Comment on Lemmy users logging on to level set the Blue Wave enjoyers
isleepinahammock@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 days agoJust remember something. In the United States, you only exist in a democracy if you are in the top 10% of household incomes. Anyone poorer than this has absolutely zero say in government policy. Your votes don’t matter.
And before some mouth-breathing moron starts hyperventilating about “encouraging people not to vote,” you can actually go look this up. It’s been studied. The opinions of the top 10%, and only the top 10%, are reflected in federal policy going back decades.
This is why the vast majority of people don’t give a shit about democracy in the US. They don’t give a shit about protecting a democracy that they themselves are only nominally a part of. Just because you vote doesn’t mean your vote actually matters.
This is why the vast majority of people don’t give a shit about democracy in the US.
I promise you, that is not the reason. Do you get out much? Talk to most people? They aren’t paying attention. And most people are not paying attention because they are extremely incurious about anything that doesn’t directly effect them.
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Tell that to Mississippi.
isleepinahammock@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 days ago
You miss the point. Democrats listen to the wealthiest 10% that happen to be Democrats. Republicans listen to the wealthiest 10% that happen to be Republicans. The parties are two coalitions of the elites. One elite coalition is mostly folks genuinely trying to make the world better. The other…isn’t. But it’s all a game of elite vs. elite. The rest of us are just along for the ride.
It’s not some conspiracy. It’s just social circles. Politicians spend their time interacting with the upper levels of society. Even when they are trying to reach out to ordinary workers, they mostly do so through workers in relatively elite positions, like union leaders. Politicians just don’t spend much time interacting with normal people, and thus they don’t understand normal people’s problems. Politicians of either party will hear about whatever things the wealthiest 10% happen to be worrying about at any given moment. And we very much are influenced by those we spend our time around.
What bills the new Democratic Congress passes will have nothing to do with what the public as a whole wants. Whatever the wealthiest 10% who happen to be Democrats want? That is what they will focus on, to the exclusion of everything else.