A new study from Princeton spells bad news for American democracy—namely, that it no longer exists.
Asking "[w]ho really rules?" researchers Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page
argue that over the past few decades America's political system has slowly transformed from a democracy into an oligarchy, where wealthy elites wield most power.
Using data drawn from over 1,800 different policy initiatives from 1981 to 2002, the two conclude that rich, well-connected individuals on the political scene now steer the direction of the country, regardless of or even against the will of the majority of voters.
"The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy," they write, "while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence."
The Conservative Washington Times reports the same thing.
America is no longer a democracy — never mind the democratic republic envisioned by Founding Fathers.
Rather, it has taken a turn down elitist lane and become a country led by a small dominant class comprised of powerful members who exert total control over the general population — an oligarchy, said
a new study jointly conducted by Princeton and Northwestern universities.
One finding in the study: The U.S. government now represents the rich and powerful, not the average citizen, United Press International reported.
In the study, “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups and Average Citizens,” researchers compared 1,800 different U.S. policies that were put in place by politicians between 1981 and 2002 to the type of policies preferred by the average and wealthy American, or special interest groups.
Even a mainstream media poll by MSNBC says that 94% of Americans believe that the criminal elite have too much power.
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Fat Bastardo's Op Ed:
The question now is, can we restore our democracy and if so can in be done peacefully? Can you think of any power change that was done peacefully?
We know who the criminal elite are and we know where they are. Can we appeal to their sense of fair play and their love for the US constitution and America? Do they even have a sense of fair play or any love for democracy?
Can we depend on what is left of our government to enforce the law and bring they criminal elite to justice? They haven't so far.
Can a grassroots effort by democracy loving patriots orchestrate a bloodless coup or will Americans need to execute a few corporate gangster and banksters to get the rest of them to give up their strangle hold on our country and its government?
A Second Amendment Solution?
A lot of wingnut loons on the right like Ann Coulter, Ted Nugent,Sharon Angle and Sarah Palin floated the idea of an armed revolt but all that came of that was a crazy fucker shooting Gabby Giffords and killing her friends. But what if intellectuals on the left called for the same thing? At that point would the loons on both the left and right see that left vs right is mostly a false paradigm and that regardless of our political stripes we as Americans have a common enemy?
Two intellectuals on the left and right have said that the America is no longer a functioning Democracy. President Jimmy Carter believes this and presidential candidate Ron Paul describes what we have now as corporate fascism.
My hope is that the children of these vile Plutocrats will see what vile scum their parents are and find their greed as revolting as the rest of us and then subsequently give back the wealth.
WAKE UP PEASANTS!
