‘Oligarchic tendencies’: Study finds only the wealthy get represented in the Senate

[xchrom]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/19/oligarchic-tendencies-study-finds-only-the-wealthy-get-represented-in-the-senate/



Members of the U.S. Senate do not respond equally to the views of all their constituents, according to research to be published in Political Research Quarterly next month. Senators overall represent their wealthiest constituents, while those on bottom of the economic rung are neglected.

“The fact that lower income groups seem to be ignored by elected officials, although not a new finding, remains a troubling observation in American politics,” Thomas J. Hayes of Trinity University wrote in his study.

The study used data from the 2004 National Annenberg Election Survey to compare constituents’ political opinion to the voting behavior of their Senators in the 107th through 111th Congresses. With more than 90,000 respondents, the NAES is the largest public opinion survey conducted during presidential elections.

In all of the five Congresses examined, the voting records of Senators were consistently aligned with the opinions of their wealthiest constituents. The opinions of lower-class constituents, however, never appeared to influence the Senators’ voting behavior.

[LisaLynne]

1. File this under "duh"

But seriously, it is beneficial to do these studies, because it's always good to have actual evidence of this type to prove the point. We truly have a problem with class in this country.

[Scuba]

2. No one could have predicted that.

[RainDog]

3. for the money, by the money

that's always been the case until working people were able to form unions to provide a counter force to the oligarchs.

the reason we face such difficult economic times currently is that the U.S. has spent decades undermining any representation for the middle or working class.

[xchrom]

4. +1

[daleanime]

7. Bingo!

[Cryptoad]

12. They don't want

to not undermine the people they are raping and redistributing the spoils among the Super Rich.

[cali]

5. I'm so glad to have two senators that break with that mold

and a rep in the House that does as well.

[Recursion]

6. That's pretty much the Senate's point, isn't it?

I mean, they actually named it after the part of the Roman government that was explicitly only made up of the very richest people.

[d_r]

8. wow

this must be something new in US history?

[HughBeaumont]

9. LINCOLN SHOT! TITANIC SINKS!

Make-a-buckmerica is going down like a sweet muffin if we do nothing about reining in the plutocrats.

[Orrex]

11. Dude--how about a spoiler alert next time?

[Cryptoad]

10. Sounds like

a GOP study!

[libodem]

13. Go figure

Who'd have thunk it?

[NRaleighLiberal]

14. Money/power/greed - the root cause that transcends politics and makes this all so hard...

Was thinking that this morning - how the cards are really stacked up to keep the status quo due to the fact that power and money and greed never relinquish.....

[KansDem]

15. I think we all suspected that...we all knew that...

But it is good to have a study proving it.

Let's see how the media reports this. Oh, wait! Did I really type that!

[City Lights]

16. This is not surprising.

At all.

The 99%ers have been left out in the cold.

[JEB]

17. It's a big club and you ain't in it

[alfredo]

18. House of Lords

[MisterP]

19. two big-corporatist parties opposed by an astroturf petty-corporatist "movement" nt