Recently a new study came out showing the average citizen in the United States has virtually zero impact on public policy or those who create it. In other words, the democracy and the power to shape events the average citizen thinks he or she enjoys today is, for most practical purposes gone.
It does not exist in reality anymore. It is an artifact of the past.
The study, tiled “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens,” was published in the fall 2014 edition of Perspectives on Politics.
Its authors, Martin Gilens of Princeton University and Benjamin Page of Northwestern University looked at survey data on1,779 national policy issues for which they could ascertain the preferences of four groups: average citizens, economic elites, mass-based interest groups and business-dominated interest groups.
Using peer reviewed, commonly used statistical methods they sought to determine the influence of each of these four groups on policy outcomes, including both policies that are adopted and those that are rejected.
What they found was startling. They discovered that when controlling for the power of economic elites - sometimes called the 1% - and organized interest groups, the influence of ordinary Americans weighs in on the scales of importance in America's democracy at a non-significant, near-zero level.
There is no "there" there for the common citizen anymore. The report found that America has become not unlike a tin pot dictator run state or third world country where a few rich and powerful individuals, families and business interests run things and the rest of the citizenry fights for scraps.
The authors also found out that rich individuals and business-dominated interest groups dominate the policy making process. The "mass-based" interest groups had minimal influence compared to the business-based interest groups.
The study also shreds any notion that the policy preferences of business and the rich reflect the views of everyday working people.
To the contrary, they found that such preferences often sharply angle away from each other and when they do, economic elites and business interests almost always win and ordinary working stiffs almost always lose.
THE WHY
Why is this so? Some observers point to several reasons although there are likely more.
One reason is that rich individuals and business interests have the money to hire powerful lobbyists that "shadow legislators in Washington and to fill the campaign coffers of political candidates," according to a piece in thehill.com
Ordinary citizens have no lobbyists and the people they thought they elected to represent them - in other words, to lobby on their behalf - are themselves captives of big money from wealthy individuals and corporations in order to get elected and stay in office.
And ordinary citizens are themselves partly to blame because they are apathetic and choose not to vote.
America's voter turnout rate ranks near the bottom of industrialized democracies. More than 90 million eligible Americans didn't vote in the presidential election of 2012 and only 57.5 percent of eligible voters did cast their ballots in that election.
Voter turnout in 2010 rose slightly, but 2014 turnout is a return to the declining trend. U.S. census numbers show that more than 70 million U.S. citizens of voting age are not currently even registered to vote.
Many Americans may not vote because, according to one recent study they feel the system is rigged against them and according to Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page, that is true. It is a rigged game...at present.
However the status quo becomes a stronger self-fulfilling prophecy by Americans choosing not to vote and not support candidates who will change the system by challenging the status quo and challenging the corrupting power of big money.
But even getting to the level of supporting candidates is now a difficult proposition since big money, not the involvement of citizens with small donations and their time out door belling, is what sweeps candidates into power and keeps them there.
From a recent Bill Moyers Journal report on the corrupting power of endless money in politics:
And now that Republicans have control of both the House and Senate, Moyers thinks it's going to be payback time for the rich and the corporations who invested so much money in the mid term elections.
GUARDIANS OF PRIVILEGE
From that recent Bill Moyers Journal report again:
AMERICA IS NOW HONG KONG
Larry Lessig, who teaches at Harvard Law School and made his reputation as an expert on Internet law is involved in the quest to raise funds for candidates who promise to fight the corrupting influence of money in politics.
Lessig was a guest on that recent Bill Moyers Journal TV program and made the startling observation that America - thanks to the corrupting power of money in our political process - is essentially no different than Hong Kong.
Lessig:
THE WEALTH PRIMARY: NO PLACE AT THE TABLE FOR EVERYDAY AMERICANS
Lessig says you can call the system they have in Hong Kong - and now America - a wealth primary, or you can call it the green primary but the point is, "It's a system that excludes a vast majority of people from participating equally in this critical stage in the election. That is a violation of the framers' conception of our democracy."
Zephyr Teachout, who teaches at Fordham Law School and recently ran with very little money for Governor of New York - trying to rouse the public against corruption in state government - got more than a third of the vote in the Democratic primary. She’s also the author of the book, “Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United.”
Teachout said on the Moyers program that a big part of the answer to getting America back on track for the benefit of the average citizen is going to public funding of elections and getting private money out since huge amounts of private money now has lawmakers in both political parties hooked on it.
Part of what she found when running for governor is something that the TV talking heads and pundits rarely if ever mention, namely that "There's an odd dynamic where the press will only take you seriously as a candidate once you've raised a certain amount of money. And by far, the most important intermediary is still the press. The press still makes a bigger difference than the fundraising itself."
She says public financing of campaigns is vitally important to everyday citizens taking back control of their government because:
POLLING SHOWS AMERICAN PUBLIC SUPPORTS LIMITING CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS
Despite the Supreme Court's decision to remove limits on campaign donations, the American public supports limits on spending, according to opinion surveys.
A Gallup poll done in June of last year found that 8 in ten Americans, if given the chance, would vote to limit the amount of money candidates for the Senate and the House of Representatives could raise and spend on their election campaigns.
