Who has more influence on our democracy?

Umm. we don't have a democracy we have a republic hence .I pledge allegiance to the flag and the republic for which it stands

We're both. A democracy is simply a country with free and fair elections. A republic is a secular non-hereditary form of government. The UK is a democracy but not a republic. Syria is an example of a republic but not a democracy. The US and France have both qualities while North Korea and Iran have neither.

No a democracy is where the people vote for everything, and the majority wins. We are a republic because we elect representitives to vote on such issues. We also have electoral colloge votes which belong to a republic other wise in 2000 al gore would've won.

You're equating representative democracy with direct democracy. We have the former. If you're not a fan of democracy then try Syria. K, thanks. Also why not just stay home November 6th if you're not a fan of elections. http://oxforddictionaries.com... http://www.britannica.com/EBc...

Umm I never said I hated voting. We have pretty much the same goverment of ancient rome however we have a president instead of a emepor. ( with a little twist)

First, if it's not the voter, it's not a democracy. It's corporatism or fascism.

Corporations are all that matter now and it's a lie to say Unions have just as much impact. I think the latest figures are that 7 or 12% of workers are Union members. There is no way they can compete against the Koch Brothers and all the rest.

Unfortunately. Should be the other way though.

Even before the Citizen's United decision and Union busting, the Republicans still had the biggest donors. Now that the Right-wing have a good portion of the population bamboozled by their huge "bought-media", "no-truth-in-media" propaganda tactics, they feel they can buy their way into victory on what would be their hugely unpopular (even to their supporters, if they really knew what was in it) agenda.

Unions were good for their time period but have outlived their usefulness and are corrupt at the higher levels. BTW, no matter how many times Obama refers to 'our Democracy',
our form of government is a 'Representative Republic'.

That "Representative Republic" as defined, is based on the democratic process. Therefore, "Democrat" is as relevant to that "Representative Republic" as "Republican" is - no more, no less.

In fact, to suggest that democracy has nothing to do with this "Representative Republic" is unpatriotic, and Un-American!

VOTER'S...

Of the top 10 entities (corporations, superPACs, unions, etc) that spent since the 2010 midterm elections, 7 of them spent for the GOP, while 3 spent for Democrats. Of those top 3 (which ranked at 3, 5, and 7, respectively) 2 were unions - the NEA, and SEIU. Conservative organizations are WAY outspending labor, by a wide margin.

Labor does at the moment, but thanks to what happened in Wisconsin, the grip the labor unions have on America will be broken. We had a time when companies could step all over you and if you quit, they would just replace you.

Then came the labor unions, they fought a great fight and got rights for workers. Then they became power hungry and began protecting workers to the extent that the workers could do no wrong, even though they did do wrong, the unions would back them up. On the job drunkenness, drug use, sleeping on the job ... All these things were ignored to avoid a confrontation with the Union, or they were excused using some stupid loophole in their contract. Auto workers are not worth 25 bucks an hour to put a set of lug nuts on a wheel to hold a tire on. Unions jacked up the wage for these jobs, did any of these workers think for a second that the cost to pay them would be absorbed by the company? No, it would be passed on to the rest of us through the price of the cars. Meanwhile, Japan and all the other foreign car companies paid their workers a normal amount and kept putting out inexpensive quality product. Now they have factories right here in the U.S.A. . Now they don't even have to ship the cars here. I place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the auto unions fro making such greedy demands and the companies that folded to outrageous demands in contract negotiations.

Labor or The unions turned into big business and sold it's members down the river. All it's interested in are union dues.

Democracy, what democracy? You must be delusional.

Democrats get money from corporations

Good thing I didn't directly say that. :P

Yeah..., they get money from corporations just so the corporations and the right-wing media can say what Kane Fernau just said. True, they do get corporate money, but about $1.00 to every $1000.00 given to Republicans.

are you for real ??

This is a tricky question. Some of the biggest businesses out there pay nothing in taxes and get huge returns from the government. Some government unions throw tons of money at elections and get big chunks of that money back via bloated pensions and "stimulus" packages.

Either way, Joe taxpayer gets hammered.

It would be a lot less tricky had you bothered to read the OP. :P Business contributions are 23 times that of Labor contributions.

But big business and big labor contribute to the same cause in many examples.

It's not a Democracy. NO WHERE in the Constitution is our country referred to as a "Democracy".

How is that germane to the disparity between Corporate and Labor electoral donations in the US?

It's not. I was merely correcting the implication that we live in a "Democracy".

we live in a Democratic-Republic. We have an elected government with free elections. This is a representative democracy and you'd be hard press to find the later without the former. You are in essence making a distinction without difference when it is painfully obvious when people speak of American democracy they are implicitly speaking of the rights of the minority being respected.

Ahhh. Yeah, Okay.

don't back down. you are right...

Don't listen to Beavith1, he is so far right that he's hanging by a thread over a cliff!

there is no such thing as a democratic republic. maybe Athens was one as a city state, butno nation exists as one... i suppose the 'German Democratic Republic' used it in their name, but they were Stalinist communist...

the US is a constitutional republic. or a representative republic.

we aren't a representative democracy either. THAT would be an oxymoron...

If you believe that the USA is a free country, then you must agree that it is rooted on democracy, for we wouldn't be "free" without democracy!

It relies heavily on the democratic process, that is written in the US Constitution. To suggest otherwise is unpatriotic and un-American, and reminds one of Dictatorships, Communism, Fascism, and Totalitarianism.

Right no it's big business and unions when it's supposed to be the people .

between corporate donations and voter ID laws, it's pretty simple who's trying to own America. It's not the unions.

they tried and seem to be failing...

wait, unions tried changing the voting process legally in America? When did that happen?

who said anything about voting process? i simply said that unions tried to own America. and are currently failing.