Why do some people who support Trump say that they could also support Sanders? What do the Occupy Wall Street people have in common with the Oregon yahoos who seized public lands? They all believe that the government does not respond to ordinary citizens.
According to Nicholas Kristof, they are correct. I will now quote at length from a column of his published in January:
Martin Gilens of Princeton University and Benjamin I. Page of Northwestern University found that in policy-making, views of ordinary citizens essentially don’t matter. They examined 1,779 policy issues and found that attitudes of wealthy people and of business groups mattered a great deal to the final outcome–but that preferences of average citizens were almost irrelevant.
“In the United States, our findings indicate, the majority does not rule,” they concluded. “Majorities of the American public actually have little influence over the policies our government adopts.”
Tomorrow I will be attending the Progressive Summit in Harrisburg, listening to speakers on how to change that. Unfortunately, living in a country in which 158 families and the companies they control donated approximately half of the money for the early stages of the presidential campaign, I don’t have much hope.
I will not be blogging tomorrow night. I’ll probably be attending some of the many parties connected with the Summit and won’t be in any condition to post anything. I’ll report back on Saturday.
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