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"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.
***
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.”
***
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.
Rather poor standard in the choice of quotations.
IMF? Please, the IMF is an extension to the US. Introducing those two people as IMF executives...
Socialism for the rich? During this crisis, I read stupid comments but two crown the filth stack: it was communist to bail out Wall Street (I read that one) and socialism for the rich.
The rich using the poor to compensate their losses, to bail them out in harsh times is nothing new. Actually, it was the norm for centuries in human societies. A from bottom to top redistribution of wealth.
Socialism came as a reaction to this matter of fact and was then strictly defined as including a from top to bottom redistribution of wealth.
Speaking of socialism for the rich is inane. There cant be socialism for the rich.
Of course, the state of society the rich use poors to compensate their losses has a name: that is the Natural order.
This Nobel Prize guy denied millenia of human history and centuries of intellectual debate with his socialism for rich.
Again, there is nothing new in the current situation. Why label a new awkward concept when a clear name already exists and is associated to already known society internal ways?
The noble farming the serf was not socialism for the rich. That was the natural order.
The one way any government will take notice is if an individual refuses to pay tax and resists them when they try to force him or her to pay. Multiply that a million times or even a thousand and you have an effective protest
"Nations of sheep, will be devoured by wolves".
(with a nod to E. R. Murrow)
And we know that of that 21% more than half work for financial instiution.
imho, it seems the babee boomers are waking up too a few things, in the past we knew rich folks had privaledge and perks, and the story line was, yeah, they got it but thru hard work and being smarter, well reality is becoming known,
which is the same reality thru-out history, power, ie, money buys influence, and the bigger the money the more the influence, and mostly thru government, ie, laws to your advantage
the founding fathers were very rich men, who said screw you to england cause of money, and they advertised freedom cause they needed labor labor labor, heck, the big fight by the founding fathers was over slavery, which won out cause it was cheap labor
so when they say the markets never change, because human nature does not change, it is true, it just constantly changes styles and clothes for the time cycles
The late Dr. Carroll Quigley was a writer and professor of history at Georgetown University, where he was President Bill Clinton's mentor...
Dr. Quigley wrote from personal knowledge of an elite clique of global financiers L-bent on controlling the world. Their aim, he said, was
"nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole"..
This system was "to be controlled in a feudalist fashion[fascism] by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements[the "secret" meeting in Australia over the weekend]." He called this clique simply the "international bankers.
Their essence was not race, religion or nationality but was just a passion for ruthless control over other human beings. The key to their success was that they would control and manipulate the money system of a nation while letting it APPEAR[the smoke and mirrors and manipulation that we see in the markets nearly every day now] to be controlled by the government.
of course its all been tried before throughout the course of history...
but this time..
the international banksters firmly believe they can and will pull off a one world global money control system/one world global government,
with the aid of the incredible advances in technology,a scientific dictatorship,
with the endgame being total control over the entire planet by the micro chipping of everything on the planet,including humans and the elimination of 80-90% of the worlds "useless eaters"
when you look around and see what is transpiring in the world of finance today
there is simply no denying Quigley was spot on..it's the only thing that makes sense of what we are witnessing.
- r. newland
the need for a new political party has never been greater..
the Democraps and and the Republicraps are nearly identical..
radio talk show host and liberty crusader Alex Jones of infowars.com has come up with the perfect name for a 3rd party..
"THE COFFEE PARTY"
to counteract the hi-jacking of the "tea party" by Glenn Beck,Sarah Palin,and Fox news..
Americans,now more than ever,need to WAKE UP to the truth..
one strong,black cup at a time!
-r.newland
This is nothing new. Look at headlines all through U.S. history, and still we do nothing. Knowledge is power only if you use it.
It might be exciting to think of a civil insurrection and a shooting war, but that isn't the damage these figures show.
A society can only exist if the majority believe that society is overall to their benefit. Despite advances in technology people still can't be watched every moment and police can't be everywhere.
Passive withdrawal by the majority is the death knell to a society allowing the rise of the extremist fringes into the vacuum as the forces of stability no longer exist.
The majority of laws are not enforced, but obeyed willingly. If the majority no longer feel that the laws are for their benefit and that those passing and enforcing the laws are illegitimate then they'll begin only obeying laws when their is a danger of being caught, which is a small proportion of the time.