A New York Times/CBS News poll done in January 2012 found similar majority support across all demographic groups for limits to contributions
-Sky Chronicle
The Princeton Study - Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens by Martin Gilens and Benjamin I.
80% of Americans favor limiting money in politics but just the opposite occurs. The thing that keeps you from getting your way keeps getting it's way. The Supreme Court grants personhood to corporations, declares money is equal to free speech, rules in favor of unlimited campaign contributions in the Orwellian doublespeak "Citizens United" decision and now just this year again increases campaign donation limits for individuals which for all practical purposes is more increase in wealthy peoples access to power and influence. All this after two decades of record profits for corporations resulting in stagnant wages for average citizens leaving right-wing trickle-down economics in the ditch for 90% of average Americans. In short the right-wing's economic theory was a ruse and a lie. It was a theory you were suppose to bite on and you did. But the kicker here? All this expansion of political power for the wealthy I mention in this comment occurs after the period of the Princeton Study 1982 - 2002 in which it is demonstrated that you were already bought out of any real political impact. The rich and powerful in the last decade have in effect tried to cement the deal and shut the door on your effective participation in forming public policy.
Just a little reminder now that might be relevant; the U.S. Constitutions was designed so that you would have power and influence in your government. You should be boiling but it's a good bet you will just lay back down into your stagnant wages and near worthless vote believing that somehow it's still all for your own good. The founding fathers had a different vision.
It was always one thing to suggest that we have an oligarchy/corporatocracy where the wealthy have virtually complete control over your government, it is quite another to have an exhaustive study that clearly demonstrates it.
Something to think about this Christmas vacation.
It does not exist in reality anymore. It is an artifact of the past.
The study, tiled “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens,” was published in the fall 2014 edition of Perspectives on Politics.
Its authors, Martin Gilens of Princeton University and Benjamin Page of Northwestern University looked at survey data on1,779 national policy issues for which they could ascertain the preferences of four groups: average citizens, economic elites, mass-based interest groups and business-dominated interest groups.
Using peer reviewed, commonly used statistical methods they sought to determine the influence of each of these four groups on policy outcomes, including both policies that are adopted and those that are rejected.
What they found was startling. They discovered that when controlling for the power of economic elites - sometimes called the 1% - and organized interest groups, the influence of ordinary Americans weighs in on the scales of importance in America's democracy at a non-significant, near-zero level.
There is no "there" there for the common citizen anymore. The report found that America has become not unlike a tin pot dictator run state or third world country where a few rich and powerful individuals, families and business interests run things and the rest of the citizenry fights for scraps.
The authors also found out that rich individuals and business-dominated interest groups dominate the policy making process. The "mass-based" interest groups had minimal influence compared to the business-based interest groups.
The study also shreds any notion that the policy preferences of business and the rich reflect the views of everyday working people.
To the contrary, they found that such preferences often sharply angle away from each other and when they do, economic elites and business interests almost always win and ordinary working stiffs almost always lose.
THE WHY
Why is this so? Some observers point to several reasons although there are likely more.
One reason is that rich individuals and business interests have the money to hire powerful lobbyists that "shadow legislators in Washington and to fill the campaign coffers of political candidates," according to a piece in thehill.com
Ordinary citizens have no lobbyists and the people they thought they elected to represent them - in other words, to lobby on their behalf - are themselves captives of big money from wealthy individuals and corporations in order to get elected and stay in office.
And ordinary citizens are themselves partly to blame because they are apathetic and choose not to vote.
America's voter turnout rate ranks near the bottom of industrialized democracies. More than 90 million eligible Americans didn't vote in the presidential election of 2012 and only 57.5 percent of eligible voters did cast their ballots in that election.
Voter turnout in 2010 rose slightly, but 2014 turnout is a return to the declining trend. U.S. census numbers show that more than 70 million U.S. citizens of voting age are not currently even registered to vote.
Many Americans may not vote because, according to one recent study they feel the system is rigged against them and according to Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page, that is true. It is a rigged game...at present.
However the status quo becomes a stronger self-fulfilling prophecy by Americans choosing not to vote and not support candidates who will change the system by challenging the status quo and challenging the corrupting power of big money.
But even getting to the level of supporting candidates is now a difficult proposition since big money, not the involvement of citizens with small donations and their time out door belling, is what sweeps candidates into power and keeps them there.
From a recent Bill Moyers Journal report on the corrupting power of endless money in politics:
"Today, gifts to politicians that were once called graft or bribes are called contributions. And the Supreme Court has ruled that powerful corporations and rich individuals can give just about anything they want to politicians who do their bidding, and it’s not considered corruption.
The watchdog Sunlight Foundation reports that from 2007 to 2012, two hundred corporations spent almost $6 billion for lobbying and campaign contributions, and received more than $4 trillion -- that's $4 trillion -- in government contracts and other forms of assistance."
And now that Republicans have control of both the House and Senate, Moyers thinks it's going to be payback time for the rich and the corporations who invested so much money in the mid term elections.
