The table is tilted, the game is rigged -- George Carlin
Asking "[w]ho really rules?" researchers Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page argue that over the past few decades America's political system has slowly transformed from a democracy into an oligarchy, where wealthy elites wield most power.
Using data drawn from over 1,800 different policy initiatives from 1981 to 2002, the two conclude that rich, well-connected individuals on the political scene now steer the direction of the country, regardless of or even against the will of the majority of voters.
...As one illustration, Gilens and Page compare the political preferences of Americans at the 50th income percentile to preferences of Americans at the 90th percentile as well as major lobbying or business groups. They find that the government—whether Republican or Democratic—more often follows the preferences of the latter group rather than the first.
The researches note that this is not a new development caused by, say, recent Supreme Court decisions allowing more money in politics, such as Citizens United or this month's ruling on McCutcheon v. FEC. As the data stretching back to the 1980s suggests, this has been a long term trend, and is therefore harder for most people to perceive, let alone reverse.
So before you start arguing that President Obama/Elizabeth Warren/Spongebob Squarepants needs to go to the bully pulpit, beat Republicans to submission, and give voters a reason to hold their nose for him/her/it... keep in mind that Democrats already did that.
In Michigan. (h/t to WaltSorg). But Democrats also won only to lose a number of other times:
Democrats won more votes than Republicans in:
2000 Presidential Election
2008 U.S. Senate Elections
Democrats won in a landslide. But they were held hostage by Republicans and the filibuster.
In April 2009, Arlen Specter switched parties, providing a 59th vote.
July 8, 2009. Al Franken leaves 8 months of legal limbo to become seated as the 60th Democratic Caucus member. Republicans prevented progess for 8 months. This 60-seat supermajority was still a hostage to Joe Lieberman and ConservaDems.
August 25, 2009, only 6 weeks later, Ted Kennedy died.
And we all know what happened after that.
2012 House of Representatives Elections, but Republicans still retained a robust majority.
So it's clear that the influence of corporate money and even our elections are not strictly true to the definition of democracy at this point, and even dubious to the ideals of representative government. These are systemic failures of government that transcend Al Gore and his lawyers, President Obama's talking points or Harry Reid's policies. Yes, the Democratic Party should advocate transparency, public financing, mail-in ballots for all, and other sensible election policies. But citizens should also, independently, take greater responsibility for the machinery of democracy. And citizens need to fix the system itself, instead of merely tinkering within.