Well, Du-uh... America Now Oligarchy, Not Democracy — Princeton Study

Brendan James at TPM:

A new study from Princeton spells bad news for American democracy—namely, that it no longer exists.

Asking "[w]ho really rules?" researchers Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page argue that over the past few decades America's political system has slowly transformed from a democracy into an oligarchy, where wealthy elites wield most power.

Using data drawn from over 1,800 different policy initiatives from 1981 to 2002, the two conclude that rich, well-connected individuals on the political scene now steer the direction of the country, regardless of or even against the will of the majority of voters.

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Mr. James appears to be a young man, but damn, he's learning fast...

Supreme Court Rules 5-4 In McCutcheon v. FEC In Favor of GOP Golden Rule: "Who Has The Gold, Makes The Rules," Or "One Buck, One Vote"

Please read these two articles by Sahil Kapur at TPM:

• Supreme Court Deals Another Blow To Campaign Finance Limits
• Blistering Dissent: SCOTUS Ruling 'Devastates' Campaign Finance Laws

You can read the particulars and quotes from the sententious majority decision and the outraged minority dissent better in Kapur's summaries than I could explain them to you, but the short version is this: our days as a representative democracy are numbered, if indeed we ever had any such days in reality, and congressional seats, not to mention the presidency, effectively go to the highest bidder from now on. The Supreme Court, while retaining individual limits per campaign, proclaimed aggregate limits contrary to the First Amendment and removed them, so that the few remaining scraps of campaign finance regulation left after the ruling in Citizens United are now gone.

It was fun while it lasted. But America now faces a challenge to its founding principles not less than the one posed by the Civil War, reconstruction, two world wars and the Great Depression. Will we overcome these threats to democracy? We can, but only by facing down the meanest, coldest rich-assed sumbitches that ever lived here and fighting them on their own turf, by their own rules.

Have a nice day!

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ADDENDUM: CREDO Action provides Mr. Justice Scalia with a new robe in honor of the occasion: