whatever they want.
But at the same time, you still need votes. So, the opinion of the middle (the largest group) should be a mitigating factor, but only some of the time and only when there’s a unified Middle Opinion. The Poors are presumed to have neither money, nor votes. As such, they’re completely invisible everywhere except maybe the most gerrymandered “poor” districts.
The less the general public shows up to vote and the more expensive elections get, the less the voting public matters and the more the money will matter. And since unions have essentially collapsed, the bias leans even more toward corporate interests than before.
Obvious solution: Cheaper elections, spending limits & bigger voter turnout. (Odds of happening: 0.5%)
But I’d say the most surprising stats of all are:
– Even when all economic groups are opposed, the measure still passes 20-ish% of the time.
– Even when all economic groups are in favour, the measure only passes 40-ish% of the time.
So, the difference in success between “all opposed” and “all in favour” is a piddling 20%!!! Forget bias. When the difference between universal support & universal opposition matters so little, that raises serious questions about Washington’s ability to listen to ANYBODY, or get ANYTHING done.
Yep and I will die with no change and no good leadership….oh well…..
Pragmatic summation: Bulls**t walks … Money talks! Always has been that way; always will be that way and that is exactly what it took to make America the greatest nation on the face of the earth. If we are in any kind of slide it is because some pacifist moralists have tried to invert the formula.