[ryandrake]

> Call your congressperson.

I'm sure that after my phone call, my congressperson will drop all the things he is being paid thousands of lobbying dollars to do on behalf of his donors to get right on this. Sorry for the snark, but normal people are powerless to do anything about these shenanigans.

[toomuchtodo]

Medicare drug negotiations and $8 credit card late fee payments are my rebuttal. You aren’t supposed to fix it; you’re bringing it to the attention of leverage who can. Phone call is free besides your time.

[rco8786]

Super cynical. Those people hold outsized power, but they are not invincible by any stretch of the imagination. We hold the power in that we elect the public officials. They care about what we think also.

[DinaCoder98]

> We hold the power in that we elect the public officials.

Very optimistic attitude!

[rco8786]

Is it? Just a plain fact. At least in the US

[DinaCoder98]

I don't know what you mean by "fact", but your vote certainly holds less proportional power to influence a politician than that of 1/(population of the us). Politicians straight-up don't care about your opinion unless you can show up as a meaningful horde, and judging by the reaction to the Israeli invasion of Palestine that doesn't hold much water either.

[rco8786]

I literally said that other interests hold outsized power. Not sure what your goal is here.

[DinaCoder98]

I guess I read your comment as contradicting itself by the phrase "the power" rather than "the illusion of power", especially since the american public is so easily distracted by petty squabbling, whereas capital is emphatically not easily distracted but extremely focused on what it wants.

Anyway, I don't mean to start an argument over the power of voting, illusory or no. We all have opinions about the value of voting that we hold rather tightly given so much emphasis is placed on it as the center of the political power we do hold.

[red-iron-pine]

there have been a bunch of studies that show votes follow the donations, and the majority of folks aren't donating much.