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LearnedHand

(5,133 posts)
Tue Nov 11, 2025, 05:56 PM Tuesday

(Reminder) "Study: Congress literally doesn't care what you think"

This article has been posted here before, but I am so full of rage that the Dems don’t have OUR backs that I thought I’d remind us whose backs Congress does have.

https://act.represent.us/sign/problempoll-fba

Have you ever felt like the government doesn’t really care what you think?

Professors Martin Gilens (Princeton University) and Benjamin I. Page (Northwestern University) looked at more than 20 years worth of data to answer a simple question: Does the government represent the people?

Their study took data from nearly 2000 public opinion surveys and compared it to the policies that ended up becoming law. In other words, they compared what the public wanted to what the government actually did. What they found was extremely unsettling: The opinions of 90% of Americans have essentially no impact at all.

SNIP

Does public opinion affect the political process? Gilens & Page found that the number of Americans for or against any idea has no impact on the likelihood that Congress will make it law.

“The preferences of the average American appear to have only a miniscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.” — Gilens & Page, Perspectives in Politics
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(Reminder) "Study: Congress literally doesn't care what you think" (Original Post) LearnedHand Tuesday OP
So Congress is like my ex wife? BeerBarrelPolka Tuesday #1
This message was self-deleted by its author snot Tuesday #2
THIS! snot Tuesday #3
I'm both angry and discouraged LearnedHand Tuesday #4

Response to LearnedHand (Original post)

snot

(11,354 posts)
3. THIS!
Tue Nov 11, 2025, 06:18 PM
Tuesday

I was beginning to think I was the only here who knew about this organization.

Most congresscritters represent their donors, not their voters.

LearnedHand

(5,133 posts)
4. I'm both angry and discouraged
Tue Nov 11, 2025, 06:51 PM
Tuesday

Someone here posted Jon Stewart’s bit on on the caving, and while it was very cathartic it also was overwhelmingly sad. That’s what reminded me of this article.

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