GUARDIANS OF PRIVILEGE
From that recent Bill Moyers Journal report again:
"Once upon a time the GOP stood for Grand Old Party; now it stands for Guardians of Privilege, and this is payback time for everything from fracking to getting the big banks off the hook; from doing away with the minimum wage and coddling off-shore corporate tax avoiders to privatizing Medicare and Social Security; to gutting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Environmental Protection Agency. And that’s just for starters.
Democrats, meanwhile, are so compromised by their own addiction to big money they have forgotten their history as champions of the working stiff, the little folks down there at the bottom.
And that’s why the great problems facing everyday people in America are not being seriously addressed by a political class afraid to offend the people who write the checks – the corporations and the rich."
AMERICA IS NOW HONG KONG
Larry Lessig, who teaches at Harvard Law School and made his reputation as an expert on Internet law is involved in the quest to raise funds for candidates who promise to fight the corrupting influence of money in politics.
Lessig was a guest on that recent Bill Moyers Journal TV program and made the startling observation that America - thanks to the corrupting power of money in our political process - is essentially no different than Hong Kong.
Lessig:
"So, you know, what were they protesting about in Hong Kong? They were protesting a system, a two-stage democracy wherein the first stage, a tiny, tiny group will select the candidates who the rest of Hong Kong get to vote for. A tiny group, .024 percent of that population. Well, that is our democracy too. Because we've got a system where a tiny, tiny fraction of America picks the candidates who get to run by funding their campaigns. The relevant funders of campaigns are no more than the number of people proportionately that were picking the candidates in Hong Kong."
THE WEALTH PRIMARY: NO PLACE AT THE TABLE FOR EVERYDAY AMERICANS
Lessig says you can call the system they have in Hong Kong - and now America - a wealth primary, or you can call it the green primary but the point is, "It's a system that excludes a vast majority of people from participating equally in this critical stage in the election. That is a violation of the framers' conception of our democracy."
Zephyr Teachout, who teaches at Fordham Law School and recently ran with very little money for Governor of New York - trying to rouse the public against corruption in state government - got more than a third of the vote in the Democratic primary. She’s also the author of the book, “Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United.”
Teachout said on the Moyers program that a big part of the answer to getting America back on track for the benefit of the average citizen is going to public funding of elections and getting private money out since huge amounts of private money now has lawmakers in both political parties hooked on it.
Part of what she found when running for governor is something that the TV talking heads and pundits rarely if ever mention, namely that "There's an odd dynamic where the press will only take you seriously as a candidate once you've raised a certain amount of money. And by far, the most important intermediary is still the press. The press still makes a bigger difference than the fundraising itself."
She says public financing of campaigns is vitally important to everyday citizens taking back control of their government because:
"One of the things that public financing does is it allows and gives permission in some ways for media to actually cover a contest of ideas, instead of doing what they do nowadays. I talked to journalists who say, I can't cover you because you have so little money. But if you have a public financing system, they can at least cover the fight. And I think that's so important. I mean, I think—I’d certainly agree with you on Hong Kong and the wealth primary and how people feel the wealth primary. They feel like they're not getting a choice between people who represent them. They're getting a choice between people who represent donors."
POLLING SHOWS AMERICAN PUBLIC SUPPORTS LIMITING CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS
Despite the Supreme Court's decision to remove limits on campaign donations, the American public supports limits on spending, according to opinion surveys.
A Gallup poll done in June of last year found that 8 in ten Americans, if given the chance, would vote to limit the amount of money candidates for the Senate and the House of Representatives could raise and spend on their election campaigns.
A New York Times/CBS News poll done in January 2012 found similar majority support across all demographic groups for limits to contributions
-Sky Chronicle
The Princeton Study - Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens by Martin Gilens and Benjamin I.
80% of Americans favor limiting money in politics but just the opposite occurs. The thing that keeps you from getting your way keeps getting it's way. The Supreme Court grants personhood to corporations, declares money is equal to free speech, rules in favor of unlimited campaign contributions in the Orwellian doublespeak "Citizens United" decision and now just this year again increases campaign donation limits for individuals which for all practical purposes is more increase in wealthy peoples access to power and influence. All this after two decades of record profits for corporations resulting in stagnant wages for average citizens leaving right-wing trickle-down economics in the ditch for 90% of average Americans. In short the right-wing's economic theory was a ruse and a lie. It was a theory you were suppose to bite on and you did. But the kicker here? All this expansion of political power for the wealthy I mention in this comment occurs after the period of the Princeton Study 1982 - 2002 in which it is demonstrated that you were already bought out of any real political impact. The rich and powerful in the last decade have in effect tried to cement the deal and shut the door on your effective participation in forming public policy.
Just a little reminder now that might be relevant; the U.S. Constitutions was designed so that you would have power and influence in your government. You should be boiling but it's a good bet you will just lay back down into your stagnant wages and near worthless vote believing that somehow it's still all for your own good. The founding fathers had a different vision.
It was always one thing to suggest that we have an oligarchy/corporatocracy where the wealthy have virtually complete control over your government, it is quite another to have an exhaustive study that clearly demonstrates it.
The U.S. Constitution was designed so that you would have power and influence in your government.
Something to think about this Christmas vacation.
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