The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    Princeton Scientific Study: America is No Longer a Democracy; It’s Now an Oligarchy

    By Wattree on Wed, 04/16/2014 - 4:51am |

    A scientific study done at Princeton University indicates that the United States is no longer a Democracy. The country has now morphed into an Oligarchy. That means that the nation is no longer controlled by the people. It is now controlled by a handful of wealthy and powerful puppet masters. It also means that we are no longer in a race war; we are now in a class war. Thus, the poor and middle class, of EVERY race, are now the new niggas. So wake up, America, while you still have a chance of fighting back.
     

    One of the biggest problems that we have in this country is that we’ve allowed malevolent factions to throw us a bone and then use our votes against us to undermine our interests. The reason we’ve allowed this to happen is because we’re so gullible that we tend to believe that any faction that supports any issue that we’re passionate about is our friend, and that tendency has repeatedly been used against us. Over the years that has repeatedly caused the American people to forge alliances with the very people who want to cut their throats.
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    So it behooves poor and middle-class Black, and White people, to wake up, put our petty differences aside, and come together as a viable political force that’s ready to pitch a tooth-and-nail battle for the future of this country. If we don’t, the Tea party, the Klan, the Black Guerilla Army, and the Mexican Mafia, are all going to find themselves shoulder-to-shoulder picking virtual cotton on the very same plantation.
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    Ironically, many White people already recognize this fact - that’s why Barack Obama is President today. But due to our unique historic background, lack of formal education, the proliferation of urban legends disseminated by poverty pimps, and lingering suspicions and bitterness, many Black people are resistant to this reality. Some demagogues work for the enemy by purposely keeping the poor and middle-class divided:
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    "When you’re trying to talk about issues that affect the people, name calling get’s in the way. Name calling is nothing but another weapon of mass distraction." - Cornel West. Hmmmmm. Think about his words, and then his behavior.

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    But while it is undeniable that some White people are dogs (just like some Black people), we now also have undeniable evidence that MOST of them are good people who simply want to live and let live in, just like the majority of Black people. White bigots are a small minority of the White community, but they are a vicious and very loud minority (see Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Pat Robertson, etc.), and they're being amplified by the power and wealth of corporate feudalists in order to keep us divided, so their noise and power far exceed their numbers. If that were not the case, Obama wouldn’t have been elected president - twice. No, Obama’s election doesn’t mean that this is a post-racist society, but what it does say is, racism and bigotry are being maintained and perpetuated by a minority of the White community.
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    Consider this - even if all Black people had been allowed to stay at home, and the vote of every Black man, woman, and child in America had been automatically posted for Obama, there still wouldn’t have been enough of us to elect him President of the United States. Black people are only 13.6 percent of the population. So if only one hundred votes were being cast to determine the presidency, and every group was given the number of votes that corresponded to their percentage of the population, Black people would only be given 14 votes. But in order for Obama to become president, he needed 51 votes. Where did those other 37 votes come from? I’ll tell you where they came from - many of them came from White people. Obama could never have been elected president without them. So that’s in direct conflict with the message that the majority of White people are racist bigots. Numbers don't lie, so while it may satisfy the anger of those who allege that to be the case, the numbers simply don't validate their claim.
    .

    White folks are being fed the same kind of nonsense on the other side of the fence. That's how we're being kept divided, and how the rich are taking over. The current battle being fought is over class, not race, and both poor and middle-class Blacks, and Whites, had better wake up and recognize that fact, or we're ALL going to be enslaved. Many White people need to understand than when the GOP is targeting Social Security, they're not just targeting the Social Security of Black people, they're targeting EVERYBODY'S Social Security.  And when the corporate feudalist and their GOP cronies sent our jobs overseas, they didn't just send Black jobs overseas, they sent the jobs of the White middle class out of the country as well.
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    Pages 22 and 23 of the Princeton study says the following:
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    "What do our findings say about democracy in America? They certainly constitute troubling news for advocates of "populistic" democracy, who want governments to respond primarily or exclusively to the policy preferences of their citizens. In the United States, our Politics findings indicate, the majority does not rule -- at least not in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes. When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the U.S. political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do not get it."
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    The study goes on to say,
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    "Despite the seemingly strong empirical support in previous studies for theories of majoritarian democracy, our analyses suggest that majorities of the American public actually have little influence over the policies our government adopts. Americans do enjoy many features central to democratic governance, such as regular elections, freedom of speech and association, and a widespread (if still contested) franchise. But we believe that if policymaking is dominated by powerful business organizations and a small number of affluent Americans, then America’s claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened."
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    That’s something that every poor and middle-class American needs to think about, regardless to what color they are. Whether Black and White racists like it or not, we're on this plantation together - and the GOP is the primary overseer.
     

