What a bullshit fucking article. Imagine being more of a techno/meritocracy wonk. Literal ghoul shit.

The entire argument of the US not being an oligarchy rests on the assumption that by "rich" they mean $150k a year and "middle class" they mean $50k-$80k a year. Yeah for sure, things are a lot more equal between these two groups. But what about the people at (or below) the poverty line and billionaires, you motherfuckers?

The middle class still gets its preferred policies enacted 26 percent of the time even when the rich are opposed

Be glad you get what you want a quarter of the time, peasants.

Our argument is not that American democracy is perfect,

A fucking 26% success rate doesn't mean "imperfection" or "flawed", it means fucking "terrible failure".

"The idea that the point of democracy is to implement legislative outcomes that are supported by broad-based surveys seems almost like a straw man dreamed up by an eighteenth-century monarchist."

Bitch, this is what a democracy is.

Most Americans aren't very politically engaged — and most don't want to be politically engaged, preferring that professional policymakers make decisions for them, so long as the economy stays on track. What are the odds that they've formed stable, durable opinions on dozens of highly specific policy issues?

Fuck off with your "economy stays on track" bullshit. Give Americans health care. Give them paid time off. Cut the fucking military budget. No one needs "stable, durable opinions on dozens of highly specific policy issues". That's your job you technical nerds.

empirical political scientists like Gilens "assume that the normative standard for a well-functioning democracy is whether policy outcomes track public preferences," political theorists argue that the standard should be "something — as it might seem, almost anything — else."

Fuck these theorists. Name and shame them. What utter ghouls.

But strict responsiveness is not obviously the most important feature of a democracy.

FUCK OFFFFFFFFFFF.