America doesn’t want to admit that it has oligarchs. But it does. And they’re impacting democracy both locally and nationally.
There’s a verse in the Bible that says, and I’m paraphrasing, before you criticize your neighbor for having a splinter in his or her eye, you need to get rid of the plank in your own.
Using this analogy, the number of planks that America has in its eye would allow you to build furniture for the entire world. Yet, it tends to scan the eyes of every other nation in the world in search of splinters.
For example, Americans criticize places like India in the past for having a caste system. We believe where you started doesn’t determine where you’ll end up; if you pull yourself up by your bootstraps — a phrase I hate with the fire of a thousand suns, by the way, —you can become anything you want.
But the reality is that the only difference between America’s caste system and caste systems in other places is that ours goes unnamed. All you have to do is go to Rittenhouse Square on a Saturday night and see the juxtaposition of the people who are coming out of Barclay Prime after dining on a $150 cheesesteak with wagyu beef and truffles and the folks sitting on grates hoping that the steam coming from them will keep them warm as they sleep.
Another thing that America doesn’t recognize it has is oligarchs. When we talk about oligarchy, the words “Vladimir Putin” and “Russia” are what comes to mind. But America has them too.
For example, when Democratic Party donors decided that President Joe Biden shouldn’t continue running for a second term because he had a bad debate performance against a guy who has since gone on to talk about immigrants eating pets and ruining “Arnold Palmers” for everyone; that was an example of oligarchy.
(And in case you’re wondering, yes. Oscar-winning actor George Clooney is an oligarch.)
Oligarchy, how it impacts politics, and how journalists can better articulate it so voters can better understand it, was the subject of this year’s Democracy Summit at Howard University. Every year, the Center for Journalism and Democracy holds the summit to look at a different issue impacting democracy and how journalists can better help Americans understand these issues.
Although the country’s Horatio Alger myth keeps us from acknowledging this, America has always had oligarchs, a small group of the monied elite that deploys its resources in a way that allows it to run things.
They used to be more direct about it. There have been times in America’s history when those who used their wealth to get what they wanted for themselves and their businesses had no problem letting you know that.
But now, oligarchs are using their power and money through proxies in the form of political candidates, said Jeffrey Winters, a professor of Political Science at Northwestern University.
“Political donors aren’t really “donors”, he said. “They’re using money to deploy power. That doesn’t mean that they’re evil because you can use oligarchic power to undermine oligarchy.”
But if this election cycle is any indication, America’s oligarchs are using their financial power to defend wealth. This means that they’re supporting candidates who will provide tax breaks for capital gains and roll back regulations, Winters said.
Usually, the Republicans are the party with the most oligarchs. This year’s Oligarch of the Year appears to be Elon Musk, who says he’s going to give $1 million to random voters, something that I’m pretty sure is illegal.
But the Democrats have decided to play the oligarch game as well. Thus, my mention of George Clooney earlier in this column. However, the fact that both sides are doing it doesn’t mean that democracy isn’t being harmed by it.
In fact, it’s just the opposite.
When the Supreme Court decided that corporations were people and had the same First Amendment rights as people in 2010’s Citizens United vs. FEC decision, it unleashed a “He who has the gold, makes the rules” vibe in politics.
And since much of that gold is coming from political action committees that don’t have to tell you where they got it under the law, it’s directly responsible for some of the less than factual political ads that you can’t get away from while watching Philadelphia Eagles games.
Speaking of oligarchs, in my next column I’ll talk about a recent visit one of them made to a local fast-food restaurant and how everyone in that situation missed the point.
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