Posted on 03/26/2015 11:03:48 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Republican Senator Ted Cruz has jumped into the 2016 presidential contest. Will it hurt his chances that he doesn't think much of climate-change science, seeing as more than six in 10 Americans believe global warming is indeed happening? Will it hurt Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, a likely Republican presidential candidate, that he recently said he was "going to punt on that one" when asked for his opinion on evolution, considering that two-thirds of Americans buy into Darwin's famous theory?
Neither of them has much to worry about as far as these issues go.
Because American elections aren't really about gaining the favor of a majority of Americans. A 2014 study by two professors concluded that the U.S. is effectively an oligarchy. As the BBC put it in summing up the study: "the wealthy few move policy, while the average American has little power."
The political scientists took the long view in their research, tracking the support behind public policies between 1981 and 2002. Their conclusion: our elections and freedom of speech give us the illusion of People Power, but in fact "America's claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened."
Princeton University's Martin Gilens and Northwestern University's Benjamin Page, who have been featured on Jon Stewart's "Daily Show," found that policies with little support among "economic elites" were enacted only about "18% of the time."
"When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organized interests, they generally lose," the professors wrote. "Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the US political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do not get it."
And the situation is even worse than the research suggests. The U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision, which is outside the boundaries of Gilens and Page's research, has led to an explosion in campaign spending by corporations and wealthy individuals. The so-called "invisible primary" -- the largely behind-the-scenes battle for donors -- matters more than ever before. 2016 will certainly top $5 billion in campaign spending, more than double the spending on the 2012 election.
"Economic elites" might be popularly viewed as a Republican thing, but America's undemocratic tendencies are unquestionably bipartisan.
Democratic Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, for example, is reviled among progressives in his party for his "crude dismissal of grassroots concerns." Even though he's facing a passionate challenge from County Commissioner Chuy Garcia on his left, he's expected to win re-election this spring in the heavily Democratic city. Salon writes that "Garcia speaks to voters about their concerns rather than trying to 'maintain the value of Chicago's debt market'" -- a reference to Illinois Senator Mark Kirk saying Emanuel's re-election was essential to maintaining the Second City's standing in the financial world.
Groupthink mindguard piece. Worthless.
It is weren’t for the Gibs-Me-Dat crowd, both urban and corporate the establishment would starve to death and we would have a reasonable government..
Horse Hockey.
They took a widely circulated study which proves the obvious....that our elites in Washington don’t give a rip about what we all think....and used that to twist around into a sophisticated attack on Scott Walker and Ted Cruz.
Gotta hand it to them, it’s slick.
I think we have our winner for the 2015 Goebbels Propaganda Prize.
No, the U.S. is a Constitutional Republic. Unconstitutional federal actions resemble that of an oligarchy but that’s because these are illegal acts of the feds. Illegal and unconstitutional federal acts do not identify who we are, it just identifies what we need to fix. We are legally a Constitutional Republic.
60% of and 2/3 of Americans should be “of Americans surveyed” which is likely different.
Not oligarchy. Plutocracy.
“That is above my pay grade”
The Cruz live rent free in the leftist mind.
And he is eating their Cheetos.
Anything coming out of Oregon Live is propagandistic bullshit dreamed up by stoned faggots. Who cares?
Uh oh do away with the College again....
Ooh, look! Meme-building! Not fit to lead, check! 'Crazy', check! Not electable, check! When he wins, he won't be legitimate or have a mandate, check!
My poll shows 1 in 10. Regardless, a majority of young libs probably believe butt-sex makes babies. Doesn't make it true.
Cruz could get a large or even moderate percentage of Hispanic votes..
Trumping the black/jewish vote “in Spades”..
Cruz / Palin could offset the Hildebeast / Satan vote..
Standard lamesteram media worldview.
Standard lamesteram media worldview.
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