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    Eric L. Wattree
     

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    Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

     

    Comments

    Wow, a Wattree post I wholly agree with! Hope to see more.


    by Anonymous PP (not verified) on Wed, 04/16/2014 - 5:12am

    Great post. The only quibble I might have is that I think Black voters have been willing to vote across racial lines for generations. One could argue that in many cases there was no choice because political parties did not allow Blacks on the ballot. Consider Baltimore, Maryland for example. Martin O'Malley was elected by a majority Black electorate. Bill Clinton got supported by the majority of Black voters and the Congressional Black Caucus during his impeachment. 

    The GOP is the more supportive of the plutocrats and they realize their dilemma. The country has changed and a random Democratic candidate my start out with around 240 electoral votes based on the portion of White, Black, Latino, Asian, Gay and single women votes based on the harsh Republican massage heard by those different groups. The only option for the GOP is to keep people from voting and to create new voting life forms called corporations. As Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis noted, "We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both".


    by rmrd0000 on Wed, 04/16/2014 - 8:00am

    The big question is how do you get the majority of White voters to join the coalition. In Texas the majority of women and men are willing to vote for the guy who hangs out with Ted Nugent rather than vote for Wendy Davis. 


    by rmrd0000 on Wed, 04/16/2014 - 8:23am

    I agree, RM.

    .

    I didn’t mean to imply that Black people were reluctant to vote across racial lines - we do that routinely in greater numbers than White voters. I meant that it’s going to be much more difficult to get many Black people to start thinking in terms of class rather than race, because Black people have spent far too many years having to protect their flank as a race, so it’s going to be hard for us to start thinking in any other way.


    by Wattree on Wed, 04/16/2014 - 10:27am

    Hopefully with Obama speaking out on Gay issues there will be a change in attitudes. The NAACP came out in favor of Gay marriage. Al Sharpton helped get Blacks and LGBT activists together on Stop and Frisk in NYC. If they go after Gays, Black Gays are targets as well.  Similarly if they target women's rights they are targeting Black women. If they target Latinos, they target Black Latinos. Given racial admixture, no matter who they target, you have a family member under attack. Black, White, Brown, Mocha, Heterosexual, or Homosexual, it's family.

    The bigot' s new cry, "Get him,  he's all of them!".


    by rmrd0000 on Wed, 04/16/2014 - 10:44am

       I myself don't believe that the government only serves the rich. There has been too much legislation that serves the interest of people other than the rich for me to assent to that proposition.

     It is my hope that voter ID laws won't end up disenfranchising people. Everybody has an ID in their wallet, right? But maybe it is preventing people from voting; I don't know the data on it.


    by Aaron Carine on Wed, 04/16/2014 - 8:31am

    Voter ID is a snipe hunt. The GOP is limiting the types of ID that can be used.  The GOP is limiting polling places in urban areas and decreasing voting days, In Florida along with longer lines due to decreasing voting places they are denying people access to rest rooms. 

    Here is a small sample of the tactics. Just Google "voter suppression" and head to the major newspaper articles for a slice of the un-American devices employed  by the GOP.


    by rmrd0000 on Wed, 04/16/2014 - 9:29am

    I think it's possible the government only serves the poor enough to keep them moderately happy and then reverts to paying the remaining margin to the rich.


    by Anonymous PP (not verified) on Wed, 04/16/2014 - 9:45am

    I think you have to ask, "Has there been a real problem, a large scale problem, with people impersonating other people when they go to vote?"

