Princeton Study: U.S. No Longer An Actual Democracy

[Derideo_Te]

Certainly the Dems colluded but it was the Republican agenda that enriched the 1% while impoverishing and disenfranchising the middle class.

Bullshit. In 1932 2% of the population controlled 76% of this nations wealth. Democrats took over both houses of Congress, and held them for 40 continuous years. They also held the presidency for a significant amount of that time as well. The net result of 40 years of ABSOLUTE Democrat control was 1% controls 90% now.

So, you tell me, who were the Dems working for? Because it clearly wasn't the middle class.

Lies, damn lies and statistics.

The Dems of that period are the Republicans of today.

Facts, facts, and more facts. FDR would have been lauded just as much today as he was back then. Your argument falls flat on its face.

You have not refuted the facts in the OP.

What facts were those?

The ones in the OP, of course.

 

[BlindBoo]

How can we no longer be what we never were?

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Even since FDR, Dems have labored under the intentional misinformation that we're a "Democracy"

We're a Republic

 

[RKMBrown]

Princeton Study U.S. No Longer An Actual Democracy

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."

As one illustration, Gilens and Page compare the political preferences of Americans at the 50th income percentile to preferences of Americans at the 90th percentile as well as major lobbying or business groups. They find that the government—whether Republican or Democratic—more often follows the preferences of the latter group rather than the first.

The researches note that this is not a new development caused by, say, recent Supreme Court decisions allowing more money in politics, such as Citizens United or this month's ruling onMcCutcheon v. FEC. As the data stretching back to the 1980s suggests, this has been a long term trend, and is therefore harder for most people to perceive, let alone reverse.

"Ordinary citizens," they write, "might often be observed to 'win' (that is, to get their preferred policy outcomes) even if they had no independent effect whatsoever on policy making, if elites (with whom they often agree) actually prevail."​

The Republican policies of the last 3 decades for turning America into an Oligarchy have achieved their goal of stripping the voters of their democratic right to a government OF the people and FOR the people.

The government is now a fully owned subsidiary of the 1%.

And yet the Libertarians and the TP'ers are still unhappy.

Go figure!

The report says democrats and republicans, and you turn that around to "republican policies." What a fucking moron you are.

 

[hazlnut]

Without corporations a bunch of you people would be fighting in the streets over a scrap of bread.

You mean laborers in Asia and South America.

Silly, American corps don't hire Americans. They make robots and outsource work.

 

[NoTeaPartyPleez]

Princeton Study U.S. No Longer An Actual Democracy

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."

As one illustration, Gilens and Page compare the political preferences of Americans at the 50th income percentile to preferences of Americans at the 90th percentile as well as major lobbying or business groups. They find that the government—whether Republican or Democratic—more often follows the preferences of the latter group rather than the first.

The researches note that this is not a new development caused by, say, recent Supreme Court decisions allowing more money in politics, such as Citizens United or this month's ruling onMcCutcheon v. FEC. As the data stretching back to the 1980s suggests, this has been a long term trend, and is therefore harder for most people to perceive, let alone reverse.

"Ordinary citizens," they write, "might often be observed to 'win' (that is, to get their preferred policy outcomes) even if they had no independent effect whatsoever on policy making, if elites (with whom they often agree) actually prevail."​

The Republican policies of the last 3 decades for turning America into an Oligarchy have achieved their goal of stripping the voters of their democratic right to a government OF the people and FOR the people.

The government is now a fully owned subsidiary of the 1%.

And yet the Libertarians and the TP'ers are still unhappy.

Go figure!

Sad, but I didn't need Princeton to tell me this......I realized it when Romney professed that corporations were people.

Citizens United was the death knell.

I will never forget the moment in Obama's 2010 SOTU speech when he looked directly at Scalia with his remarks and Scalia mouthed "..not true".
Such a whore for Wall Street, that Scalia little boy is.

44 - Alito s State of the Union moment

 

[Avorysuds]

Without corporations a bunch of you people would be fighting in the streets over a scrap of bread.

This nation survived quite nicely with corporations until St Reagan decided to cripple the middle class and hand over power to the 1% instead.

The right will continue to fight for the rights of 1% until we really are fighting over scraps of bread. Then, they'll blame President Obama and/or the Dems.

