It doesn't take a multivariate correlation to conclude that these two things are tightly related: If politicians care almost exclusively about the concerns of the rich, it makes sense that over the past decades they've enacted policies that have ended up benefiting the rich. And if you're not rich yourself, this is a problem. First and foremost, it's an economic problem because it's siphoned vast sums of money from the pockets of most Americans into those of the ultrawealthy. At the same time, relentless concentration of wealth and power among the rich is deeply corrosive in a democracy, and this makes it a profoundly political problem as well.
How did we get here? In the past, after all, liberal politicians did make it their business to advocate for the working and middle classes, and they worked that advocacy through the Democratic Party. But they largely stopped doing this in the '70s, leaving the interests of corporations and the wealthy nearly unopposed. The story of how this happened is the key to understanding why the Obama era lasted less than two years.
More...
Michael Cohen met with a Kremlin-connected Russian billionaire in Manhattan 11 days before President Trump's inauguration... 
Two highly classified briefings Thursday about an FBI informant who contacted the Trump campaign could help... 
Federal prosecutors hid evidence from anti-Trump activists set to go on trial, two judges ruled this... 
Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, has attained a permanent security clearance, his... 
