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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.
- advertisements -
Co-ordinates, please.
You say:
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.
You might be interested in this:
Is the Web Making Us Passive?In my experience, there is a ton of anger out there, from the lower incomes who are getting clobbered by unemployment, to upper middle class, who are seeing their life savings eroded and their children's prospects eroded.
Re outrage Mr President....Austin, TX.
Thank you for your posts.Keep up the excellent work.Going by the numbers you cite, things could get very dicey for TPTB.In the current deteriorating environment, I fully expect a cockamamie false flag any day now.....
Thanks for the link.
But don't think that applies to everyone. For me I fixate on things more and get more pissed off, because it seems to me they are shoving it in our face. Now maybe I'm not doing all I can in my real life but I still routinely speak out and being in law school I'm one of the vocal kids and the rest look at me as a radical libertarian and write me off. And you would think most of these kids would be pissed at the system, 6 figures in debt and no job prospects and they are as calm as Hindu cattle.
Shameful:
Graduated from a tier 4 in May 2009, passed the California bar and got licensed in Dec 2009. Started looking for work in mid January. 5 weeks of searching so far, ive sent out 80-90 applications. Still waiting to hear back. I fully realize that it could be July and ill still be looking for a job.
I feel your frustration in law school. I would say the same things and everyone wrote me off as a wackjob, wierdo, paranoid, chicken little, etc. They wont listen fuckem its their problem. And im not as hopeful as GWashignton is. Also, i doubt the poll numbers, no way that 70% of people think the system is broken. Most people be watching american idol, reality tv, new moon, porn, etc. Neo-feudalism is here to stay.
Heart goes out to you man. I knew it would be bad to hit law school in a downturn, even worse then I thought it would be. Did it mostly for my mom, but kept my IT skills sharp and now working my way through to keep the debt down low. I can't imagine what you lower tier guys must be going through. I'm at a tier 1 school and it's like a war-zone to get a job. One of the 3L's at the very top of the class didn't get an offer from her summer firm job. Most of the people I know won't be getting paying work and have massive debt. I know a few people that had to take a referral or grab a clerkship because their firm wanted them to wait.
Sure I'll admit most of my classmates are stupid kids who really believe in socialism, but they are going to get pushed into a world with no work and 1-2 houses worth of none-dischargeable debt. I got a great scholarship and I'm working and I'm pissed at the amount of debt I have to take on. And I gotta speak out, if I don't no one will. They will ignore me, but I have to at least give them the chance to see the problem. One of my best friends in law school was also a libertarian, and she dropped after the first year to become a nurse, think it was a great call. Hell I was planning on dropping too but my mom would have none of it. Sometimes you got to do stupid things to make your parents happy.
The world has to many lawyers, but look at the media. We don't glorify real producers, we glorify paper pushers and we have had generations of kids being told the highest level of achievement was to be a paper pusher not a producer. Even Justice Scalia pointed out that to many smart young people were going to law school instead of becoming scientists or engineers.
You know maybe that is what we should hope for, no more cable TV. You know it hasn't been hurt much in the downturn? My dad works for a major cable provider and has noticed that while business connections are down the average citizen will not give up their cable. Bread and circuses. What I'm waiting for is the gov to give out cable coupons with the food stamps.
Just we need. More lawyers.
This is exactly what's wrong with the so-called educated. They take a course because that's what they want to be as opposed to taking a broad look at the job market and ask, "What needs to be done". Any bonehead could have told you we already have about 500,000 too many lawyers.
And they and the MBA quants have ruined this country. We need a whole lot LESS of each.
Ah you do know most quant guys are Ph.D level math and science guys right? Agreed that we have to many paper pushers, but the paper pushers are also now co-opting the science/math crew to run the scams.
Plenty of people don't pay any attention because they know it's a corrupt scam that they can't do anything about. They're everywhere. Everyone in my office is like this. I don't think I know a single person who votes, and it's always because they know it's a scam.
