“...the risk of a drift toward oligarchy is real and gives little reason for optimism.”

What is it that the very richest Americans are seeking in opposing the national government, social programs (of all types) and demonizing the government as a force for evil? It would be wrong to say there is one goal, but rule by the few and the wealth, an oligarchy, is one objective. This is so obvious that it doesn’t even deserve much debate.

The first thing one must know about the wealthy is they don’t spend their money easily and they don’t spend it without expecting some kind of return. (There are exceptions, but these rules apply to most, most of the time.) Further, the wealthy generally do not fool around in spending their money, they want and expect to obtain results.

Below is a commentary published in the NY Times online, 3.6.14, on this subject, with some minor changes and some added details and phrases. In the shortened form used by the Times, one is more or less forced to take adamant positions. I have no doubt that the general assertion is correct, but in a longer form, it would have more nuance and more detail.

French economist Thomas Piketty as quoted by Paul Krugman in his NY Times column

Oligarch is the appropriate and operative word. A national oligarchy is what the richest of the rich wish to create across America. They identify their personal needs as being in the best interest of the people, therefore oligarchy is GOOD. Indeed, they cast themselves as heroes defending both their interests and those of the people. How those wants and needs can be so intricately intwined without conflict is perhaps something they never bother to consider, nor the issue of whether they are all knowing, all seeing. Does their wealth blind them to understanding the world as perceived by the non-wealthy? Also not to be considered.

The state of Texas, to this day, is very close to an oligarchy. It is ruled by hundreds of state commissions (filled almost exclusively by the wealthy or those who fly in their circles). The members are appointed by the governor who otherwise lacks much power. The voters, election after election, go along with what the ruling classes say they should do. (I have personal experience in watching matters there over the years, having lived in Texas for five years as an adult plus spending part of my summers there growing up and, on top of that, I claim Texas as my ancestral family home, since my great, great grandparents came to the state in the 1890s.)

The entire old south states have vestiges of oligarchy in the way they are run, their draconian imprisonment routines and in their laws. The statues on the books almost invariably favor those with money and power over the weak and the poor. In short, the laws are tilted strongly against what we might otherwise call the “common man”. "Non-judicial foreclosure", allowing banks to seize houses without going to court, is one example. Boom, overnight, your house is GONE. The way police crackdown, hard, on minor violations of law is another. The lower classes must be constantly "educated" as to what their place in life is and how to stay in it,  permanently. Or else. The oligarcal nature of the old south reflects its long history as a slave holding state and the last 150 years have not alerted a lot of the practices much at all.

The desire for a national oligarchy is one reason the right demonizes the national government so persistently and with such vehemence. The national govt. is the only institution with any chance to resist the oligarch's power, the only countervailing force to absolute rule by the powerful. If those who wish to rule through the influence of their money can defang and defeat the federal government, they would have a near complete reign to do almost anything they wanted across most of the state.

We are in a critical, constant battle for the survival of our democracy and our constitutional form of govt. Make no mistake. Inch by inch, they will take it if they can get it.

Doug Terry, 3.6.14
 

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