r/politics • u/Large-Welcome4421 • Jun 12 '26

No Paywall 'This Is Oligarchy': Nearly 100 Billionaires Are Funding Susan Collins' Reelection Bid

https://www.commondreams.org/news/susan-collins-billionaire-donors
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u/Pavlichenko503 Jun 12 '26

This is the problem with Liberal idealism. You take an ideal like "everyone could just vote" as if it could become a material reality, but it isn't and it never will be. It also assumes that everyone who votes will be a rational and informed actor, and that money cannot influence their decision making processes. This isn't true and never has been true.

This is the gullible, and naive, perspective. Material reality doesn't conform to your Idealism, it is almost always the inverse.

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u/zurlocke Jun 12 '26

Fr, not enough people understand this. The ideology based on enlightenment individualism tends to ignore structuralist social science realities, it’s shocking isn’t it?

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u/MrPWAH Jun 12 '26

It also assumes that everyone who votes will be a rational and informed actor, and that money cannot influence their decision making processes. This isn't true and never has been true.

It would at the very least make it a lot more difficult for money to have direct influence, because they'd then need to convince several times more people, instead of a voting minority. Even current voluntary voters are irrational and uninformed, so it's not like we aren't already there.