The USA is an Oligarchy of the Rich, For the Rich and By the Rich

From The Ramparts
Junious Ricardo Stanton
The USA is an Oligarchy of the Rich, For the Rich and By The Rich

“Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. The results provide substantial support for theories of Economic Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism” Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups and Average Citizens by Martin Gilens Princeton University and Benjamin Page Northwestern University

Most people believe what we were taught in school: the USA is a “Democracy”, a representative republic, that the US economy is free and open; the US is fair, a land of equal opportunity and this is the best system known to man in the history of mankind. While most Black folks know deep down inside this has never been the case, many of us still are enmeshed in that insane groupthink and we follow in lock step with the okey-doke and flim flam despite ample evidence in our collective history and personal experience this is just not so.
We do it to get along and to be able make a living at the cost of compromising our souls. Even white folks who are seeing their notion of the American Dream evaporate before their eyes on a daily basis still hold on to the conditioning and brainwashing they received and they are still being fed by the mind control apparatus that this country is exceptional, good and wholesome; the best thing since sliced bread.
But a new study that will be released later this year by a team of Princeton and Northwestern University researchers has documented what many of us already knew, a small clique of rich folks run this country. Researchers Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page conclude and state in their report entitled Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups and Average Citizens, “The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence. Our results provide substantial support for theories of Economic Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism.” http://www.princeton.edu/~mgilens/Gilens%20homepage%20materials/Gilens%20and%20Page/Gilens%20and%20Page%202014-Testing%20Theories%203-7-14.pdf What the sociologists are saying is the data supports the fact ruling elite and deeply entrenched special interests hold the power in this country.
They base their conclusions upon a thorough sampling of data and surveys that show the United States is an oligarchy: a state ruled by an extremely small cabal of people of a certain class. They conclude electoral politics and mass pluralistic movements have little or no bearing on policy or outcomes. The recent Occupy Wall Street movement (which was subsequently bum rushed and put down by the government) came to the same conclusions. OWS referred to the American Oligarchs as the one per cent (1%).
Gilens and Page’s assessment is not a new revelation. It has been this way since the very beginning as author and researcher G. William Domhoff says, “Who has predominant power in the United States? The short answer, from 1776 to the present, is: Those who have the money — or more specifically, who own income-producing land and businesses — have the power. George Washington was one of the biggest landowners of his day; presidents in the late 19th century were close to the railroad interests; for the Bush family, it was oil and other natural resources, agribusiness, and finance. In this day and age, this means that banks, corporations, agribusinesses, and big real estate developers, working separately on most policy issues, but in combination on important general issues — such as taxes, opposition to labor unions, and trade agreements with other countries — set the rules within which policy battles are waged. While this conclusion may at first seem too simple or direct, leaving little room for elected officials or voters, the reasons behind it are complex. They involve an understanding of social classes, the role of experts, the two-party system, and the history of the country, especially Southern slavery. In terms of the big world-historical picture, and the Four Networks theory of power advocated on this site, large economic interests rule in America because there are no rival networks that grew up over a long and complex history: There is no one big church, as in many countries in Europe, no big government, as it took to survive as a nation-state in Europe and no big military until after 1940 (which is not very long ago) to threaten to take over the government. So, the only power network of any consequence in the history of the United States has been the economic one, which under capitalism generates a business-owning class and a working class, along with small businesses and skilled craft workers who are self-employed, and a relatively small number of highly trained professionals such as architects, lawyers, physicians, and scientists. In this context, the key reason why money can rule — i.e., why the business owners who hire workers can rule — is that the people who work in the factories and fields were divided from the outset into free and slave, white and black, and later into numerous immigrant ethnic groups as well, making it difficult for workers as a whole to unite politically to battle for higher wages and better social benefits.” The Class-Domination Theory of Power by G. William Domhoff http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/class_domination.html
Domhoff, Gilens and Page are but a few of the people presenting an alternative more scholarly based view of the American socio-political-economic milieu. Unlike many shills for the status quo, Domhoff does not avoid the variables of race and class in his research. I strongly urge you to visit his Website http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/ and take the time to read and study what is there. The charts, figures and data are relatively current; but keep in mind it takes time to gather the available data such as census information, tax returns, income statements and corporate profit and loss data so it will not reflect real time up to the moment numbers but this is as close as it gets.
We must wake up to the realities facing us and see things as they are not as we have been duped into believing they are. Domhoff being a sociologist looks at the upper class and sees them similarly to C. Wright Mills who was also a sociologist in his seminal work The Power Elite.
It is possible to make huge sums of money in this country. Yes it is possible to move up like the fictitious TV character George Jefferson, but for the most part most of us are stuck and will remain in the same class and social strata we were born into plus or minus a few more gizmos, gadgets, trinkets and dollars. The fact of the matter is unless you are one of the few; the window of upward mobility is closing for most Americans.
To make it now you must either have skills or acumen needed by the ruling elites, become a tool or stooge of this group or are active on the flipside of that coin which is some level of organized crime or corruption. “The idea of the power elite intertwines class theory and organizational theory, two theories which are often thought of as distinctive or even as rivals. The basis for the intertwining of the two theories is to be found in the role and composition of the boards of directors that govern every large profit and nonprofit organization in the United States. It is on boards of directors that the values and goals of the upper class are integrated with those of the organizational hierarchy. Upper-class directors insure that their interests are infused into the organizations they control, but the day-to-day organizational leaders on the board are able to harmonize class interests with organizational principles.” Ibid.
The same idea holds true for so called legitimate businesses and organized crime. They are interconnected based upon a common ethos and consciousness. What Domhoff is saying is the consciousness, world view, values, motives, morality (or lack there of) of the ruling elites are what fashion organizations, institutions, governments and our reality. In short these elites are the ones who build and run The Matrix we are trapped in! This Matrix is all around us, it infuses everything both the “legitimate corporate businesses” and the myriad crime schemes which are intertwined together to enrich a handful of people at the top.
For example the corporate CEOs of the Military Industrial Complex companies like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and General Electric are in cahoots with the Wall Street international bankers who are in cahoots with the CIA since the bankers launder the money from the drugs the CIA brings in from Columbia and Afghanistan, the CIA is in cahoots with the mobsters who do the dirty work of distributing the drugs into our communities while the military invades more countries to gain, control and maintain access to drugs and other mineral resources who are in cahoots with the local police and politicians who pass legislation written by lobbyists working for the corporations to pass resolutions and laws authorizing more prisons to lock up the street level drug sellers, fund wars based upon lies that use our tax dollars to underwrite and subsidize these wars, the private prisons and assorted businesses to make the elites even richer while the police brutalize ordinary citizens to intimidate us (like they did OWS) to enforce the status quo.
In effect our children are rotting in prisons, dying in illegal wars to benefit the CEOs and the power elites who have duped the masses into believing we the people have the power. The scam is so thorough and systemic because the think tanks, foundations, corporations and government spend billions paying the media, schools and universities to lie to us so they keep their dastardly agenda and deeds secret. Everybody gets rich but the average citizen.
Even the war on terror is a scam, a way for the Military Industrial Complex, weapons makers, large construction companies, oil pipeline makers, riggers, refineries, mercenaries and their corporate owners to make enormous sums of money. This is what a corrupt oligarchy looks like. Take a look in the mirror, this is America.

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