Government of the rich, by the rich, for the rich

Hello ATS,

Reading this article only reconfirms my understanding of our representatives; well most of them anyway. There seems to be a misunderstanding of who the government is actually working for in mainstream America. In mainstream America there is this idea that our representatives are looking out for everyone in their respective districts and states when that isn't the case. We are led to believe that our representatives in DC have the American people in mind when it is the complete opposite.

www.economist.com Please follow the link to read the article in its entirety.

Matt Yglesias offers a different view:

I would say the most obvious mechanism here is socialization. The president, the senior White House staff, the cabinet secretaries, the senators, the House members, the senior congressional staff, and the lobbyists, association heads, business executives, governors, mayors, foreign officials, and media celebrities who they interact with are all personally pretty high income...

What’s more, political elites tend to have college roommates, siblings, in-laws, etc. who are also prosperous. Obviously the fact that rich people have money to spend on politics doesn’t hurt either. But I would never underestimate the human desire to believe that one is doing the right thing, and thus the importance of socialization to determining bias.

Another snippet:

In other words, rich Democrats and rich Republicans elect politicians with a diverse range of views, but all of which ultimately respond to the policy preferences of the rich. To put this slightly differently, we all know rich people on the left side of the political spectrum who care passionately about the poor and have no problem supporting policies that aren't necessarily in their own direct interest. These people exist. But the Democrats who end up in Congress tend not to be these people; they're the kind of people who respond to the preferences of the rich. Who knows what their motivations for doing so are; perhaps they view concessions to rich priorities as necessary in order to survive in Washington to fight for other priorities some other day. And it should be noted that the priorities of middle and low income voters are occasionally heard and addressed.

Although the American people are heard from time to time, our policies are dictated by the rich (Elites) who finance, and support their election campaigns. For example the bailout of wall street where billions of our tax dollars went to the elites to keep them afloat while the lower and middle class were left out to dry and fend for themselves in the end. This is also not limited to democrats either.

In the end, the whole point of this thread is that MONEY dictates policy in DC. If you can buy their support with donations and special interest groups then you can control that policy.

/Discuss!

It’s quite easy to believe that the one thing we, the common people, work our whole lives to get more of is the focal point of those who already have it. To be clear, I’m not saying they don’t put effort forth in protecting their investments. Nor am I saying it holds no importance to them. What I am saying is that much more time and resource is spent limiting the common mans resources than building more for those who already have it. Following the dollar has its merit. But that’s not what it’s all about.

What it’s all about is power, control, and continual conditioning of the masses. The completely false left vs right paradigm is nothing more than so many other illusions of choice in our society. The illusion of choice, and the creation of false paradigms and straw men is very powerful in a society that is structured to deceive, and to steal the most important resource any man or woman has. Time.

Our modern political structure is nothing more than a perpetual dialectical process used to manipulate the masses. It’s a stage play. Hollyweird and DC are synonymous with one another in more ways than one. This dialectical process, in the modern sense is nothing more than a problem – reaction – solution type scenario played in an endless loop ad infinitum. But the layers to it are deep and thick.

Create a problem, react to the problem, and render a solution that “reaches across the aisle”, and pulls the false left – right together. The trick is, to make each “resolution” create a new problem that starts the formula all over again. Either in the category you just “resolved”, or in another, perpetually.

In this way, you keep the people divided. And you keep them busy with the charade. Left vs right. Fox vs CNN, “democracy” vs socialism vs communism vs constitutional republic, etc.

In the end, it’s not about what we, the common people, want at all. It’s about where they’re taking us. Because everything they do is designed to take us another step in the direction they want us to go. And usually by consent of the masses. This is how the modern dialectical process works. It’s not exactly what Plato or Hegel had in mind. But then again, it’s not that far off either.

Reading this makes me sick. I guess it might be just because I am a real American born and raised, but seeing people talk trash about the people who work hardest to maintain our freedoms rally bugs me. Speaking as a Patriot the last thing I want is for people who couldnt even get decent jobs and lead respectable lives to be in charge of the government. Guess I am old fashioned that way and believe in capitalism and democracy where the people who make the right decisions in life are at the top while the rest of the people who treat life as something cheap and dont accept Jesus into their hearts just throw their lives away. Look at the democrats for example they exist only to destroy our country and act as criminals like in Wisconsin having licensed doctors pass out excuse notes for workers to skip going to work so they can destroy our nations economy. Lets hope the police round up tehse communist sympathizers and charge them for fraud while revoking every doctors license who dared defy the red white and blue by corrupting the morals of our people even more than they already are. Rich people have money because they are gifted and smart and that is how they make it to the top. While the people on the bottom that never lift a finger to build up our great country simply beg for breadcrumbs instead of getting rich the old fashioned way through hard respectable work such as being an attorney or a doctor. The last thing I want is some junkie hopped up on sugar with chicken wing sauce on his face and a football jersey on deciding anything for me or my family. The thought of thee people has and still does disgust me how they can turn their backs on god and on america and just sit around watching TV and then blame the world for their problems because their too lazy to get off the couch. That or they get injured because they are careless and put themself ina dangerous situation then expect the rest of us to bail them out. I have one word for that attitude and its godless communism. Once the true americans reclaim the house and senate we can finaly do away with social security since its an archaic and unamerican system of welfare. If you cant provide for yourself then the rest of us cant be expected to do it for you.