💲Billionaires Lining Up to Fund Trump's Anti-Democratic Agenda: Robert Reich. Neofascism
- The Guardian, by Robert Reich, Nov. 21, 2023. Ed. - The more disturbing Trump’s public proclamations become, the more US plutocrats seem to want him to win.
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As an ever-greater portion of the nation’s total wealth goes to the top, it’s hardly surprising that ever more of that wealth is corrupting US politics. In the 2020 presidential election cycle, more than $14bn went to federal candidates, party committees, and Super Pacs – double the $7bn doled out in the 2016 cycle. Total giving in 2024 is bound to be much higher. That money is not supporting US democracy. If anything, that money is contributing to rising Trumpism and neofascism.
There is a certain logic to this.
As more and more wealth concentrates at the top, the moneyed interests rationally fear that democratic majorities will take it away through higher taxes, stricter regulations (on everything from trade to climate change), enforcement of anti-monopoly laws, pro-union initiatives and price controls. So they’re sinking ever more of their wealth into anti-democracy candidates. Trump is going full fascist these days and gaining the backing of prominent billionaires.
Earlier this month, on Veterans Day, Trump pledged to “root out the communists, Marxists, fascists & the radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country”, whom he accused of doing anything “to destroy America and to destroy the American dream”. (Notably, he read these words from a teleprompter, meaning they were intentional rather than another impromptu Trump rant.) Days before, Trump claimed that undocumented immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country”.
The NY Times reported that he’s planning to round up millions of undocumented immigrants & detain them in sprawling camps while they wait to be expelled. Trump has publicly vowed to appoint a special prosecutor to “go after” Biden and his family, and has told advisers & friends that he wants the justice department to investigate officials who have criticized his time in office. This is, quite simply, full-throated neofascism. Who’s bankrolling all this?
Trump’s base is making small contributions, the big money is coming from some of the richest people in the US...
- Read More, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/21/donald-trump-anti-democratic-agenda-billionaires-neofascism
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- Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy at the University of Calif., Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His newest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com
(This article was amended on 21 November 2023 to clarify Ken Griffin’s position).
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