Oligarchy 'R' US?

Scientific Study Determines U.S. Is Not a Democracy

May 4, 2014

Letter from the Editor:

This is quite an interesting development though I suspect many of you immediately recognized the fatal flaw in this study. It was scientific. And it's not even a theory. It's just a meticulously carried out investigation of the available facts and figures in the interest of knowledge and truth. It can be said that truth is in the eye of the beholder and that's fair enough. Knowledge however, particularly of the scientific variety, seems relentlessly frowned upon by the vast majority of the American public. This study, to be published in the Fall 2014 issue of the academic journal Perspectives on Politics, was described by some as showing America to be an oligarchy rather than a democracy.

Democracy of course is government by the many. An oligarchy is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as "1) government by the few; 2) a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes. Sound familiar? When a huge majority of the public favors more rigorous gun control laws, meaningful immigration reform, clean air and water, yet our elected officials refuse to entertain such bizarre ideas, you would be excused for wondering what the f*&k is going on around here. You would not however be excused for just continuing to let it happen without at least sticking your head out the window and screaming, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore," or something to that effect. 

Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page, the authors of this historically important study titled,

"Testing Theories of American Politics,"  stated that the available data probably under-represents the actual extent to which the super-rich control the U.S. Their exhaustive analysis of the data shows that, “the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.” As we now know, corporations are people my friend, money is speech, and voting is just like slavery. Oh, and it's now illegal not to carry a gun in Georgia.

The study's authors did not use the term oligarchy because, they say, an oligarchy consists of only a very few powerful individuals. Instead, they claim that the number of truly influential actors is more than a few, but considerably less than a majority. I'm guessing it's somewhere around 0.1%. The Supreme Court hopes to enshrine this arrangement and has done everything in its power to see that this happens, first with their Citizens United decision and more recently with McCutcheon. So perhaps we are living in more of a plutocracy, defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as "1) government by the richest people; 2) a controlling class of the wealthy. 

Over 70% of Americans favor a federal minimum wage, 88% want more effective background checks for gun purchases, 80% favor a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, 90% support a law granting equal pay for women. Unfortunately the 0.1% is opposed to all these measures and it happens to be the 0.1% that counts.

States Also Have The Right To Ignore The Will Of Their Citizens

Oklahoma residents who produce their own energy through solar panels or small wind turbines on their property will now be charged an additional fee. This, thanks to a new bill passed by the state legislature and expected to be signed into law by Republican't Gov. Mary Fallin. The bill was staunchly opposed by renewable energy advocates, environmental groups and the conservative group TUSK, but had the support of Oklahoma's mjor utilities and magically passed with no debate. Kansas lawmakers revived legislation meant to end the state's renewable energy standards, altering it so that it would happen gradually and hopefully without anyone noticing. Ninety-one percent of Kansans said they believe future Kansas energy needs can best be met by greater use of renewable energy sources. This comprises 72% of Republicans, 75% of Independents and 82% of Democrats. Do you even know anyone who is opposed to solar energy? Besides the Koch Brothers I mean. I wonder if Ken Lay is still dead.

Science Marches On

Did you know that originally, the lead additive that was our gasoline for so many years had been developed as a chemical weapon? It was handled as hazardous material when shipped to be added to gasoline for cars. The danger of spewing lead into the atmosphere was exposed in the 1950s and the petroleum industry stopped funding the scientist who discovered the danger lead posed to humans. Scientists employed by the lead industry convinced the public that lead was perfectly safe. It was the federal government that took the science seriously and worked to stop the addition of lead to gasoline. For thousands of years lead has been known to cause brain damage, developmental impairment, violent behavior and death. And there my friends, is the scientific evidence of the birth of the Tea Party.

Ed Venture

Managing Editor, Paying Attention