This form of civil disobedience represents the end stage of a society.
If there is to be meaningful change, then I can see only two avenues for it to happen.
The 'peaceful" method would be to ensure Congress gets revamped such that money doesn't buy elections or a sitting congressman's vote. Think term limits, public financing of elections, laws to the effect that one must live in a voting district to contribute to a congressman election, an end to gerrymandering of voting districts. Oh, and while we're at it, a RETROACTIVE end to Congresses cushy retirement and medical packages.
The other method we witnessed in Austin today.
To my mind, that guy was a true patriot. So much so that he made the ultimate sacrifice. The Feds and mainstream (read corporate owned) media can be damned for attempting to paint the story otherwise.
Anyone in NY care to join me in a march downtown calling for banking reform? In fact, after this latest Supreme Court decision, it seems that political action and our votes are the only weapons at our disposal since it's going to be harder than ever to wean our legislators from the lobbyist bottle. That poor guy in Austin may have had some points -- why else would the authorities have asked various sites to take down his letter, which was still up a few places late this afternoon -- but if our side is going to get any traction, activism is the only way to effect change. Come on, let's organize and march.
GW - Just an observation. Most folks forget where those that fill the ranks of those that bear the arms of our nation are drawn from. I admittedly appreciate much less about the professions of finance than I do about the profession of arms. In this might I suggest the following read to help shed some illumination into this other profession of our society folks appear to have less an understanding of than finance. I suspect that the numbers from this poll that reflect the impressions of the lower income strata of our society is broadly reflected within the ranks.
- Layne, S.A.M.C.
http://www.amazon.com/Guardians-Republic-History-Non-Commissioned-Office...
The gallows should be fixed before anything. The East keeps theirs well oiled.
We randomly pick people to decide whether someone gets put to death and we won't try it to balance our budget
An Elite which violates the Laws of Nature is no Elite. Its a failure in motion. Cracking at the foundation and profoundly fragmented. History proves and common sense concurs that all perversions toward aggrandizement decay and fall. The challenge is, how to not go down with it.
Everyone seems to be waiting for someone (who's not a nutjob like the guy in
Austin) to throw the first stone in a way that it's "safe" to join the revolution against all the injustice we always seem to be ranting against on sites like ZH. My take, put a huge percentage of your assets into real money (extremely liquid, divisible, imperishable, controlled by governments, etc., etc.) such as gold, silver, cocaine, pure grain alcohol, whiskey, pill form opiates, etc., etc. and educate everyone you know to do the same.
"such as gold, silver, cocaine, pure grain alcohol, whiskey, pill form opiates, etc., etc"
Why not ?Federal bureaucrats that have partnered with Corporate Oligarchy seeking to control narco dollars intimately intertwined with Fortune 500 money laundering for decades . http://dunwalke.com/
http://dunwalke.com/
If we claim to believe in "free" markets," we need "free" markets. Is it any wonder why US controlled Afghanistan is producing more than twice the opium/heroin that pre-Taliban produced? HMMMMMM. Was Vietnam about Communism or opium/heroin? My first hand sources emphatically suggest the latter. Wake up! It's all about "money" (i.e. extremely liquid, imperishable, divisible commodities). Energy, precious metals, drugs, alcohol, tobacco -- they're all highly taxed and controlled for a reason-- they're MONEY!!!!!!
Blood may be the only thing that can fix it.
Joe Pilot = Hero.
very much so...
This is good news. It means people are finally waking up.
I understand why some are pessimistic about the "sheeple", and their perceived passivity. I think it's largely a time lag. Those of us who have been reading sites like this for two years or have been otherwise paying close attention to ongoing events went through the irate-disgust-despair phases while the wider public is slow to catch up. But given a little time they will.
Though Marla disagrees, the Austin fellow is part of a growing movement, angry and arming. Justice won't be found in our courts but in restaurants, movie theaters and golf courses as we find those responsible, one by one, and stick a bayonet in their necks.
Nikki... There's a revolution calling you..
All it would take is to end all unnecessary spending, reduce government and state employees, get the govt out of the home mortgage, college loan, car, and pension business. No more taxpayer guarantees. Take the 10% waste out of Medicare. Cut back unnecessary foreign military bases. no more preventing foreclosures. Let Capitalism work quickly.
