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[Rogerdodger]

Have you ever wondered why so many laws are passed and policies implemented that are unpopular by the majority of "We the people"?
Politicians do not represent us any more. "We the people" have no voice.
It is finally destroying the very foundation of our representative government even as President Eisenhower warned it could.

LOBBYISTS RULE USA:

Lawmakers Who Upheld NSA Phone Spying Received Double the Defense Industry Cash


The numbers tell the story — in votes and dollars. On Wednesday, the house voted 217 to 205 not to rein in the NSA’s phone-spying dragnet. It turns out that those 217 “no” voters received twice as much campaign financing from the defense and intelligence industry as the 205 “yes” voters.

“How can we trust legislators to vote in the public interest when they are dependent on industry campaign funding to get elected? Our broken money and politics system forces lawmakers into a conflict of interest between lawmakers’ voters and their donors,” said Daniel G. Newman, MapLight’s president and co-founder.



So much for the "Government of the people, by the people, and for the people."
Now try to figure out who is really running the whole world in the same manner.

Eisenhower: "Beware of the military/security/environmental/industrial complex" Jan. 17, 1961
"We must not fail to comprehend it's grave implications. The very structure of our society is involved.
We must guard against the acquisition of influence by the military-industrial complex.
The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes."

Edited by Rogerdodger, 27 July 2013 - 10:28 AM.

[stocks]

We the people can elect whomever we like, but when they go to Washington, they do the bidding of the powers that be.

A practical program for libertarian populism would address this frustration, above all using the word that Jefferson and Madison used: corruption. When somebody serves as a senator for 30 years, then heads over to K Street to lobby his former colleagues, that is a form of corruption, and it should be identified accordingly. Exceedingly tough antilobbying laws would be an obvious place for libertarian populists to start.

Similarly, taking a page from Carney’s playbook, there should be more focus on government programs that average Americans have little experience with that funnel resources to the well-connected. The Export-Import Bank is perhaps the best example, but there are countless others.

The peculiar form taken by modern campaign finance reform, which empowered the Lois Lerners of Washington to go after groups they dislike, should also be on the list. Tax reform should play an important role, with an emphasis on rooting out special favors and exemptions, making the code treat people similarly, without regard to their political connections.

Ditto genuine party reform, wresting control of the nominating process from the donors and campaign consultants back to average people.

In other words, an effective libertarian populist agenda would begin with a focus on power relations above all else, and might punt on questions of top marginal tax rates or federal provisions for broad-based social welfare, at least at the outset.



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