General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I find I have little sympathy for States that elected crap RW Governors. [View all]Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)The scariest thing here is that right-wing gov's are arising around the world. Britain; Netanyahu's new coalition which is reportedly "the most extreme in Israeli history; Canada; Australia
and that little sliver of land wedged between Canada & Mexico--
Major Study Finds The US Is An Oligarchy
ZACHARY DAVIES BOREN, THE TELEGRAPH
APR. 16, 2014, 8:16 AM 199,112 143
The U.S. government does not represent the interests of the majority of the country's citizens, but is instead ruled by those of the rich and powerful, a new study from Princeton and Northwestern universities has concluded.
The report, "Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens" (PDF), used extensive policy data collected between 1981 and 2002 to empirically determine the state of the U.S. political system.
After sifting through nearly 1,800 U.S. policies enacted in that period and comparing them to the expressed preferences of average Americans (50th percentile of income), affluent Americans (90th percentile), and large special interests groups, researchers concluded that the U.S. is dominated by its economic elite.
The peer-reviewed study, which will be taught at these universities in September, says: "The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence."
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."
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/major-study-finds-that-the-us-is-an-oligarchy-2014-4#ixzz3ZaGbFset
It seems to me that the right wing parties of the so-called western democracies either have found or are well-advanced in developing ways to totally ignore the cumulative expressed will of their ordinary citizens.
Here is a cute little poster from Switzerland, which I think speaks for itself:

Wisconsin was just the first target. They're coming now for the rest of you.