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Average Americans have little or no influence over the making of U.S. government policy. ... Wealthy Americans wield a lot of influence. By investing money in politics, they can turn economic power into political power.

— Benjamin Page

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When citizens are relatively equal, politics has tended to be fairly democratic. When a few individuals hold enormous amounts of wealth, democracy suffers. The reason for this pattern is simple. Through campaign contributions, lobbying, influence over public discourse, and other means, wealth can be translated into political power. When wealth is highly concentrated—that is, when a few individuals have enormous amounts of money—political power tends to be highly concentrated, too. The wealthy few tend to rule. Average citizens lose political power. Democracy declines.

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Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Benjamin Page (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.