Study: Congress literally doesn’t care what you think

A new study conducted by Princeton has analyzed and sifted through years of data on how the political process and laws actually being passed, are virtually not in line with what the public wants, but favors the billionaire class.

Source

Their study took data from nearly 2000 public opinion surveys and compared it to the policies that ended up becoming law. In other words, they compared what the public wanted to what the government actually did. What they found was extremely unsettling: The opinions of 90% of Americans has essentially no impact at all.

That's pretty astounding. I guess this only solidifies what we already know about the political process; it's broken and corrupt, and i'm not sure if it can be remedied; however, that's why I'm leaning towards Bernie Sanders this election.

Taxation without representation...Way back when this started a revolution now it's like the majority don't care. Sad.

Remember, congress works for the people -- and corporations are now people!

We can't restrict donations by corporations though, as that would be infringing upon their freedom of speech (because they're people!).

I do find it a bit unfair, as the system is "pay to play" and the average person's voice ($) isn't nearly as powerful as a multi-billion dollar corporation's voice ($$$$$).

a reply to: Daedal

Their actions are obvious enough they don't care about what the people think, and that's why their popularity is at an all time low, but they don't care.

This is why voting for these liars is a waste of time. We need new blood! Nonpartisan blood!

a reply to: Daedal

Just vote man...and everything will be ok

originally posted by: MarioOnTheFly
a reply to: Daedal

Just vote man...and everything will be ok

That's the plan...

One percent owns the money, one percent owns the vote.

It's all about equality, man.

I can see this ending badly for these corporations that fancy themselves "people."
As in CEO's swinging from ropes bad.
I may be wrong. Only time will tell.

a reply to: PeachesNCream

Sadly people keep voting in the same people in, on both sides of course.

And as mystic said, corps are people and that is who they represent .

Call me nieve but, I thought representatives were supposed to represente their own constitutes? Doesn't that mean each individual representatives constitutes need their own survey?

originally posted by: Iamthatbish
Call me nieve but, I thought representatives were supposed to represente their own constitutes? Doesn't that mean each individual representatives constitutes need their own survey?

Sure, they're supposed to -- but campaigns cost money. If you want to keep your job in politics, you need a lot of money for TV ads, posts, signs, travel...

Many times the corporations that provide donations have agendas in a representative's district. Some of these big corporations may want to open a new factory, or have restrictions on their emissions lifted.

Also, when your political career is over you're going to still need a job. If you're a smart representative, you've buddied up to your donors and can secure yourself a sweet "consulting" gig after you're out of office.

Well that's not surprising what so ever. We need a new genera of Government. Communism and Democracy clearly do not work.

People ought to watch "House of Cards" on Netflix. It's not quite that full of backstabbing drama -- but the general themes are definitely real. The people I've met that work in DC love that show and ranted and raved about it.

originally posted by: Daedal
A new study conducted by Princeton has analyzed and sifted through years of data on how the political process and laws actually being passed, are virtually not in line with what the public wants, but favors the billionaire class.

Source

Their study took data from nearly 2000 public opinion surveys and compared it to the policies that ended up becoming law. In other words, they compared what the public wanted to what the government actually did. What they found was extremely unsettling: The opinions of 90% of Americans has essentially no impact at all.

That's pretty astounding. I guess this only solidifies what we already know about the political process; it's broken and corrupt, and i'm not sure if it can be remedied; however, that's why I'm leaning towards Bernie Sanders this election.

You can vote Bernie Sanders. He might even be elected. The day he takes off ice he will learn he isn't in charge.

originally posted by: Daedal
A new study conducted by Princeton has analyzed and sifted through years of data on how the political process and laws actually being passed, are virtually not in line with what the public wants, but favors the billionaire class.

Source

Their study took data from nearly 2000 public opinion surveys and compared it to the policies that ended up becoming law. In other words, they compared what the public wanted to what the government actually did. What they found was extremely unsettling: The opinions of 90% of Americans has essentially no impact at all.

That's pretty astounding. I guess this only solidifies what we already know about the political process; it's broken and corrupt, and i'm not sure if it can be remedied; however, that's why I'm leaning towards Bernie Sanders this election.

Sounds like another attempt to insert my spiel. The salaries of congress are essentially the peoples lobbying power. Corporations are spending more money on the politicians than we are which means it's their policies that get put into place. Since we can't fix campaign finance without a literal act of God the next best solution is to increase our lobbying influence with congress. That means paying them more money. $50 on your annual tax bill from every tax paying citizen in the US would increase their pay from 200k to 20 million. That means that if a vote in congress has 19 swing voters it takes 10 of them being bought (200 million) to vote against the people giving them those salaries. How many corporations can spend 200 million on a single vote? If they can, we can spend another $50 and now the corporation has to spend $400 million. Thanks to numbers, a large number of us can out spend and thus out influence a small number of them.

We have the power to price lobbying out of the hands of corporations and if we do that, we'll easily get our money back in improved legislation such as sane spending bills, better tax systems, and all the rest.

a reply to: Daedal

Can you hear that? Shh! .... Listen!

...

That is what it sounds like, when I am totally unsurprised.

The reality is that the only key differences between western democracies, and dictatorships, are that democratic governments do not generally tend to incarcerate or kill as many of their own citizens, and that in a democracy one at least has the honour of being fooled into thinking that ones opinion matters.

In reality however, nothing could be further from the truth. Nations are run for the benefit of the most powerful, and the most wealthy citizens within that nation, and when companies can be people, can be considered as citizens, that forces the relevance of street level opinion into total obscurity.

a reply to: Daedal

It's nice to know this study confirmed what every hard working American already knew. Not only do they cater to billionaires and the elite, they use the system for their own selfish money grabbing reasons. Political representatives are no long temporary positions but 20-30 year careers. They won't vote for term limits and they won't put it on the ballot because they know their salaries and benefits are beyond what they can get in the private sector.

originally posted by: Ghost147
Well that's not surprising what so ever. We need a new genera of Government. Communism and Democracy clearly do not work.

I disagree. Representative Democracy works fantastically. It's the economic systems that have failed us. Communism failed. Capitalism failed. Socialism failed.

I won't discuss it further in this thread, but here's something I wrote on economic systems a while back. Just some food for thought.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: Daedal



A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed................it is time the American people arose from their slumber and recognised that there is a clear interpretation that the 2nd amendment extends to the security of a free nation - irrespective of what lying lawyers would have you believe otherwise.

Or you can wait to download the next episode of Vikings // GoT, ensure your facebook status is up-to-date and make it to the 50%-off sale at the mall next week and emulate the hollywood stars.

Your choice.