Go back to the taxes at the Clinton level, and stop printing money.
Make sure no other countries are using free market principles for predatory pricing. China, is that you?
three years and we will be great again.
Oh by the way, all welfare recipients will need to do homework for internet based learning. No homework done, no money.
10%??? 10%?? You're kidding right!
Here's the debt clock ... check out the Medicare bill & SS at the bottom ... if either party ever quoted it, they'd be voted out instantly.
www.usdebtclock.org
And heres a clip from 60 minutes showing how "Tony" ripped our government imbeciles off for $20M ... with a printer and a list ... all because these as*hats pay out money that isn't theirs like nothing ...
http://www.cbs.com/primetime/60_minutes/video/?pid=p8AFZnc2uUg_XlnUlGxKsF9iZ7Qw_yN_&vs=homepage&play=true
10% WASTE???? You are kidding, right?
Check out the bill for Medicare & Social Security at the bottom of www.usdebtclock.org
Then watch how Tony ripped off Medicare for $20M with a printer and a list ... all because its not the money of all these useless government hacks.
http://www.cbs.com/primetime/60_minutes/video/?pid=p8AFZnc2uUg_XlnUlGxKs...
only once I made mistake of not voting 3rd party, and it WASN'T Al Gore that I'm thinking about. yes, protest votes. beats going along.
And some people wonder why Joe blew his stack and flew a plane into a building with government workers.
i hate to break the news but dwight eisenhower told america in 1961 that amerika was ruled by a military industrial complex but was using delicate language to describe the intelligence police state established by the plutocrats - the very ones who murdered kennedy.....
the same establishment led by daddy bush destroyed the wtc....the same rockefeller - rothschild axis of evil gave sock puppet obama 2.2 billion in free advertising to get their toady into power - as though it really mattered which color sock mattered with pinstripe sewer.....
the one party state is broke.....it's time to vote all incumbants out and to stop voting democrat or republican....
the revolving door between goldmas sachs and the treasury must be filled in with cement hopefully with blankfeins head caught in the cement dump....
We can't prove it, but I don't doubt it!
the proof is all over the place....those who don't
see it live a deluded denial....
Some pissed off dude flew his plane into an IRS building in Austin this morning. Americans are increasingly feeling marginalized by their government and won't be exercising passive resistance this time around.
"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'."
Here'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
It was the bailout of the banks that made both the Republicans and the Democrats very unpopular. Because the US government basically rewarded a bunch of millionaires and billionaires with many billions more of taxpayer money. And the US government did it despite the obvious fraud of the rating agencies and the banks that colluded with them.
Instead of punishing the criminals who crashed the US economy and caused so much insecurity and misery for ordinary people, both Republicans and Democrats rewarded the criminals and didn't do much to help the ordinary people.
And it's true that people don't really have a choice when they go to vote at the polls. Because there are only two political parties to choose from. And they both have done the same unpopular thing that many people resent.
billions? mere paltry billions? please.....billions
aren't even chump change any more....no the
republicans and democrats - poseurs in a one
party state - pledged trillions for their lords
and masters....and citizens will pay....
Presumably by "criminals who crashed the US economy" you are including all of those borrowers who over-extended themselves with debt. You are right, we should get those guys. Why would they do something that foolish and destructive?? Do they not have a clue about the dangers of leverage??
It's the ring-leaders who have organized the fraud and who are are most responsible.
This fraud couldn't have gone on for long, if the rating agencies had given honest ratings for mortgage backed securities. And this fraud couldn't have gone on if the investment banks didn't pressure and provide kick-backs for the rating agencies to cheat.
Your suggestion of going after the little guys who were bribed and tempted into cheating the system shows your lack of sympathy for these victims of predatory lending. They weren't the ones who made billions of dollars out of this. Many of them ended up being thrown out on the street without any savings and without any place to stay at.
Rich bankers used these people to commit their fraud. And then they discarded these people on the street as if these people were garbage.
GW, I posted a critical comment on your last article and it was removed. Are you doing the censoring or is ZH management?
ITG, I don't know how to censor comments, I only know how to post ...
But I assume your comment was troll-ish?
No, it was negative but not trollish. Thanks for letting me know.
