so a question that has arisen add are we
saw a democracy World hacks who actually
as I was use me
because I keep talking about how money
has corrupted our politics
and that at the national level we don't
really have a functioning democracy
anymore cuz
our politicians aren't listening to us
well that's my opinion based on
all the different stories that are
covered over last 17 18 years a covering
politics
but now some prison researchers Martin
Jones and Benjamin page
actually went back and did a study on
this issue
they studied 1,779
different policy initiatives between
1981 and 2000
and to and then they published a
in perspectives on politics were very
the respected journal it's called
testing theories of american politics
so let's talk about how they did it they
said they then compared those policy
changes
the ones that they study with the
express the opinion of the United States
public
comparing the preference for the average
american at the 50th percentile be
income
to what those americans are the
ninetieth percentile preferred
as well as the opinions major lobbying
or business groups
so that is a really interesting way of
doing it they take an issue
they see which way to go in the voting
right and they say
re: at the time was a public opinion
poll on the 50th percentile
and then the top 10 percent and then
lobbyists
and and business groups I'm a mob pins
and needles I'm reading the beginning of
this story
the see how it turned out well I have
bad news for us.
quote the purposes the average American
appear to have only a minuscule
near 0 City sickly
non-significant impact upon public
policy that is devastated
that remember this is before citizens
united certainly be former cut should
and remember that we started talking
about money in politics and we started
talking about Wolfpack
before citizens united that's because as
I've told you on the show many times
the two devastating cases actually came
in 1976 and 1978
Buckley be belair where they said money
his speech and 78 where they said
corporations have persimmon rights in
can spend money in politics
ever since then it has been an evolving
disaster and since then as you can see
from the study
over 1800 different policies
and you had almost no effect on that
now this would be generally called and
oligarchy
so look for on times at worst or not
people don't know what it means I
it so I think it's important to define
it policy might define it for you here
and I thought it was good job Summary
that to you
an oligarchy is a system where power is
effectively wielded by a small number of
individuals
defined by their status called oligarchs
members of the oligarchy are the rich
the well-connected and the politically
powerful as was particularly well-placed
individuals and institutions like
banking
and finance or the military now usually
russia's referred to as up oligarchy and
a lot of other countries that are run by
small soda believes
are referred to as an oligarchy but
almost never the United States
well it turns out in reality going all
the way back to 1981 is when it starts
well we in fact were run by small it's
and
I to me it's not damming up all the rich
rate
your doctor didn't have anything to do
with this Oprah didn't have anything to
do with it
its people who are politically powerful
and actually use that power to their
advantage
and to your disadvantage add to that
point we go to
a different said a numbers put together
by other professors
that recently had news got news to which
is very important and let me show you
chart here
%uh how the different percentages did in
america
since 1980 and it's always 1980 that it
goes back to do so
impacted your more clear on that its
9078 is one all the charts are diverging
and as you can see there you got bottom
20 percent middle 60 percent
and the next 19 percent doing okay
they're hanging in there and took to be
fair there actually rising at
tiny bit through those decades but that
top line is the top one percent
and they are doing spectacular
let's not an accident that's over
decades have time
that shows you a pattern the pattern is
the rules have been fixed in their favor
K now has it gotten better look we have
had a democratic president who
lobbied and campaigned on change and
he's been in power for five years
in fact as of September 2013
since the Great Recession began in 2008
those five years
the top one percent captured ninety-five
percent of all
income gains since the great recession
ended
is an amazing number so when they see
the economy is recovering
definite s I think it's not recovering
for you
its recovery for the top one percent one
more devastating fact about that
since September 2013 the 99 percent
so on net 12 percent drop
to their income so sense that's
meeting the time between the green when
the Great Recession started in
2008 to September 2013
so unlike their earlier chart from
decades ago it's now gotten so bad
perhaps because I'm citizens united
adding fuel to that fire
putting them money in politics on
steroids is now gotten to the point
even when the economy recovers actually
ninety-nine percent of us
still lose our income is no longer going
up
incrementally or a tiny bit it's now
going down
and after Citizens United then we just
recently got the country
which lives even more limits on campaign
financing
look it's not a small little issue
campaign finance reform its not like all
well look I have strong feelings about
war which makes sense or I have strong
feelings about the environment which
makes sense
this is about our democracy so your
opinions on war taxes
all that stuff is you relevant if you
don't live in a democracy
if you live in an oligarchy don't give a
damn about your opinions on those issues
anyway there's only one issue
who controls our politicians and if you
do private financing
elections you'll have the people who
give those large donations
who control our politicians that is
obvious it's a matter of logic
and now through this study it's a matter
of fact
one more set have devastating graphs for
you
from personable the study's conclusion
our democracy just to be clear
is america's claims to being a
democratic society
are seriously threatened now
up I tend to think that they are
understating that
I think at the National applied at the
state level at local
because I've seen a Marx who work there
but at the national level
when you talk about Washington DC it is
not seriously threatened
its gone it's over I mean look we just
saw the numbers
but I'll give you more as I said here
the graphs average citizens preferences
how much did affect policy
the line is we have to concern yourself
with their okay
well that's what they're talking about
when they say your
opinion is insignificant it did not make
any difference flat sorry
not interested alright well upon lies in
that way you might say okay well this is
fair
let's take a look at the line for
economic elites preferences
yeah that's a different light that's the
line that says
it was highly correlated to the policy
the policy was connected to what the
economic
elites preferred that is not an accident
it is by design and how about
interest-group alignments
donors lobbyists special interests
also barry much aligned
we do not run our government there on
our government
I know that's really bad news of course
I think we can take it back
you wanna know how you go to war dash
pack dot com
now why did I start with pack because
I already saw this I saw in every story
I covered my sword in
every political article the person with
more money the issue the side with more
money
one in every single instance
that's why we start a wolf pack in the
first place if you don't get a
constitutional amendment to fix this
we're done for we might as well just bow
our heads and say yes they rule us
in accept their fate but I don't accept
that fate
throughout American history brave men
and women have fought back
and in Wolf Pack we've got high school
students we've got people
who are disabled we've got people love
every different background race
ethnicity age group you know what
they're doing they're calling their
local state representative senators
and they're having a tremendous impact
and when you see democracy works its
amazing
when you actually get a representative
or senator to care about his
constituents
and introduce legislation to fix things
it's the most wonderful thing you've
ever seen
and then you really believe in democracy
thank God
it still exists at the state level and
we don't need Washington at all to fix
this
its in the US Constitution because the
guys who are brave enough in the first
place to give us that democracy
was benjamin franklin said a republic if
we can keep it
knew that a day like this would come
that's why they put it in Article five
the Constitution that you can get an
amendment to the Constitution
without using Washington at all the
state's call for convention for specific
amendment
and then the Constitution is above the
Supreme Court
it's above congress so american people
warring back
in saying we'll look you know what our
government thank you very much
will take that back you see what the
results are. when you do nothing
join us and see what the results can be
when we do something
together wall dash back dot com
