Reply #59: Yes, the election result in Massachusetts was an excellent example

[JDPriestly]

of the wielding of money in the sense I am suggesting.

In fact, the entire Teabag movement is the result of a very few wealthy, wealthy people taking the natural anger of people, sponsoring (meaning paying for) an organization that figured out an ad campaign strategy and persuaded ordinary people that the Teabag movement was their idea. Many Democratic politicians, especially the whole Blue Dog crowd, are the product of the same kind of moneyed manipulation.

The news media is, for the most part, controlled by people who wield money to shape political opinion. Fox News is a prime, but not the only, example.

It is in that way that wealthy people get many votes for each of the votes of ordinary people. The rich buy the right to control the information we get. That determines how we vote. If we really had free access to information, we would probably vote our own interests, and the outcomes would be very different.