Why are our representatives so beholden to special interests?
The costs of getting elected has skyrocketed in recent years. Our elected officials spend 30-70% of their time in office fundraising for the next election. When they’re not fundraising, they have no choice but to make sure the laws they pass keep their major donors happy – or they won’t be able to run in the next election.
Watch this video on the influence of money in Washington:
In return for campaign donations, elected officials pass laws that are good for their mega-donors, and bad for the rest of us.
While the opinions of the bottom 90% of income earners in America have a “statistically non-significant impact,” economic elites, business interests, and people who can afford lobbyists still carry major influence.
Princeton scholar Martin Gilens offers this graph to show that the opinions of the poor or middle class have no influence on policy change:
For more information:
https://themonkeycage.org/2012/08/economic-inequality-and-political-power-part-1/