I have lately been deluged with requests for donations from various groups. These groups, various organizations of the Democratic Party and several devoted to specific causes, including gun control, veterans, the environment, immigrants and the similarly oriented, badger me constantly.
They ask for a signature on a petition. Then comes the beg. The majority leader of the House of Orange is bringing suit against the president for doing what the Republicans wanted him to do anyway. The cost is to be added to the deficit by those who claim nothing should be added to the deficit.
Some of these requests I get are for donations to counter this nonsensical suit. Can’t the executive similarly add to the deficit? Since, as a taxpayer, I’m covering both parties, why do I need to provide more of my meager resources?
Were I to honor every plea with a $5 donation, my Social Security check would need to stretch much further. I sign most of the petitions but ignore the requests for money. Why? Because these petitions are a scam and extend the harm, both political and psychological, the focus on money does. The unconscionable Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court of Wall Street could prove a fatal wound to our body politic but I wish to address another problem with this obsession.
If too much money in politics is the problem, do you cure it with more money? You’re playing their game; a game we have already lost. Firefighters prefer to fight fires with water. Is that hint too subtle or vague?
Proof
Though they tell us, ad infinitum, ad nauseam, that this is a majority rule, representative democracy, they lie.
Back in April a preliminary study appeared. The full study will come out later this year. It is from Northwestern’s Benjamin I. Page and Princeton’s Martin Gilems [left to right, with Jon Stewart in photo]. The preliminary report went viral. It looked at 1,779 bills over a span of more than 20 years. These concerned issues where polling showed the public overwhelmingly were on one side, the
ed: I have just received the 4th email begging for a donation since I began the first draft of this post. It came from the Democratic Governors Association. Boy, am I popular.
‘economic elite’ on the other. The conclusion was, ” . . . since average citizens’ preferences have little or no independent impact on policy after existing groups’ stands are controlled for.”
ed: The 5th email, from Social Security Works. Okay. I’ll stop cluttering up this article. If only they would stop.
Now, we put together the unlimited funds from the ‘economic elite’ and the fact that Congress ignores us and the inability to match their funding levels and the fact that the minority can rule because so many of the majority are dispirited. The answers stare us in the face.
The way the majority wins is by exhibiting itself in the ballot boxes. Really? That’s naive. No. It’s not.
What is naive is for the Democrats to expect to get the majority of the vote when that majority is not motivated to vote. The quoted study tells you why they are not motivated. They know that the majority “have little or no independent impact on policy.”
From an interview with Professor Martin Gilens in TCM:
If you had 30 seconds to sum up the main conclusion of your study for the average person, how would you do so?
I’d say that contrary to what decades of political science research might lead you to believe, ordinary citizens have virtually no influence over what their government does in the United States. And economic elites and interest groups, especially those representing business, have a substantial degree of influence. Government policy-making over the last few decades reflects the preferences of those groups — of economic elites and of organized interests.
Democrats or Republicans, it makes no difference. Both parties are prostitutes for Wall Street and their ilk. Why should the hoi polloi vote for the prostitutes that specialize in servicing the elite?
Do the Democrats really want to win – or just retain “their” seats? If they want to win, there is a simple way. Simple, not easy.
They have to motivate the majority. That’s simple. They have to overcome the disillusion, the skepticism, the cynicism they have engendered for so long. That’s not easy.
Sure, it will require some money but nowhere near the amounts squandered on television ads. It will require working in the interest of the people. It will require training cadres in convincing and educating the public. It will require organization beyond the usual efforts. It will require doing all of this at the federal, state, county, city and neighborhood levels. It will require learning from the people. It will require work, hard work and lots of it.
Once such an effort was shown to be successful, the elite would have no reason to pollute the system with tons of money.
Is such an answer idealistic? Certainly. Is such a solution possible? If you care about the people.
And to those political beggars and prostitutes: my electronic trash can will never get full.
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