Obama is a 1%
Hillary is a 1%
Jon Stewart is a 1%
All the Dems in the House and Senate are 1%

I agree, Republicans fight for the rich as the article suggests... But not without 100% help from Democrats. In the last 23 years we have had a sitting Democrat President for 15 years. Wonder why things got so bad.....

 

[Avorysuds]

Princeton Study U.S. No Longer An Actual Democracy

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."

As one illustration, Gilens and Page compare the political preferences of Americans at the 50th income percentile to preferences of Americans at the 90th percentile as well as major lobbying or business groups. They find that the government—whether Republican or Democratic—more often follows the preferences of the latter group rather than the first.

The researches note that this is not a new development caused by, say, recent Supreme Court decisions allowing more money in politics, such as Citizens United or this month's ruling onMcCutcheon v. FEC. As the data stretching back to the 1980s suggests, this has been a long term trend, and is therefore harder for most people to perceive, let alone reverse.

"Ordinary citizens," they write, "might often be observed to 'win' (that is, to get their preferred policy outcomes) even if they had no independent effect whatsoever on policy making, if elites (with whom they often agree) actually prevail."​

The Republican policies of the last 3 decades for turning America into an Oligarchy have achieved their goal of stripping the voters of their democratic right to a government OF the people and FOR the people.

The government is now a fully owned subsidiary of the 1%.

And yet the Libertarians and the TP'ers are still unhappy.

Go figure!

Sad, but I didn't need Princeton to tell me this......I realized it when Romney professed that corporations were people.

Citizens United was the death knell.

I will never forget the moment in Obama's 2010 SOTU speech when he looked directly at Scalia with his remarks and Scalia mouthed "..not true".
Such a whore for Wall Street, that Scalia little boy is.

44 - Alito s State of the Union moment

Obama literally gave wall street trillions... It's almost unbelievable that you can manage to post anything on the internet.

 

[RKMBrown]

Princeton Study U.S. No Longer An Actual Democracy

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."

As one illustration, Gilens and Page compare the political preferences of Americans at the 50th income percentile to preferences of Americans at the 90th percentile as well as major lobbying or business groups. They find that the government—whether Republican or Democratic—more often follows the preferences of the latter group rather than the first.

The researches note that this is not a new development caused by, say, recent Supreme Court decisions allowing more money in politics, such as Citizens United or this month's ruling onMcCutcheon v. FEC. As the data stretching back to the 1980s suggests, this has been a long term trend, and is therefore harder for most people to perceive, let alone reverse.

"Ordinary citizens," they write, "might often be observed to 'win' (that is, to get their preferred policy outcomes) even if they had no independent effect whatsoever on policy making, if elites (with whom they often agree) actually prevail."​

The Republican policies of the last 3 decades for turning America into an Oligarchy have achieved their goal of stripping the voters of their democratic right to a government OF the people and FOR the people.

The government is now a fully owned subsidiary of the 1%.

And yet the Libertarians and the TP'ers are still unhappy.

Go figure!

Sad, but I didn't need Princeton to tell me this......I realized it when Romney professed that corporations were people.

Citizens United was the death knell.

I will never forget the moment in Obama's 2010 SOTU speech when he looked directly at Scalia with his remarks and Scalia mouthed "..not true".
Such a whore for Wall Street, that Scalia little boy is.

44 - Alito s State of the Union moment

You are a fucking moron too.

 

[Derideo_Te]

In the last 23 years we have had a sitting Democrat President for 15 years. Wonder why things got so bad.....

In the last 33 years we have had a sitting Republican President for 20 of those years. The period cited by the OP was 1981 to 2002. Republicans controlled the Whitehouse for 14 of those 21 years.

 

[Derideo_Te]

Princeton Study U.S. No Longer An Actual Democracy

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."

As one illustration, Gilens and Page compare the political preferences of Americans at the 50th income percentile to preferences of Americans at the 90th percentile as well as major lobbying or business groups. They find that the government—whether Republican or Democratic—more often follows the preferences of the latter group rather than the first.

The researches note that this is not a new development caused by, say, recent Supreme Court decisions allowing more money in politics, such as Citizens United or this month's ruling onMcCutcheon v. FEC. As the data stretching back to the 1980s suggests, this has been a long term trend, and is therefore harder for most people to perceive, let alone reverse.