Run to your nearest video store or call Netflix and get a copy of "Network".
We need a bunch of people shouting out their windows that they're mad as hell, and they're not going to take it any more.
Hindu cattle. Mmmmmm!
I'll take mine medium rare.
Get your wealth in GD physical commodities (especially precious metals, cocaine, heroin, vodka, etc.) and you'll have nothing to lose (be taken) when you join the good fight.
Keep fighting the good fight:
There Is Still HopeI agree with a lot of what you say and I appreciate your writing. But hopeful for what? If we hope to have a world like our parents and grandparents then there is no hope. My father came to this country as a young boy from eastern Europe, didn't get much of an education but through hard work he was able to get his way into the middle class. I've worked hard my whole live amassing jobs skills and degrees and I fear I won't be able to have the same standard of living as my poor immigrant father. America was the land of promise, where with hard work and thrift a person could get ahead. The America of the past is dead.
Truly LBJ and Nixon delivered the final deathblows to this nation and we have merely been bleeding out since then. The problem is when the ponzi is exposed what will be left in America? The dollar will die, we have no industry to speak of, no commodity to export, we are the caboose on the global economy. I fully expect America to look like Mexico economically. We are getting their with the politician and bureaucrats even now.
Hell, I had to do a ride along with a cop and the stuff he pulled while I was there stunned me. Pulling women over to get their phone numbers, harassing people without cause, not arresting a known felon with a warrant out on him because he smelled bad! And remember this is with him being observed by a law student! I can only fathom what he does when he is not watched.
The United States is Rome. All empires must crumble and end. I am slightly hopeful about a future America broken up by states without a central government but the police state that is clamping down makes that unlikely. After all imagine if Lincoln had a nuke. I will continue to speak out because I love what this country used to represent but I also plan on expatriating in a few years. While I love this country I have no interest in going down with the ship or being enslaved to pay a debt racked up and given to the privileged few.
lbj and nixon were pawns in a much larger game...presidents
generally have limited power...in particular nixon
was destroyed by the cia because he was deemed to be
too big for his britches....he was not solicitous
enough of the oligarchs and went around doing that
detente business which caused them to murder
kennedy....
lbj got us into the war and unleashed the final act
of the redistributive state but he was acting under
orders to escalate in vietnam.....that is one reason
he chose not to run for a 2d term....
the usa is controlled by a demonic power who has
nearly eaten up its host....the usa will not recover -
it is doomed nation which will display one final
act of desperation to hold on to power....there is
no amount of destruction or murder too great for the
oligarchs to retain power...such evil people include
the rockefellers, the bush crime syndicate, buffets,
bundys, buckleys, duponts, soros, and on and on and on...
Expatriate to where? When we go, the rest go., ex. maybe Russia-China. Stay here, forget the "future". It's now. Buy gun, ammo, join militia. Await the call....
You know I hear this a lot from Americans "When we go down the whole world goes down!" Like if America crumbles the rest of the world will instantly descend back into the dark ages and barbarism, perhaps with mass cannibalism without the holy light of America on them. This seems pretty crazy to me. Since we are in effect consuming the worlds capital and giving them pieces of paper in return would not ht world be better off if we didn't exist? The reason the rest of the world will be hurt is they will have to write us off as a bad debt, that doesn't change the fact we will be in effect bankrupt and without economic means.
Further are you really telling me to hang out and wait for a civil war? So you think things might be so bad in the developing world that you would rather fight a bloody conflict against tanks, planes, and our fellow Americans? Sir I admire you courage even if I do not agree with your reasoning. I may not be an intellectually coward but I am no fighter, was not allowed to serve for health reasons. I also have to believe that an educated man with savings will do better in the developing world then waiting for the walls to close in on me here. I have no dreams of glory, I simply want what my father had. An honest chance to make a good living and have a family.
If you are truly willing to stay behind and spill your blood for the cause of liberty then you are a better man then I.
+10^oo