Informative perspective on the growing influence of the superrich on American politics. Political blogger Kevin Drum provides a thoughtful analysis on how this came about, and ties it to the decline of unions and middle class wages. Well researched, with thoughtful commentary. See link to a treasure trove of graphics on income inequality.

..an historical ride on the slide of the middle class and the decline of labor unions as a significant influence on the American economy and the political balance of power. The article aptly puts much of the blame on sleeping Democrats during an intense period of globalization, but only hints at their failure to put in check an economy built around a cheap credit bubble.

A good look at the effects of the republican war on labor. Drum omits a couple major factors. One is the huge investment the corporate community has made in the news media and the resulting near monopoly by right wing "news" sources, balanced against the left failing to invest in the media. He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past controls the future. Rewrite history, and the people are lost. A second is the global metastasis of corporations, with single corporations richer than whole nations and exploiting cheap labor and lack of regulation outside the US. And he misses one lever towards as solution. With the Darwinian nature of our electoral system, only rich candidates and political ... More »

This opinion piece has minimal journalistic merit. The author is uninformed about economics, and thus continually makes errors in what he writes. For example, no economist uses static data on incomes, they always use income mobility over time (usually the 10-year change data of the IRS) for evaluating income distributions. The results are the exact opposite of what the author of this piece proclaims. Then he states that "politicians don't care much about voters with moderate incomes", which is total nonsense, since the Republicans care very much about Tea Party voters, who exactly define moderate income voters today. The author should have done some reading before writing. It really does help!