Truth be known, it was God punishing you for your sin. I'd suggest a serious self-examination and an about face. After all its George Washington you're addressing, young man. :-)
A government by the elite, for the elite, and of the elite! I would rather have a king, at least the king would plan to keep the land instead of loot it, and totally destroy the nation and then run to Paraguay. Hear Bush has a nice ranch there. And no the blues are no better. They are united in their looting of us.
I'm still waiting for the outrage. I look around every day and have to ask "Where is the outrage? Am I the only one feeling pissed?" I know there are others online but not seeing enough people in my normal life.
I am outraged, but what do you expect us to do, jump up and down waving our arms in the air?
What are YOU doing?
There does not appear any way to demonstrate which is either ignored or repressed.
Its very frustrating to watch it all fall apart.
By the time elections roll around it will be too late. Ah hell its too late now.
So do you have any good ideas what those of us who are outraged should be doing ?
Seems to me many of you still trade the market. Why are you still trading in a crooked market? Oh yes, thats right , profits.
Walk away and be part of us or stay trading and be one of them.
I am a simple man with little education but i know better than to trade with the enemy.
To us in the late middle class , wallstreet and D.C. is the enemy! Are you consorting for the sake of profit?
Will zerohedge kick me off for making this post since this is a traders site?
I cant help speaking the truth as i know it.
Me, I'm talking loudly in all the avenues of my life and to anyone that my voice can reach. When I still had times I attend rallies and the Tea Party events. I donate to people I think can make a difference, like the Dr. Pauls. I've convinced most of my friends and family of the ponzi nature of the world and trying to get them to have their money positioned accordingly. Acquaintances, coworkers, and my fellow students I have not had much luck with sadly. But really I'm the only one in my little world that is vocalizing this. I have professors constantly telling me "Everything is ok" is some form or another.
I in no way expect people to be flailing their arms wildly or God forbid resorting to violence. What I would like to see is people stop playing in this system, to stop contributing to their 401ks, and the market. I don't trade it, I've said it many times. I'm here because I'm in PM's and trying to time the best times to buy and get rid of my Bernanke Fun Bux. When I take physical possession at least I know that some banker is not running the ponzi with my money.
But as I said I don't believe the system can be fixed. It has to collapse under the wieght of decades of corruption. I want to see Americans being proactive to getting assets outside the system, which will also hasten it's demise. The sooner it dies the better chance America has to be great again. Imagine the sate of the economy if they can keep the ponzi up another 10 years, or 20. Better to take the pain now before it is totally ruinous.
As to the trading, they do so at considerable risk. Those who frequent this site, more then the general population, know the game is rigged. In many ways no better then going into the casino, you know they will cheat to try to get your money.
I hear you loud and clear! In fact, I just got done apologizing to my elderly mother for railing at her over this same topic, after watching and listening to the corporate media brazenly using the IRS office/plane incident of today to attempt to smear EVERYONE who opposes the growth of our out-of-control, corrupted and oligarchical federal government as "radical extremists" and equating them to "anti-government terrorists". Well, you know what, you fascist oligarchy? Keep beating us over the head with your lies, disinformation and propaganda, and raping us while telling us that you are doing so "for our own good", and you are just going to breed more and more such "terrorists" who will have little or nothing to lose by violently opposing you!
Russian intelligence is predicting major anti-ZOG uprisings in U.S. by mid-2012. Sounds about right.
retirement, post-Berlin Wall America. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honecker
You almost had it right; actually its:
"A government by Goldman Sachs, for Goldman Sachs, and of Goldman Sachs."
You almost had it right; actually its:
"A government by Goldman Sachs, for Goldman Sachs, and of Goldman Sachs."
"Paraguay. Hear Bush has a nice ranch there."
Its 100,000 acres in the tri corner region near the Mariscal Estigarribia air base a place where SOCOM can bivouac 16,000 troops to guard him when the shit hits the fan here. Henry Paulson has a place to go on the Eastern front of the Andes that the Nature Conservancy set up for him through a Goldman Sachs orchestrated sweetheart land deal. eBay founder Pierre Omidyar has a compound up the Boulder River in Montana that is outfitted to hold him and his family and a full security detail for 3 years without ever comming out ,complete with an operating room.
Still think Glenn Beck is wearing a tin foil hat?