Don’t Let Fear In
Our American society is a big house. There is room for MAGA, Woke, liberals, conservatives, non-political, but not for the plutocratic oligarchic kleptocratic authoritarians now in charge of our government. We, as the people of the United States, are not in favor of a small group of billionaires taking over the government and mining it for our data and taxpayer money. What was it that Willie Sutton said when asked why he robbed banks? “That’s where the money is.”
Why are Musk, Zuckerberg and Bezos, and other one-percenters congregating around this administration? That is where the money and power are. Plutocracy is government by the wealthy. Oligarchy is government by a small elite group of powerful people. A kleptocracy is a government whose corrupt leaders use their power to steal the wealth of the citizenry they govern. Authoritarianism is a government by a central authority that exacts obedience to it’s rulings regardless of law and personal liberties.
How did this movement gather so much strength in the United States? Billionaires own most of our mass media. An example is Rupert Murdock, who set up the media giant, FOX News operation in the United States as a right-wing propaganda operation glorification wealth and the virtues of oligarchy. FOX’s message is for us to distrust each other, pitting whites versus people of color; unions versus non-union labor; men versus women; straight versus gay; white Christian nationalists versus every group that is “other;” “Americans” versus immigrants, victimized Americans versus all trading partners in the world, and democratic allies versus opportunistic alliances with dictators. What does all of this conflict lead to? We are manipulated to fear that we are up against forces beyond our control. Fear can lead us to hand our responsibility as voting and active citizens over to an elite. Oligarchic authoritarian propaganda loudly proclaims that they will protect us. Our identification with their wealth can make us “feel” powerful.
The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 laid out the exact policies needed to have a complete take over of our country by oligarchic forces. The process was given huge momentum in 2010 with the Supreme Court’s Citizen’s United ruling. That ruling opened the flood gates for big money to give unlimited funds to political campaigns under the guise that giving money is the equivalent of free speech. The result its that most of us can speak with a barely audible whisper compared to the billionaires who have control of mass media. The ruling also stated that corporations are individuals and have rights. Corporations are fictional legal organizations for the protection of investors who pool their money to create businesses. That is good on a small scale, but once multinational conglomerate corporations get big enough, they use their money and power to buy out competitors and sway elections and governments to do their bidding.
Why do billionaires and large corporations want influence in government? Regulations stop them from profitable utilization of resources and labor that are damaging to the environment and to the lives of working people. Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics taught that profit is the measure of morality. If a project is profitable, it is by definition, good. That is the laissez faire capitalist definition of morality. It is not what government should be about. Government is about setting up the guidelines for fair competition, an equitable distribution of wealth, and a fair voice for all citizens in the governance of society. Government should not be run like a business.
The oligarchic elite in our country would like us to believe in a majoritarian definition of democracy. If they can maneuver enough of us to vote in their favor they can claim mandate to dominate all other political positions. Real democracy is not defined that way! Real democracies protect the rights of minorities to attempt to become the majority. That is why all the parties, whether MAGA, woke, liberal, conservative, or any other must join the opposition. Americans together form a big tent. We need not fear each other, but should band together to reconstruct a more democratic, equitable and fair society. The more differing voices in the democratic marketplace the better. We don’t all have to agree on governmental policies, but we need to agree to democratic principles and procedures. Our present administration’s obsession with constructing a plutocratic oligarchic kleptocratic authoritarianism will not move us in any positive directions.