    If there hasn't been, then this "solution," no matter how sensible it can be made to sound, isn't a solution to a problem. It's a solution aimed at creating a problem, meaning another hoop to jump through or obstacle to jump over.

    And for what purpose?

    Saying, "Everybody has an ID in their wallet," is sort of a non-sequitur because, even if true, you're now asking people to produce something you've never asked for before the absence of which hasn't caused any discernible problem.

    You also have to prove (I think) that everybody does already have an ID. It's possible that a lot of people don't. And it's possible that a bunch of people don't have the documentation, e.g., birth certificates, that some states require you produce before you can get your official voter ID.

    Getting a copy of your birth certificate, assuming one exists, can be a rigamarole.

    Also, when you say "everybody has an ID," do you mean a driver's license, a pedestrian ID for non-drivers, a college ID, a fishing permit, a hunting license, or what? Some of these have been accepted while others have not even though they are all pretty good pieces of verification that you are whom you say you are.

    But also, some states, notably PA I think, have asked for a special voter ID that one must have in addition to IDs you might use when you get carded in a bar or at a liquor store or when you go to cash a check. This places a whole 'nuther burden on folks who may need to rummage around for whatever supporting documentation they must produce to get one of these special IDs in time to vote in an election that might mean a great to them.

    All to cure a problem that hardly anyone noticed back before the GOP was easily winning the presidency.

    In fact, if the GOP is so concerned that dead and alien voters are skewing elections, then they should first explain why and how they've won the House by a large margin, not to mention large numbers of governorships and state houses. And are now threatening to take back the Senate.

    At its worst, how bad could the problem be?


    by Peter Schwartz on Wed, 04/16/2014 - 12:23pm

    There's both good policy and good politics. As policy voter ID laws are "fixing" a problem that is virtually nonexistent. But that doesn't matter. We can shout all day long and waste tons of time and political capital and not convince most people that it doesn't make sense for voters to be required to show an Id. Its bad politics for us. Then the republicans can hide many other much more harmful voter suppression tactics behind a seemingly sensible voter Id requirement.

    Just today I came across this article that states my views pretty well.

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/16/the-id-whose-time-has-c...

    With ID required for so much in modern life, exempting voters is a losing proposition. So why not adopt measures that make it easier to get proper ID? Both sides should be able to agree on that, and then the debate can turn to all the other things Republican-led states are doing to curtail voting.

    I'm leaving on vacation today so I won't be able to respond. No internet access at my parents. But I did want to share this article before I left.


    by ocean-kat on Wed, 04/16/2014 - 6:32pm

    You're right with the caveat that it becomes easy for ALL to get an ID.

    The question then might move to: How easy should we make it to get an ID? After all, the whole point of requiring an ID is that not everyone or anyone should be able to get one. Only the people who are "legitimate" voters. We want to keep some people out (if we accept the argument that IDs make sense).

    IOW, we could move the struggle to making it as easy as possible for everyone to get an ID, but I'm not sure that becomes an entirely sympathetic battle to wage. After all, we don't want to make it easy for underage kids to get ID that allows them to drink. Most people think they shouldn't be drinking. ID is designed to exclude certain people.

    There is a bias in this requirement against poor people who have a harder time doing things like this and making time to do things like this. It's hard to get them to go to the polls in off years or at all; jumping through hoops to meet an ID requirement is one step, or more, less urgent than even that.

    Then, I hear, some states are requiring birth certificates to prove one is an American. I don't know what the procedure is now, and it's probably different from state to state. But back when I did it, it wasn't all that easy. To start off, you had to know whom to call and where to find their telephone number or now, Web address. Then there were the fees associated with getting a copy, and so on. I can easily imagine some people needing a lot of hand holding throughout the entire process.

    I could also see this as part and parcel of a GOTV effort, starting with getting one's ID all the way through to showing up at the polls for ALL elections. Anger at these laws has been a motivator, but I'm talking about getting people involved in the voting process at a deeper level and for a longer time.

