Welcome to the Oligarchy: Citizens have ZERO impact on Government Policy Changes!!!

An amazing bit of research just came out confirming our very uneasy suspicions that it doesn't matter what the public wants, it's what money wants in D.C..

Frightening stuff. This is a must see because it finally clarifies the disconnect between the people and their government. Below I've provide a few example from today headlines.

Chris Hayes and guests discuss the end of democracy:



So when you see stories like this, now you'll know it doesn't matter anymore (I'm not suggesting giving up):

TPM: Poll: 64% Of Americans Say Obamacare Should Remain Law: Bloomberg News found that a combined 64% of Americans said they support keeping the law in place. That includes 51% who said it should be kept but may need some small changes and 13% who said it should be left alone. Only 34% said it should be repealed.

NY Times: According to a Gallup poll last year, 71 percent of adults (91 percent of Democrats, 68 percent of independents and 50 percent of Republicans) said they would vote for a law that would raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour on Election Day if they could. But, as one would expect, Republicans in Congress are chafing.

The same can be said for gay marriage and background checks for gun purchases. We really don't count anymore. Here's more on the study from Common Dreams:

A study, to appear in the Fall 2014 issue of the academic journal Perspectives on Politics, finds that the U.S. is no democracy, but instead an oligarchy, meaning profoundly corrupt, so that the answer to the study’s opening question:

"Despite the seemingly strong empirical support in previous studies for theories of majoritarian democracy, our analyses suggest that majorities of the American public actually have little influence over the policies our government adopts. Americans do enjoy many features central to democratic governance, such as regular elections, freedom of speech and association, and a widespread (if still contested) franchise. But, ..."

and then they go on to say, it's not true, and that,

"America's claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened" by the findings in this, the first-ever comprehensive scientific study of the subject, which shows that there is instead "the nearly total failure of 'median voter' and other Majoritarian Electoral Democracy theories [of America]. When the preferences of economic elites and the stands of organized interest groups are controlled for, the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy."

To put it short: The United States is no democracy, but actually an oligarchy. The authors of this historically important study are Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page, and their article is titled "Testing Theories of American Politics." 

“Economic Elite Domination theories do rather well in our analysis, even though our findings probably understate the political influence of elites. Our measure of the preferences of wealthy or elite Americans – though useful, and the best we could generate … using this imperfect measure … The real-world impact of elites upon public policy may be still greater.”

The clear finding is that the U.S. is an oligarchy, no democratic country, at all. American democracy is a sham … The U.S., in other words, is basically similar to Russia or most other dubious "electoral" "democratic" countries … “the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.” That's it, in a nutshell. 

One more thing:

 "Ordinary citizens 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."

And since this is a trend going back to the 80’s, it oddly suggests our conservative activist Supreme Court Justices are actually the ones “progressing,” leading us into our oligarchic future.