Do you trust our government is fairly representing us? (Congress, middle east, illegal aliens)

[PeaceOut001]

Do you believe our U.S. government is:

1. Fairly representing the middle class and/or poor?
2. Fairly representing the elderly? The definition of elderly appears to apply to those
of us who are 60+
3. " " college-aged kids from poor or middle class families?
4. Mostly corrupt?
5. Mostly honest?

I'd like an explanation that explains why you feel that way. Please add a source or two to back up your claim.

If you don't mind, would you add your age range within @five years or your age if you're okay stating that. If there are sufficient responses, I'll attempt to create a graph or create some way of tabulating the results.

This isn't about whether you like the current administration or Congress but rather about the nature of our government throughout the years.

[cb at sea]

Not the government we have in power right now....sad to say.

The government is only supposed to PROTECT AMERICA....it's not supposed to support us....we are supposed to support ourselves, and not be hindered in our pursuits of happiness, and wealth by the government.

It's up to each person to make what they want of themselves. Some will succeed...some will fail, but most will have a pretty nice life, in relation to the rest of the world....as long as government doesn't get in our way.

[Robertfchew]

I don't think they do one bit. If you are low middle class as I was growing up good lucking with college. Too much for assistance too poor to actually pay.

Current day I'm more middle class and I feel like they have even less of my best interests. I try contacting them mostly at the state level and all I ever get is an auto respond and signed up for their mailing list. Its a joke.

[wall st kid]

They're not even close to representing "US" they represent the "Richest 1%" as well as big business. All you need to know is that before this "banking crisis" about 7 years ago, people who had money in the bank got interest and money markets were paying 3 and 4 percent at least...so the banks lent money to people who were not qualified and in turn, this damaged the people who did things the right way, you know, didnt borrow money they couldn't afford to pay back. So, the Banks were at fault and guess what they got? The govt printed money to bail them out and now, they don't have to give anyone a cent of interest...so banks are holding people's money and aren't required to pay a penny to hold it....BUT, if you want a loan? You pay thru the nose. All of a sudden if you take money from them, its not free...but its free for them to hold your money? How does that work!

[PeaceOut001]

cb at sea: Your first phrase "PROTECT AMERICA" is strangely ironic since there are funding issues with Homeland Security and Congress is arguing about it. I'm glad you put that in there.

Robertfchew: Yes, college prices are insane. So, to me it's another squishing (dampening) effect of the government closing in to have a new slew of people who haven't gone to college because it's cost-prohibitive or if you go you'll be stuck with a loan and possibly without a job.

Wow, wall st kid: Smartie, I agree. I can't say anything more than you've stated.

[Cape Cod Todd]

In past administrations it felt like they did have the best interest of the country and its people at heart but today.. and it is very sad to say NO.
We were promised the most transparent gov. ever and what we were given is scandal after scandal followed by more lies. We have measures being passed like Obama care when it is clear that the majority did not want it. The same goes for the amnesty nonsense. How can granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens who have limited job skills and poor English help the country. The dream is that they will pay taxes and vote Democrat but what I see is the bottom layer of Americans that do have jobs will lose them.
I think Bush was all about Big Business which does have a trickle down affect in jobs for the masses but for the Dems. Big Business is a dirty word. Capitalism is a dirty word but guess what it is what built America.
I have heard the word Socialism tossed around when discussing Obamas schemes and ideas but socialism tears at the very fabric of America.

My feelings are the Middle Class is under assault along with the elderly, our future and the American way. It seems all our Gov. cares about is the illegals and pushing their weight (not ours) around in the middle east.
The US has lost the respect of the world starting with Bush and Obama has made us a joke.
It is all pretty sad and it all comes down to the egos and the greed of a few.

[SunGrins]

The answer to 1, 2 and 3 is 'no' and it has been 'no' for 40 years or more. Certainly, anyone born after 1980 has never experienced a federal government with the middle class interests being addressed or met.

Questions 4 and 5 --- should read 'incompetent' especially those in elected office. Thanks to term limits we now have people in office with no idea how to get things done so they depend on lobbyists and interest groups for policy and spend too much time fund raising for the next election. State governments are worse and those folks will be in congress in a couple years. The bureaucracy is as it has always been...slow and often misdirected by poor leadership.

[wade52]

Anyone with a more than a 3rd grader's grasp of politics and current events already knows that government at all levels stopped supporting the public in many ways several decades ago. America is now owned and operated largely by corporate interests.

[Sonic_Spork]

No, I don't think that the government fairly represents the interests of the American people, unless the only ones that count are the richest and most influential at the top.

I don't differentiate between big government or big business. I think they have merged into a vast, undulating, tentacled and fanged beast that simply feeds off the labor and consumption of the masses. We provide for them, not the other way around. They are the same men in different tailored suits in different boardrooms and power lunches and offices of government. Any candidates who are presented for our voting pleasure are already bought and paid for, and the few that aren't are quashed as options for us in the strongest ways they can. The media is part of the beast. Defense is part of the beast. Even assuming a candidate who was not properly endorsed by the powers that be, were to have enough money of his own to compete, the media will call him "unelectable" and will behave as though he is merely being humored, like a child at the grown up's table, and all voters will be told you CAN'T support him because your vote will be "wasted." And even if one of the indies ever got enough support to have a real chance, I think they'd rig the results without batting an eyelash...and everyone would believe that they were the only one who voted for him, and no one else did, because the media told you he's unpopular whether he was or not.

In other words I think that not only do they NOT represent us, I also think that it's more than "if you don't like it, vote in someone better." I think that we are actively prevented from ever doing so, and convinced that everything is on the up and up, when it's not.

And I think it's been this way for at least as long as I've been alive...(I'm a 36 year old middle class married female with kids, if you want an idea of my demographic.) But I also think that thanks to the internet and social media, Americans are questioning what we are told more than ever before...but still not enough.

Now we have a microcosm example of this to watch. The voters in DC voted to "legalize" (insofar as they can at that level of government) marijuana. I don't want this to turn into a pot thread, so bear with me, I have a relevant point. The voters spoke, and their local elected official signed it into law. Congress had a period of time to do something to quash this, but they didn't. And now I'm hearing that the Mayor might be imprisoned over it. This is a clear example of big government stepping all over the voices of the people in favor of their own interests and those of their money-masters. I'm very interested to see how it plays out. I hope the citizens of our Nation's Capital don't sit quietly for this. If the fed. gov. wanted to squish the new law, fine, within legal framework and Supremacy Clause, they probably had the right. But imprisoning an elected official for enacting the will of his constituents?

[2e1m5a]

The Government will never represent the interests of the American people until our currency represents the interests of the American people. Today our currency is owned and controlled by a private and international entity-otherwise known as The Federal Reserve.