    It would take a lot of person power (I think) to mount this kind of effort, but it could boost the vote, which would be a sweet irony for these bastards.


    by Peter Schwartz on Wed, 04/16/2014 - 10:07pm

    It does take a lot of time and personal effort to register people and help them with the cost.  It is a pole tax.  I had to down grade my Class A to a E because I am retired based on the new Fed law that started in 2014.  It took 2 trips and 6 documents to prove who I was.  In the end it cost me over $100 for my driver license.  The reason for the second trip was they wanted a paper trail back to my maiden name.  I am grateful that I did not have multiple marriages. I did have the original state long form of my marriage at the house. It was issued in 1968 with embossed seal and signatures.  Yellowed and fragile they accepted it after more then one person looked at it.  Church one did not count. Good thing it would have cost me another $45 to the state of Ohio for another document. Florida is as bad as Texas picking on married women.  It was a pain in the butt and costly and I knew what I was doing.  Now I have my little star on my driver license that shows I have paid my pole tax. 

    They are doing this to keep the plutocrats in power.  I just posted in the News section about the 2nd gilded age that goes along with this thread. 


    by trkingmomoe on Wed, 04/16/2014 - 11:06pm

    This is important. Voter ID is just the tip of the iceberg. They are limiting polling places, decreasing voting hours, placing monitors to intimidate voters and closing restrooms. The US would be demanding UN monitors if a second or third world country was doing this abomination.


    by rmrd0000 on Wed, 04/16/2014 - 11:16pm

    Interesting but pretty dry academic study. The words "media" and "television" do not appear in the 42 page pdf of the study.

    Media and television are the tools to control, filter or direct what 'facts' and information are reported, accepted or discussed in the mainstream media. And who discusses them. Media and television are where big money talks.  Billions are spent to run for elections. In between elections 24/7 corporate run news channels are largely mind numbing punditry, celebrity gossip, controversy stoking discussion, and/or infotainment distractions.

    If the election controlling power of money/TV/media doesn't change, don't expect anything else to change. The power of money and oligarchy has been cut loose even more by recent SCOTUS decisions. Perhaps the tsunami of big money pre-election political ads may reach such an overload they won't work anymore, people will increasingly recognize them for what they are - propaganda. And hopefully then do the real homework necessary to pick candidates that will promote their interests, and not those of the rich and powerful.


    by NCD on Wed, 04/16/2014 - 11:58am

    This is why the myth-making of the rich, that they all got where they did through hard work and earned talents, is so damaging.  The average voter thinks "that could be me some day," and they keep thinking that until it's too late.


    by Michael Maiello on Wed, 04/16/2014 - 3:16pm

    Yeah I read this site.

    The Kock bros and the other billionaires as well as their corporate counterparts can 'send out the message'. All communications are propaganda. hahahaha

    How in the hell can the 99% be this stupid.

    Well, another ten or fifteen percent are doing so goddamn well, but what about the 85% left?

    Suppose I work at McDonalds and I find that I must 'clean up' following my 'shift' and if I refuse, I am fired. Even though I am not paid following my shift?

    That is a rule promulgated by the corporate tier.

    If I need an avenue so that I might make it to my work area, well it might contain a toll booth that is operated by the same corp that owns me.

    I decide to use the internet and I must pay for some avenue in which to use my internet. 

    I just bring this up because in 'the olden days' I would watch TV with rabbit ears and not pay a dime, except for the monthly charge on my TV until I pay for that TV.

    If I have a special phone, I must pay extra for the privilege of special charges related to my PC.

    All these wonderful tablets? I cannot choose the rates that I might pay for access, as they say.

    I have no control over what my grocer charges.

    We on the Left, have won so many, many benefits.

    But we have lost so very much.

    The 'air' that we breath and the 'air' that we access are all controlled by the oligarchy.

    I have no idea what in the hell we can do about this.

    I used to watch these infomercials and they asked for 20 bucks and now they ask for three charges of 99 bucks.

    I mean, it is neat to have a totally cordless vacuum cleaner. hahahaha

    I still see class over race unless we talk about prison time and education.

    We are all being flummoxed by a corporate conspiracy.

    And then, we remove the curtain, and the wizard appears; the wizard who controls everything.

    I dunno.

    Yeah.

    A small number of corporate pricks control everything.

    Historically, that has always been the case. For thousands of years.

    Democracy is in the eyes of the beholder.

    WHAT WAS THE QUESTION AGAIN?

