Over the past few years special interests have had a larger and larger say over who gets what in America, and the voices of average citizens are being shut out.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
People are rapidly losing hope and trust. They believe their government has been captured by special interests and no longer cares about them, and they are right.
People getting their fundamental interests wrong is what American political life is all about.
The good news, though, is that I find in my political travels that people, as regular citizens, are more interested than ever in getting together and having discussions. They want to hear about other viewpoints that differ entirely from what the administration is putting out.
I think American interests are served when there are sections of the world that have representative governments, politically open economic systems, and are willing to take a stand against some of the more extreme ideologies that there are around the world.
We can't have special interests sitting shotgun. We gotta have middle class families up in front. We don't mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back.
The average citizen saw that the big PACs with the billionaires and the multimillionaires get what they want in Washington, but the average citizen is left behind.
The biggest problem that we have is that California is being run now by special interests. All of the politicians are not anymore making the moves for the people, but for special interests and we have to stop that.
Maybe it's true that people with less extreme views who are also interested in public affairs have been driven out by a marketplace that doesn't offer them anything of the tone they want to listen to.
As we realize that more and more things have global impact, I think we're going to get people increasingly wanting to get away from a purely national interest.
But having said that, what's happening with campaign finance reform and our political culture is devastating.
No opposing quotes found.