Thursday, February 18, 2010
"Only 21% Say U.S. Government Has Consent of the Governed ... Those with the Lowest Incomes are the Most Skeptical"
A new Rasmussen poll finds:
The founding document of the United States, the Declaration of Independence, states that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Today, however, just 21% of voters nationwide believe that the federal government enjoys the consent of the governed.
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Seventy-one percent (71%) of all voters now view the federal government as a special interest group, and 70% believe that the government and big business typically work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors.That helps explain why 75% of voters are angry at the policies of the federal government, and 63% say it would be better for the country if most members of Congress are defeated this November...
In his new book, In Search of Self-Governance, Scott Rasmussen observes that the American people are “united in the belief that our political system is broken, that politicians are corrupt, and that neither major political party has the answers.” He adds that “the gap between Americans who want to govern themselves and the politicians who want to rule over them may be as big today as the gap between the colonies and England during the 18th century.”
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Sixty percent (60%) of voters think that neither Republican political leaders nor Democratic political leaders have a good understanding of what is needed today. Thirty-five percent (35%) say Republicans and Democrats are so much alike that an entirely new political party is needed to represent the American people.
Nearly half of all voters believe that people randomly selected from the phone book could do as good a job as the current Congress.
It is not surprising - given the following - that this is largely viewed as a class issue:
- The poor have disproportionally suffered from unemployment
- PhD economist Dean Baker said that the true purpose of the bank rescues is "a massive redistribution of wealth to the bank shareholders and their top executives"
- Two leading IMF officials, the former Vice President of the Dallas Federal Reserve, and the the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City have all said that the United States is controlled by an oligarchy
- Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and many others have called our current system "socialism for the rich"
- PhD economist Michael Hudson says that the financial “parasites” are "sucking as much money out" as they can before "jumping ship"
- Warren Buffet said a couple of years ago: "There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning.”
As Rasmussen notes:
Those who earn more than $100,000 a year are more narrowly divided on the question, but those with lower incomes overwhelming reject the notion that today’s government has the consent from which to derive its just authority. Those with the lowest incomes are the most skeptical.
13 comments:
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Posts
so then, where is the freaking revolution?
ReplyDeleteOne if the revolutionaries just flew a plane into a building in Austin
ReplyDeleteFor the record, I don't support anyone flying a plane into anything.
ReplyDelete"Warren Buffet said a couple of years ago: 'There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning'."
ReplyDeleteHere's a little poem from a 1933 issue of the New Yorker for the supercilious Mr. Buffett to chew on:
I Paint What I See
-- by E.B. White
"'What do you paint, when you paint on a wall?'
Said John D.'s grandson Nelson.
'Do you paint just anything there at all?
'Will there be any doves, or a tree in fall?
'Or a hunting scene, like an English hall?'
'I paint what I see,' said Rivera.
'What are the colors you use when you paint?'
Said John D.'s grandson Nelson.
'Do you use any red in the beard of a saint?
'If you do, is it terribly red, or faint?
'Do you use any blue? Is it Prussian?'
'I paint what I paint,' said Rivera.
'Whose is that head that I see on the wall?'
Said John D.'s grandson Nelson.
'Is it anyone's head whom we know, at all?
'A Rensselaer, or a Saltonstall?
'Is it Franklin D.? Is it Mordaunt Hall?
Or is it the head of a Russian?
'I paint what I think,' said Rivera.
'I paint what I paint, I paint what I see,
'I paint what I think,' said Rivera,
'And the thing that is dearest in life to me
'In a bourgeois hall is Integrity;
'However . . .
'I'll take out a couple of people drinkin'
'And put in a picture of Abraham Lincoln;
'I could even give you McCormick's reaper
'And still not make my art much cheaper.
'But the head of Lenin has got to stay
'Or my friends will give the bird today,
'The bird, the bird, forever.'
'It's not good taste in a man like me,'
Said John D.'s grandson Nelson,
'To question an artist's integrity
'Or mention a practical thing like a fee,
'But I know what I like to a large degree,
'Though art I hate to hamper;
'For twenty-one thousand conservative bucks
'You painted a radical. I say shucks,
'I never could rent the offices-----
'The capitalistic offices.
