Partisanship matters more than the socioeconomic influence of the rich and elite interest groups. This new trend emerges from the recent empirical analysis of 49 Senate votes on socioeconomic and foreign-policy issues from 2001 to 2015 and national survey data from Gallup and Pew. This empirical analysis shows that the rich elite income groups seem to get what they want from their senators about 60% of the time, whereas, the poor income groups receive a low 55% fair chance. When the socioeconomic echelons oppose each other on both sides of a particular policy issue, Senate votes favor the rich with a significantly higher 63% fair chance.

In the scenario where the rich and poor voters oppose each other on a given policy issue, Democratic senators side with the rich only with a 35% fair chance, whereas, Republican senators vote in accordance with elite interests 86% of the time. Since Republicans hold majority control in Senate, U.S. congressional decisions benefit the upper echelon because legislators often follow the party line. Affluent influence that results from U.S. partisan influence can be worrisome. However, the American median voter experience is not the same as living in an oligarchy.