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Politicians and representation

Who's interest do you think the politicians in Washington generally represent

  • The super rich

  • The rich

  • Upper middle class

  • Middle class

  • Lower middle class

  • The poor

  • A somewhat ok balance between all groups

  • Other

Results are only viewable after voting.
biostud

biostud

Lifer
Which of these groups do you think best describes who the politicians in Washington represents based on economy.
 
The rich. Most of them only vote for one of two things. 1st to ensure their own re-election or 2nd to make money for themselves.

There are a few good in DC. We need term limits to stop some of this corruption.
 
Pretty much just themselves. They will pay whatever necessary lip service to whatever necessary group to line their own pockets. Eventually to retire from congress and become a lobbyist to line their pockets even more.
 
voted other because politicians often represent any group without thinking about what is right or workable or supportive of all citizens
 
It is both themselves and the corporations (which count as the super rich).

Politicians want to line their pockets and get re-elected. The Corporations want to control congress. To accomplish this the Corporations are willing to spend large amounts of money to buy elections for the candidate that is willing to give them the most control. Once those politicians are in office the corporations want to keep them happy (and pliant) so they toss them what for the corporation is a very small amount of money, a few million here and there, literally table scraps compared with what they get from controlling politicians.
 
They generally represent their own interests. They may be part of the other groups in the poll but for the most part they concern themselves with getting re-elected and securing cushy, high paying jobs when they retire from "public" service.
 
alzan said:
They generally represent their own interests. They may be part of the other groups in the poll but for the most part they concern themselves with getting re-elected and securing cushy, high paying jobs when they retire from "public" service.
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I would venture to say that the concern of getting relected may move them to represent the interests of as many constituents as possible.
 
ThePresence said:
I would venture to say that the concern of getting relected may move them to represent the interests of as many constituents as possible.
Click to expand...

Then you would be wrong. Constituents are mostly stupid, you can continually vote against their interests and then just produce some good commercials telling them otherwise and they are fooled. So few of them care enough to verify even the most basic facts that it hardly even matters what you do, only what you say and how much you can spend to say it.
 
biostud said:
Why doesn't middle class America do anything about it? (If they want it to change?)
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When you were in America did you ask?

'MURICA!

It will probably take another generation before Americans are willing to admit they have a serious problem. Then another generation after that to do something about it. If statistics today can't motivate them to fix the system then maybe when another 10% of the population is living in poverty and the middle class has gone another generation with no increase in wages they'll figure it out. We'll see.
 
Think about this for a second. The US is currently ranked between 1st and 3rd (depending on the year) for income inequality out of all developed nations. According to the CIA World Factbook the US is ranked 100 out of 140 nations.

There will come a point where Americans are FINALLY going to have to ask themselves how in the world they got to this point. They got there because their politicians keep giving massive tax breaks to the rich and screwing the middle class. They got there because their politicians give ZERO benefits to the middle class. They got there because they keep getting told that they just have to work harder and they'll make more money and live a better life. That of course is bullshit. Americans work more today then ever and have seen no increase in wages.
 
Growth in average income of the top 1% of Americans with everyone else.

incomeinequality.gif
 
One report by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist David Cay Johnston conducted for Tax Analysts found incomes of the bottom 90% of Americans grew only $59 (adjusted for inflation) from 1966 to 2011, while incomes for the top 10% rose by $116,071.
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http://www.forbes.com/sites/shahgilani/2013/09/27/income-inequality-is-whats-destroying-america/

I have tried to explain this to my family but they don't get it. Americans today have somehow lost their minds. The goal of everyone I know is to make $100,000 (or more) yet that income is not what it used to be. If you made a hundred grand in 1990 you need to make $163,000 today for it to be equal. Good luck negotiating that salary for the same job. For those of you who are my age your parents might have been making $100,000 in 1980. To have the same income today you need to make $280,000. It isn't happening. Everyone just shoots for 6 figures without even thinking about how much it's worth today and how jobs are not increasing wages. I made $100,000 straight out of college. However there was no chance of getting much higher than that. The only way was through self employment. So even the top 10% of Americans are getting hosed. There's a huge push from the top percent to keep wages low for everyone but themselves.
 