     


    by Richard Day on Wed, 04/16/2014 - 4:41pm

    “We must make our choice. We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both.” 
    ― Louis D. Brandeis
     

    by rmrd0000 on Wed, 04/16/2014 - 5:51pm

    WELL PUT!


    by Richard Day on Wed, 04/16/2014 - 6:06pm

    You beat me to the quote.  I read that quote today on Kos.


    by trkingmomoe on Wed, 04/16/2014 - 11:13pm

    Momoe you absolutely kill me at times. hahahahah

    I am stuck now reading KO's every day. hahahahah

    I love you Momoe. hahahahaha

    I really do!


    by Richard Day on Thu, 04/17/2014 - 12:10am

    It is strange how this post about a study that shows how the Oligarchy controls our lives devolved into a discussion  about voter suppression by one half of the uni-party. If this study is true then both halves of the uni-party are corrupt and help enable the Oligarchy. If this study is true then our vote and opinions have no effect on the policies of our government because we do not have a Representative Democracy. If every man woman and child were to vote it wouldn't change the fact that We The People do not control our regime, it is controlled by the Ruling Class. I understand that it is difficult for many intelligent, informed people to face this disturbing fact but you cannot vote to remove an Oligarchy, at least you can't under our present system.


    by Peter (not verified) on Thu, 04/17/2014 - 11:04am

    You solution?


    by rmrd0000 on Thu, 04/17/2014 - 11:51am

    Before any "solution" can be formulated enough people have to give up their illusions, that we have a functioning Democracy, and face the reality that we are ruled by an Oligarchy. We have many bright young people and some not so young people who can work on solutions but they must be based on the fact that Democracy and Capitalism are not compatible so we must choose solutions that enhance Democracy.


    by Peter (not verified) on Thu, 04/17/2014 - 12:50pm

    So is what you are saying that you know of no solution?  Or, I guess, is it that the level of consciousness that you have apparently acquired must be attained by enough other folks before a solution can be found?


    by Bruce Levine on Thu, 04/17/2014 - 1:20pm

    This post isn't about me, it's about a scientific study from Princeton U that states clearly that we do not have a functioning Democracy, I didn't need this study to comprehend the fact that we live under an Oligarchy but it may help others to realize that fact. It is obvious from the reductionist meme of the comments here that few people are able or willing to discuss this reality. If people are too weak or frightened to face reality any solutions offered by me or anyone more acceptable are meaningless. Casting off illusions and facing reality is not giving up, it is the first step in becoming free of the control of the Oligarchs. Once people are free to think outside the status quo they are free to develop solutions that demand Participatory Democracy and a humane economic system.


    by Peter (not verified) on Thu, 04/17/2014 - 3:37pm

    I guess you think everybody was asleep when background checks were considered reasonable by a majority including gun owners. You may remember that it occurred after a massacre of children. Congress did nothing. People realize the situation. 

    Your approach is to tell us what we already know, criticize us, and then proudly announce that you have no solutions. 

    People can push back. Public push back quieted the drumbeat to crank up aggression with Syria. Public pushback got a Stop and a Frisk altered in NYC. Public awareness may keep Koch financed Rep Cotton from becoming a Senator in Arkansas. 

    Yell at us when you have answers. People are already paying attention.


    by rmrd0000 on Thu, 04/17/2014 - 4:02pm

    Before any "solution" can be formulated enough people have to give up their illusions, that we have a functioning Democracy, and face the reality that we are ruled by an Oligarchy.

    Sounds like AA for the downtrodden. Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over government—that our nation had become unmanageable.

    While this may be applicable to individuals, it doesn't work on societal scale. Successful reform movements always start small, and they always supplement social critiques with ambitious proposals. Martin Luther and John Calvin did not wait for Europe to abandon the Church before they laid out the tenants of Protestantism. The abolitionists did not wait for Americans to acknowledge the depravity of slavery when they began fighting for its eradication. Marx did not wait for the general public to reject capitalism when he wrote Das Kapital. The first progressives did not wait for the public to reject party machines and laissez-faire markets when they began advocating progressive reforms.