'For this, as you know, is a public hall
'And people want doves, or a tree in Fall
'And though your art I dislike to hamper,
'I owe a little to God and Gramper,
'And after all,
'It's my wall . . .'
'We'll see if it is,' said Rivera
Andrei Vyshinsky
Mr. Washington,
ReplyDeleteBefore I put a question to you, I'd like to state that I consider your blog to be of the highest caliber, in terms of research, presentation and analysis. After my own research of many years, it seems that we are of like mind.
To my question: since you were quick to state, unequivocally, that "[you] don't support anyone flying a plane into anything," which on its face I agree with, I am curious to know what actions you do support as a means to effecting positive change?
After all, as the Chinese say, "talk doesn't cook rice."
Thank you, H
To Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteNon-violent and truthful action, in the tradition of Ghandi, and King, is a much smarter way to restore the American republic than by immaturely flying a plane into government buildings.
We must engage in tax boycotts, general strikes, protests, marches, and other peaceful methods.
Besides, the US government clearly outnumbers the American people in planes, so calling Joe Stack a patriot and then follow in his footsteps is the dumbest thing to do. He chose to use a plane to make his statement instead of using his head.
@Truth Excavator
ReplyDeleteAgree.
But if the way of Gandhi and King does not work, then *it will* go the way of Mandela.
But it will work because it has to.
ReplyDeleteCould Martin Luther King have done what he did with out the Black Pathers, Malcom X, and the Watts riots? King was the lesser of a several bad choices for the WASP elite. Che, Mao, and Lenin were successful in their goals, and none of them believed in non violence.
ReplyDeleteMao and Lenin were as bad as those they over through. That's the problem with revolutions is it's takes a worst bad ass to get rid of the original bad ass. Read George Orwell's Animal Farm.
Revolt won’t work FEMA has lots of prisons on standby, and if you are declared a terrorist you have no due process rights. The courts, congress, senate, and the executive are all brought and paid for by the elites. That seems to make any legal remedy improbable.
That only leaves buying back the government from the elites, but in order to raise that much money would have to use the same methods they used to get theirs, and then you become them, because you are dependant on the same mechanisms and methods for you own power.
I am not seeing any positives out comes here. If any one has a workable solution I would love to hear it. For the record I don’t indorse the over through of U.S government or illegal acts against said government.
Could Martin Luther King have done what he did with out the Black Pathers, Malcom X, and the Watts riots? King was the lesser of a several bad choices for the WASP elite. Che, Mao, and Lenin were successful in their goals, and none of them believed in non violence.
ReplyDeleteMao and Lenin were as bad as those they over through. That's the problem with revolutions is it's takes a worst bad ass to get rid of the original bad ass. Read George Orwell's Animal Farm.
Revolt won’t work FEMA has lots of prisons on standby, and if you are declared a terrorist you have no due process rights. The courts, congress, senate, and the executive are all brought and paid for by the elites. That seems to make any legal remedy improbable.
That only leaves buying back the government from the elites, but in order to raise that much money would have to use the same methods they used to get theirs, and then you become them, because you are dependant on the same mechanisms and methods for you own power.
I am not seeing any positives out comes here. If any one has a workable solution I would love to hear it. For the record I don’t indorse the over through of U.S government or illegal acts against said government.
Nothing about the CPAC annual Nuremberg Rally? God knows, with Joe Stack now their Horst Wessel and Glenn Beck playing Ernst Roehm to Ron Paul's Tea Party brownshirts, these reactionaries just might succeed in finding a way to end unemployment through starvation after all.
ReplyDeleteAndrei Vyshinsky
Andrei:
ReplyDeleteIf Republicans AND Democrats are the problem, this revolutionary tool we're communicating with might provide the solution.
The Internet makes it doable to target ALL Republican and Democrat incumbents running for relection next November 2nd.
FLUSH the DC TOILET of as many incumbents as possible and select replacements from existing third party candidates.
Just keep in mind, that USA is a global mega corporation. Its sole purpose is to be able to collect fees on the fiat currency it can eject into the world financial system at will. The markets do the rest of the work, and most of the humane race is just recycled in a green way. We are the lucky one, as far as the rest of the world is concern. What ever happens you read or hear about is just a distraction from this simple fact. There is no escape from the matrix. It is over boys and girls, relax and enjoy the rest of the days
ReplyDelete