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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhat's Preventing Harris From Crushing Trump Is Shockingly Simple
If Trump wins, blame the billionaires. Without them, this presidential race wouldnt be close at all. As Elon Musks rabid pro-Trump mania makes clear, billionaires are wielding their financial might in this years presidential election far more than in any previous campaignand far more openly, too. More than 60 billionaires have opened their wallets to help elect Donald Trump, with some giving $10 million, $20 million, or more, indicating that many plutocrats are far more worried about the prospect of Democrats increasing their taxes than about the threat that Trump poses to our democracy.
Theres no denying that billionaires are trying to bend society to their will. Americas 800-plus billionaires hold over $6 trillion in wealth, more wealth than the bottom half of U.S. households. The super wealthy own a greater share of the nations wealth today than they did during the Gilded Age of the Rockefellers and Carnegies. And they will do whatever they have to do to keep things that way. Without the enormous aid from these and other billionaires, Trumps race against Kamala Harris wouldnt even be closehed be well behind. These plutocrats efforts underline the wisdom of something that Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once said: We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cant have both.
Crystallizing Brandeis fears, the billionaires backing Trump dont seem terribly concerned about preserving our democracy. They support Trump despite his talk of being a dictator on Day One, terminating the Constitution and siccing federal prosecutors on his political opponents and critics. Theyre far more concerned about slashing taxes and regulations than about the risks of electing a demagogue who hails Hungarys authoritarian leader, Viktor Orban, as a model.
Many Americans fail to realize just how much the super rich use their financial muscle to twist and tilt policymaking to their liking. After the painful 2008 recession, the super rich got Washingtons policymakers to focus on cutting the budget deficit instead of cutting the painfully high unemployment rate and assuring a speedy recovery. The ultrawealthy successfully lobbied to stop Presidents Obama and Biden from repealing the carried interest loophole that saves private equity executives billions by taxing their profits at lower capital gains rates, around 20 percent, instead of higher personal income tax rates, around 37 percent. Billionaires successes in helping elect right-wing lawmakers and in lobbying help explain why Congress keeps blocking progressive ideas that have overwhelming public support, like a higher minimum wage and paid family and medical leave. (In one of the most insidious and destructive moves by billionaires, the Koch brothers used their wealth to essentially create the climate denial movement, as Jane Mayer explains in her book Dark Money, funding pseudoscientists to produce studies that supposedly debunked human-caused global warming and donating heavily to right-wing think tanks and politicians to get them to deny global warming and fight efforts to curb fossil fuels.)
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/10/trump-kamala-harris-election-elon-musk-gates-polls-2024.html?pay=1729752833358&support_journalism=please
betsuni
(27,247 posts)Nothing new. They can't force Americans to do anything.
SunSeeker
(53,404 posts)Just the weak minded Fox News crowd. Unfortunately, that includes by father and brother.
eppur_se_muova
(37,247 posts)You've heard of stochastic terrorism ? This is macro-stochastic subversion. Convince the foolish to "follow the leader", and the leader wins, only needing a sufficient number of fools.
anamnua
(1,329 posts)SunSeeker
(53,404 posts)jaxexpat
(7,601 posts)Permitting Nixon to live out his years quietly was evermore obviously a terrible mistake. It nurtured and provided breathing room for those who no one, at the time, dared call fascists. Fact, huge fact actually: billionaires are absolutely nonessential.
hay rick
(8,152 posts)JCMach1
(27,925 posts)SunSeeker
(53,404 posts)And the billionaire money plays on it with their relentless ads and social media bots. We Just can't let it sway us.
yardwork
(63,683 posts)cynical_idealist
(426 posts)ScratchCat
(2,363 posts)The ultra wealthy knows their wealth is dependent upon future cash flows, revenue, etc... and a crash of the stock market or an all out land war in Europe which leads to nuclear weapons being used rubs out their wealth virtually overnight. And they are supporting the only person running for POTUS who's election could lead to that. You throw your hands in the air at some point....