An apathetic majority has relinquished to a minority of political activists, control of the elective process. Political campaigns are funded for candidates favored by powerful money interests that care little for the common good. This then brings to Congress single issue members ready and willing to damage our country by forcing a shutdown of government, stop important legislation to control gun violence and to purposely or unwittingly cause economic recession. More alarmingly they can prevent our government from paying its debts. Gridlock occurs and governance is stultified.
Apathy has allowed 400 people in this country to take half this nation’s wealth. The other half is divided up among all the rest or approximately 313,999,600 people, (Inequality for All - Robert Reich). Money is power and thus power is in the hands of just over 1 percent of the population. As a majority becomes more spiritually and economically deprived, survival is of a higher priority than political activism and that causes apathy.
Those that believe there is nothing that can be done about this sort of corrupt governance are willing to just complain and accept the inequities that derive from a government held hostage by a few radical members of Congress. If the majority was not paralyzed by apathy, there are solutions for this travesty.
The might of the majority could change things through citizen initiatives. Some states now provide for citizen initiatives, but not currently the central government. But if so, when Congress fails to act on important issues the majority could initiate legislation themselves. For example, legislation could be initiated providing that members of Congress would be paid only after passing a timely federal budget. The government now runs on continuing resolutions with no budget. An active majority can change all that. It is not enough to just vote anymore.