"Ordinary citizens," they write, "might often be observed to 'win' (that is, to get their preferred policy outcomes) even if they had no independent effect whatsoever on policy making, if elites (with whom they often agree) actually prevail."​

The Republican policies of the last 3 decades for turning America into an Oligarchy have achieved their goal of stripping the voters of their democratic right to a government OF the people and FOR the people.

The government is now a fully owned subsidiary of the 1%.

And yet the Libertarians and the TP'ers are still unhappy.

Go figure!

Sad, but I didn't need Princeton to tell me this......I realized it when Romney professed that corporations were people.

Citizens United was the death knell.

I will never forget the moment in Obama's 2010 SOTU speech when he looked directly at Scalia with his remarks and Scalia mouthed "..not true".
Such a whore for Wall Street, that Scalia little boy is.

44 - Alito s State of the Union moment

You are a fucking moron too.

Ironic!

 

[RKMBrown]

Princeton Study U.S. No Longer An Actual Democracy

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."

As one illustration, Gilens and Page compare the political preferences of Americans at the 50th income percentile to preferences of Americans at the 90th percentile as well as major lobbying or business groups. They find that the government—whether Republican or Democratic—more often follows the preferences of the latter group rather than the first.

The researches note that this is not a new development caused by, say, recent Supreme Court decisions allowing more money in politics, such as Citizens United or this month's ruling onMcCutcheon v. FEC. As the data stretching back to the 1980s suggests, this has been a long term trend, and is therefore harder for most people to perceive, let alone reverse.

"Ordinary citizens," they write, "might often be observed to 'win' (that is, to get their preferred policy outcomes) even if they had no independent effect whatsoever on policy making, if elites (with whom they often agree) actually prevail."​

The Republican policies of the last 3 decades for turning America into an Oligarchy have achieved their goal of stripping the voters of their democratic right to a government OF the people and FOR the people.

The government is now a fully owned subsidiary of the 1%.

And yet the Libertarians and the TP'ers are still unhappy.

Go figure!

Sad, but I didn't need Princeton to tell me this......I realized it when Romney professed that corporations were people.

Citizens United was the death knell.

I will never forget the moment in Obama's 2010 SOTU speech when he looked directly at Scalia with his remarks and Scalia mouthed "..not true".
Such a whore for Wall Street, that Scalia little boy is.

44 - Alito s State of the Union moment

You are a fucking moron too.

Ironic!

Hardly. More like, typical for democrats.

 

[Votto]

The Republicrats have sold their souls to the corporate elite. Funny how the progs who whine and snivel about the Repubs can't see it in their own party. Here's a clue for you dimwits, it's BOTH PARTIES DOING IT!

Wake the hell up!

Certainly the Dems colluded but it was the Republican agenda that enriched the 1% while impoverishing and disenfranchising the middle class.

Ok kiddo let's blame it all on the Repubes! Yippee, now let's go out and vote for Hillary?

Mwhahahahaha!!

 

[Avorysuds]

In the last 23 years we have had a sitting Democrat President for 15 years. Wonder why things got so bad.....

In the last 33 years we have had a sitting Republican President for 20 of those years. The period cited by the OP was 1981 to 2002. Republicans controlled the Whitehouse for 14 of those 21 years.

So Democrats are only 39% of the problem... Is that what you're saying? Because I just don't buy that all Republicans are evil and Democrats are just good. Also as I said, Dems have owned this mess for the last 20 years... So unless you now want to claim everything is fixed you would have to admit Dems are the problem too....

What will it be, will you troll out like a hack or be honest?

 

[BluesLegend]

Without corporations a bunch of you people would be fighting in the streets over a scrap of bread.

You mean laborers in Asia and South America.

Silly, American corps don't hire Americans. They make robots and outsource work.

Ah...you are clueless.

 

[Derideo_Te]

Also as I said, Dems have owned this mess for the last 20 years

Your math is wrong! No point in wasting time trying educate someone who can't even do simple arithmetic.

 

[Mertex]

You are a fucking moron too.

Ironic!

Hardly. More like, typical for democrats.

Typical uninformed and unable to debate conservative.....all RKMB can do is name-call......now that's moronic.

 

[initforme]

Is there anyone who can say that we aren't a plutocracy? The 1 percent have us right where they want us... this is unarguable and irrefutable. Trickle down is a complete sham.