I think representative democracy alone doesn't work, it needs a periodical kick in the ass from direct democracy. Luckily in my country it does.
 
JManInPhoenix said:
Pretty much just themselves. They will pay whatever necessary lip service to whatever necessary group to line their own pockets. Eventually to retire from congress and become a lobbyist to line their pockets even more.
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Pretty much this. They cater to rich entities (people, corporations, unions, etc) to fill their war chests. IIRC, when they retire they get to keep whatever's left over in their war chest. I think that money should go back to their party or to the person from their party that said party hopes will take over for the retiree.

I like term limits as well.
 
There was just an academic study on who influences policies by politicians.

It found that the 'average citizen' has approximately zero impact on the policies.

Those who did are the powerful corporations and their interest groups, and the very wealthy.

Meanwhile, the radical right 5 of the Supreme Court are destroying the American citizens' power to control their own democracy and keep the money from the wealthy out of elections. 1,200 Americans gave the maximum amount allowed last election; with the recent Supreme Court ruling, they'll be able to give twice as much as all the rest of Americans donated combined. This is the biggest issue our country faces.

I've often quoted this saying as very useful for understanding politics:

"Politicians have to LOOK good to voters, and DO good for donors". There are two main types - those who serve the public and those who serve the powerful.
 
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FerrelGeek said:
Pretty much this. They cater to rich entities (people, corporations, unions, etc) to fill their war chests. IIRC, when they retire they get to keep whatever's left over in their war chest. I think that money should go back to their party or to the person from their party that said party hopes will take over for the retiree.

I like term limits as well.
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Term limits are a terrible thing.

We need long-term dedicated 'public servants'. They're known quantities who want to keep voters happy with them, and they get to know how to get things done.

What term limits do is to turn politicians into lame ducks who have no need for your vote again, who are unknown people selected by the powerful interests to get backing and marketing, meaning they serve those interests and not voters. Elections will become meaningless voting for pre-selected hires by powerful interests more than now.

Anyone who likes democracy should fight term limits.

That's not to say there aren't problems with untouchable incumbency sometimes - but the way to fix that isn't term limits, it's things like campaign finance reform.

The idea that term limits will help with Congressmen leaving to become lobbyists makes no sense - it'll make the problem, which is a very bad one, even worse.

The problem of 'keeping campaign donations' when they leave is a non-issue.
 
AViking said:
Growth in average income of the top 1% of Americans with everyone else.

incomeinequality.gif
Click to expand...

Worth repeating.

The myth is that it doesn't matter - who cares if they make a lot, it doesn't affect you.

Completely wrong. To a limited degree, there's truth to that. But in large amounts, it destroys democracy, it limits opportunity for others, it keeps everyone else poorer.

It lets money rule the country and not democracy - they're not compatible.

As a Supreme Court Justice once said, you can have democracy, or you can have large concentrations of wealth, but you cannot have both.

Back before extreme concentrations of wealth gave us radical right-wing Justices.
 
soccerballtux said:
This is a skewed poll.

Politicians do what gets them votes and money. They serve the people giving them money and votes.
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Politicians are generally not out to make money for themselves - that's not usually the issue.

They're out to serve the agendas of those who help them get elected, and of the lobbying firms who will hire them after they leave office, where most of them now go.

If you look for the big money payouts to politicians themselves - like bribes - you are not going to learn about nearly all of the corruption the money is causing.

See the Republican candidates answer the summons from Sheldon Addleston for an idea.

You know that new shiny squeaky kid in Wisconsin who is the governor attacking unions? The Koch brothers were the top donors for his election. He does what they want.
 
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