    In these cases and many others, the articulation of a better alternative helped show the public how bad things had become and offered them a cause to rally around. That is not to say there is anything wrong with social critiques like this one, but a social critique without a solution cannot galvanize the masses.


    by Michael Wolraich on Thu, 04/17/2014 - 4:32pm

    Acknowledging an oligarchy = "powerless"?


    by Anonymous PP (not verified) on Thu, 04/17/2014 - 7:16pm

    Your AA analogy may be more apt than you think, Michael, people cling to their illusions and belief in myths, like a drinker to his bottle. Two of your examples, slavery and Marxism make my argument for me, both required rejection of the status quo and required armed conflict. I have watched for 40yrs as progressive groups have pushed for reform and they have lost most every battle while the Oligarchs have steadily increased their power and control. Working within the corrupt system for reform has failed miserably and continuing to do so invites more failure. I understand the tendency for people who depend on the status quo for their security to hide from the reality of the Princeton Report or to become reactionary and dismissive but these are selfish motivations that must be overcome or the Oligarchs win.


    by Peter (not verified) on Thu, 04/17/2014 - 8:17pm

    Yet both the abolitionists and the socialists attached positive visions to their rejections of the status quo. The abolitionists' idea was relatively simple--freedom for all people--while the socialists' idea was complex and sweeping. That's why the socialists were so much more influential than the anarchists, who were active at the same time but failed to articulate a compelling alternative to the status quo.

    In other words, rejection of the status quo is not enough.


    by Michael Wolraich on Thu, 04/17/2014 - 10:22pm

    You are quite correct that "rejection of the status quo is not enough" but it is the first step necessary to free your mind from the limitations imposed by the Gatekeepers. The Ruling Class fear and loathe the idea of people thinking freely because they might begin to act as free beings and join with other like minded people to resist and even overthrow the Oligarchy. There is nothing that the Ruling Class fear more than the Mob, the seething mass of humanity not reined and trained to know their place, voicing the quaint notion that people have the right and ability to rule themselves.


    by Peter (not verified) on Fri, 04/18/2014 - 11:36am

    I'm afraid you're missing the point of the historical examples. In all these reforms and revolutions, rejecting the status quo was not a means of opening peoples' mind to alternatives. To the contrary, the proposal of an alternative was a means of persuading people to reject the status quo.


    by Michael Wolraich on Fri, 04/18/2014 - 12:27pm

    Let me reword that. Rejecting the status quo was a means of opening peoples' mind to alternatives AND the proposal of an alternative was a means of persuading people to reject the status quo. The two together are self-reinforcing. Either on its own is mostly useless.


    by Michael Wolraich on Fri, 04/18/2014 - 12:44pm

    What would you do or have us do that would not be counted as selfish defense of the status quo?


    by moat on Thu, 04/17/2014 - 10:23pm

    As rmrd000 and bslev have indicated, it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.


    by Verified Atheist on Thu, 04/17/2014 - 2:12pm

    Some of the country's population don't know what the term oligarchy means but they are aware of the fact that the fat cats have all the money and power.  There is a push back at work right now in the country.  It is in the grass roots activism that is getting traction. This is why they are creating voter suppression.  The general public may not be aware that some of the members of SCOTUS should be brought up on ethics charges  because of their attendance at ALEC meetings and workshops.  But they do know that Citizen United ruling is wrong and the redefining the VRA so there can be more voter suppression is wrong. 

    OWS changed the focus on deficits to income gap.  It forced the media and congress members a way from chained CPI to reduce SSI.  It shined a spot light on gross over payment of wages to CEOs.  It brought to light the 1% and the plutocrats.  It made the government aware of the fact that the population did not like the way the banking industry got away with crimes.  It changed the conversation to how immoral their attitude was towards the lower economical classes in this country.

    People know that congress is not responding to their needs and only responding to the fat cats that pay their way into office.  They also know there is corruption at the state level and we are seeing a push back there.  There are grand juries in several states looking at Governors that may have miss handled their office.  We used to only see this once in a while and now there are several the country is focused on.

    Will this power of the rich continue?  No because people are growing tired of it.  

     


    by trkingmomoe on Thu, 04/17/2014 - 5:34pm