The US political power structure

The diagram in Figure 3-3 summarizes why the power elite and their businesses get what they want. Money and direction flow from the power elite to the President and members of Congress before and after the election through a number of entities. The parties remain in control of the politicians who vote on party lines as the parties dictate.

Figure 3-3

Politicians support this power structure

Politicians running for office must align themselves with the branding and extremes of their party or they will not get party support for their election. Once elected, a politician's most important concern is being reelected. If they are not loyal and don't vote the party line as directed, the party will choose a different candidate from their party for the next election. It is no longer possible for a politician in either party to be a centrist or to have an independent perspective. Centrists are attacked by their party and the media as obstructionists and traitors to their party's cause of saving the country from the other party.

To support their reelection, members of Congress want to serve on the most important and visible committees. To both maintain party support for their next election and to obtain profitable committee assignments, they must conform to the wishes of their party's Congressional leaders. Consequently, individual politicians vote as a block on party lines as they are told giving the party complete control.

A view from inside Congress

Mike Gallagher, a freshman member of Congress in 2016, told us what is really going on from an insider's vantage point. He confirmed that the parties have all of the control over Congress due to the governing process. Debate is nothing more than political theater that increases political division. He advises that we must reform these processes and power structures or "we will further tear our country apart." [19]

I am a freshman representative from northeastern Wisconsin. When I ran in 2016, I assumed the problem with Congress was the people. I thought most members were either hopelessly unqualified or ruthlessly ambitious. … I have come to believe that the problem is not the people. The problem is a defective process and a power structure that, whichever party is in charge, funnels all power to leadership and stifles debate and initiative within the ranks. Your average member of Congress, far from being drunk on power, actually has very little of it outside a cable-news studio. …

The reality is that Congress cannot get anything done because it is not equipped to get anything done. It is no longer a tool suited to its original purpose of making laws and providing oversight. It has instead become a theater used by both parties to stoke the outrage of their base. We must reform the processes and power structures of Congress, or we will further tear our country apart. (Bold emphasis added.)