Those in high-income brackets are the only ones who can afford to run for and hold high office in this particular representative democracy.
Aldermen, county commissioners, representatives in state legislatures, and other lower-eschelon offices are more often held by people whose income is closer to "average". That level of government is where the bulk of the work gets done. The poor seldom are represented by a person whose income (at least while running for office) is below the poverty level, even in local government.
So the have-nots can vote the high-level haves out of office all they want. The pool of available candidates is full of other haves, who will continue to run things in ways they consider to be beneficial to their supporters. Some politicians even represent their constituencies.
The real secret is to create that state of legerdemain in which the havenots believe that the economic and social ladder is still open to the masses, so as to prevent rioting and civil unrest. (The ladder is, in fact, still there and still open, but it's a narrow ladder. Perhaps it always was narrow, but our expectations as a people are higher.) This is what our high-level politicians are interested in preserving.
Regards--
Mary Anne
Current Events » in reply to In America and in many of the Western democracies
A nice balance
The whole thread (37 posts)
- Fooling all the people some of the time: