Which Form 8815 Representation 2023-2024

For the last few years, I've had this sense that everything I learned as a kid about how America's government works is completely wrong. But I had no idea how bad things actually were until I saw this one graph. Researchers at Princeton University looked at more than 20 years worth of data to answer a pretty simple question: does the government represent the people? Now, this is what they found. This axis here represents public support for any given idea. On the left, at %, are ideas that not a single American wants. On the right, at 100 percent, are ideas that everyone supports. This axis represents the likelihood of Congress passing a law that reflects any of these ideas, from a zero to a 100 percent chance. On this graph, an ideal Republic would look like this: if 50 percent of the public supports an idea, there's a 50 percent chance of it becoming law. If 80 percent of us support something, there's an 80 percent chance. You get the idea. Now, most Americans would probably agree that, with a few exceptions, we should be as close to this ideal as possible. Unfortunately, the way America actually works doesn't even come close. Take an idea that nobody supports, literally nobody, and it has about a 30% chance of becoming federal law. Now, take an incredibly popular idea, the most popular idea this country has ever seen, and there's also about a 30% chance of it becoming law. This means that the number of American voters for or against any idea has no impact on the likelihood that Congress will make it law. Put another way, and I'm just going to quote the Princeton study directly here, "the preferences of the average American appeared to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically nonsignificant...