US is an Oligarchy

[Rommie]

I know, cue the "I already knew that" comments, but I'm always a touch impressed when they have actual quantifiable data in a study showing a statement like that. Makes arguing easier later with the oligarchs.

link

[Swift]

Yeah, completely unsurprising, but depressing none the less.

[Sigma_Orionis]

I bet that your old man is going to say that the study is biased and paid by George Soros or something....

[SciFi Chick]

Researchers concluded that U.S. government policies rarely align with the preferences of the majority of Americans, but do favour special interests and lobbying organizations: "When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the US political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favour policy change, they generally do not get it."

Scientific proof that voting isn't making a damn bit of difference.

[Cyborg Girl]

It's not so much that things have gotten worse, IMO, as that they started out really bad and haven't improved much. Go back as far as you want, you'll never find the "good old days", only varying degrees of oppression against varying groups of people.

Of course the world's a dystopia. It always has been. That doesn't mean future generations can just fuck off and die.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Oligarchy? yes

Dystopia? not yet.

[Rommie]

To be clear, I think we are very far from a dystopia. I just really hope the US is still capable of changing the course it is currently on, because there are a lot of things my country still does well and has promise for, but it's kinda crazy to sit on the sidelines and watch!

[SciFi Chick]

To be clear, I think we are very far from a dystopia. I just really hope the US is still capable of changing the course it is currently on, because there are a lot of things my country still does well and has promise for, but it's kinda crazy to sit on the sidelines and watch!

I'm not suggesting sitting on the sidelines and watching, but just voting for your local reps and Congress and the President, and then making your wishes known, without money, doesn't work. That article has demonstrated as much, and it's what FZ and I have been saying for some time.

[FZR1KG]

If I was a real pessimist (realist), I would say add the following:

The best way to control the people is to let them think they are free.
That if they don't achieve something in life it's their own damned fault.
That everyone can be anything they want to be.
That their vote counts.
That they can get out of the money cycle.

The best way to stop them from discovering where they really stand is to make controversy to distract them.
People so hung up on things like gay marriage when there are literally tens of thousands dying each year due to various things is an example.
Yes I agree with gay marriage but I now just see that issue along with a lot of other issues as distractions and nothing more deliberately hyped by the media to have people discussing it while totally missing the things they should be concerned about.

Two parties playing good cop and bad cop with the public. We have the Democrats who seem genuinely concerned with your freedoms and you but naturally they are so soft that a real scum can take advantage of their kindness. Then we have the Republican's who we all just "know" are good at heart but so screwed up and have some good ideas mixed with bad ones and know where the criminals are and "just need to be released" from the law for a little so they can fix the problems once and for all and the world will be a better place.

This isn't politics, it's a fucking reality TV show like Candid camera.
You aren't the audience, the 1-10% are.
You are the entertainment.
But, no one will ever come out at the end to give you a hug and laugh about what they just subjected you through.

The reason for that is because there is no conspiracy to do this. This is just a natural consequence of the system of politics here.
Now companies can buy as many candidates as they want, companies are people, companies have more rights than married couples.
All these things are just cause and effect.

It doesn't take a genius to see that given a perfectly level playing field (which it never actually was) then letting the people with money offer contributions (bribes) to the "fair and unbiased" government that it will lead to an unfair and biased government in favour or those with the money and get worse with time. Yet here we are. People still arguing that it's a good thing and the best court that money can buy takes off the restraints imposed to protect the people one step at a time.

The one thing I can see as deliberate is the 2nd Amendment. You will all notice that the most radical of the 2nd campaigners are all for the party that gives them guns while supporting the rich's right to earn more at the expense of the low life scum at the bottom what are lazy and don't want to work.

While the old saying is that the first step in control of the people is to disarm them, there has been a shift. The first step is to let the radicals who agree with you be your hench men by their own free choice. They don't even get paid for the privilege. "Free" however is a subjective term. Freely manipulated is more appropriate.


I however am not a pessimist. So I'm leaving here on a vacation to other lands and watch from afar the TV show called America and hope and cheer that someone will be able to show the people where they sit on the "level" playing field.

[SciFiFisher]

For quite a few years there has been a discontent with "business as usual" in politics and public policy. So far it has only resulted in the Mad Hatter Tea Party getting elected for the most part.

I think groups like Occupy and others are harbingers of what may happen. People may spontaneously reverse the course by turning out in enough force to effect real change.

[SciFi Chick]

I think groups like Occupy and others are harbingers of what may happen. People may spontaneously reverse the course by turning out in enough force to effect real change.

I think that's the only hope.

[FZR1KG]

Like I mentioned a while ago, people know something is wrong with the system but don't know what.
Occupy Wall Street should have been a wake up call to those in power but it was instead mocked and ignored.
It will get pushed to breaking point and then it will be too late because of the arrogance of your politicians and those who pull the strings.
They will start the spin doctoring but no one will care. The public will want blood.

[brite]

People think that OWS is gone... but it’s not. It’s working quietly in the background, doing things that are phenomenal, from trying to save foreclosed homes to paying off medical bills and student loans for pennies on the dollar...

People figured that if they ignored and ridiculed them that they would go away... so much for that idea....

[Sigma_Orionis]

It made the BBC

And in a shocking coincidence it said:

This is not news, you say.

I'm pretty used to living in an Oligarchy, it has been like that around here since at least 1830. Chavez & Co with all their "high minded left-wing" bullshit talk, isolated most of the old one, and set up a new one (we call it the Boligarchs: portmanteau of Bolivar and Oligarchs, see how ingenious we are? too bad we can't do anything useful).

What I find amazing, is that while I am used to see the people at the bottom of the ladder support oligarchies, at least down here (well, till before the government really screwed the pooch with the economy) it bribed them with subsidies and stuff (Bread and Circuses anyone?). In the US, the Oligarchs do squat for their supporters in the boonies and yet still get supported (no Bread, all Circus). I guess we can call it a perversion of the so-called "American Dream".

[FZR1KG]

The greatest trick the devil pulled was to convince the masses that the myth of the self made man is true and still exists today.

[The Supreme Canuck]

Sigma: Perversion? Operating as intended.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Well, it sure didn't operate correctly between 1945 and 1975 at least.

[Sigma_Orionis]

That Pinko Commie Godless Liberal Krugman has something to say about this at a spot with Bill Moyers (not regarding the study, but regarding a book written by French Economist Thomas Piketty that treats something very similar).