1. Generally speaking, when it comes to important national issues, whose judgment do you trust more, the American people or America's political leaders? Those in the mainstream say the American people; those in the political elite say political leaders.2. Some people believe that the federal government has become a special-interest group that looks out primarily for its own interests. Has the federal government become a special interest group? Mainstreamers say yes; the political elite says no.
3. Do government and big business often work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors? Mainstreamers say yes; the political elite says no.
75% of the polled public answered this one, way, 14% the other.
Here's more happy news..Sixty-three percent (63%) of voters now say they are angry at the policies of the federal government, with 43% who are Very Angry. Thirty-two percent (32%) don't share that anger, with 14% who are Not At All Angry.
69% of Americans who answered above as the mainstream believe every tax increase should require VOTER APPROVAL.
74% of those in the political class from above, do not.
85% of Americans in the mainstream believe the parties should pay for their own primaries and conventions only 45% in the political class agree.
76% in the mainstream believe Congress is overpaid..guess what those in the political class think?
70% of ALL AMERICANS REGARDLESS OF PARTY AFFILIATION believe big business and big government generally work together against the interests of the investors and consumers. Mind boggler... 71% of democrats believe this, and 69% of republicans, and 69% of those who are neither R or D.
A majority of mainstream Americans believe tax increases hurt the economy. A majority in the political class believe the opposite.
So much for principle..how about issues...
Secure Border ..66% of likely voters (large than the mainstream) say it is "very important" to secure the border only 32% of the political class (which includes those businessmen who go thru the revolving door of academia, think tanks and govt positions..can anyone say Paulson or Geithner?) agree.
What about illegal aliens already here?
Likely voters are evenly split on whether this is an important part of immigration reform (this compulsory voter believes it is, BUT ONLY AFTER THE BORDER IS SECURED), however 74% of the political class consider this as important as securing the border.
Now let's finish with the words of Simon Johnson of the IMF who has said that since the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act which repealed part of Glass Steagall (begun in 1977, by J. Carter who considered FDR's bank protective mortgage redlining to be racist), and 1997's NAFTA - those enriched as a result are NOT average Americans. Johnson says that the power gained by those so enriched allowed the political class itself to become "mesmerized by Wall Street, always and utterly convinced that whatever the banks said was true". Banks which now after 1999 as a result of that bill now existed as mergers of commercial and investment banks. Johnson claims that these interests are now powerful enough to give the "financial sector a veto over public policy"
Anyone else wondering what men like Hubert Humphrey, Henry Jackson, Gerald Ford, and Tip O'Neill would make of this?
The difference, of course is that the constituency these men served is NOT the constituency served by the leaders today.
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