Are we headed for oligarchy – or are we already there?
In President Joe Biden’s farewell address, he warned that “an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy...”
I repeatedly hear and read warnings about a US oligarchy, and have discovered very different takes on it. Is the US headed for an oligarchy? Is it already in one, and is Biden just complaining that the old oligarchy that he has served is being replaced by a new oligarchy? Here is an imperfect overview of the different perspectives.
The US has always had an oligarchy
As Editorial Cartoonist Scott Stantis said in his CenterClip short audio commentary on AllSides, “We’ve always had an oligarchy in this country,” relating historical examples such as our founding fathers who owned hundreds of thousands of acres of land to the steel barons, railroad barons, oil barons and now the tech barons.
The term Oligarchy is as old as Aristotle, and it pops up occasionally in U.S. political discourse such as in 2014 when Cambridge University published a study analyzing over 20 years of U.S. policy decisions concluded: “economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence.” The following year, former President Jimmy Carter described the United States as an "oligarchy with unlimited political bribery."
This feeds nicely back to the next point that Stantis makes, which is that the challenge for the American system is to protect the less wealthy from the oligarchs. There is always a battle of political power, and that battle does not seem to change, but continues through our history.
Danger! An oligarchy is coming with Trump, democracy is at risk
Many from the left are making the same warning that Biden did during his farewell address. In an NBC Meet the Press interview, Sen. Bernie Sanders said “we are moving rapidly into an oligarchic form of society” pointing to a “concentration of ownership” as a major symptom.
In a recent New York Times Opinion (Left bias) column “Now Is the Time of Monsters,” Ezra Klein made a similar warning by first highlighting shifts in the news media, “The billionaire owners of The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times killed presidential endorsements of Kamala Harris, ABC News (owned by Disney) gave Trump’s ‘future presidential foundation and museum’ $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit Trump brought, Mark Zuckerberg is refocusing Meta platforms around ‘free expression’ and his company against D.E.I.”
Some seem concerned about the brazen show of influence. Vox (Left bias) published the article “Elon Must and the age of shameless oligarchy,” which highlights that while wealthy donors have always exercised influence over politicians, Elon Musk is “showing other members of the ultra-wealthy a bold alternative to stealth politics… A private citizen can grab power in full view of the public — as long as they’re rich enough, and have enough fans.”
Hypocrite! The left’s oligarchy has been in control, now its power is threatened
The right sees the left doing the same thing for decades, but behind closed doors.
Those on the right are less likely to deploy the term “oligarchy,” but for years they have expressed concern that the media has become a small group of powerful companies and individuals that control the dissemination of information, leading to biased reporting and fact checking that marginalizes conservative perspectives in order to benefit Democratic-aligned elites. There is also concern that social media giants are pressured by government and institutions to suppress or elevate certain stories to influence elections – like the Hunter Biden laptop story. Another concern from those on the right is that progressive law firms are funneling millions from state consumer lawsuits into liberal campaigns, arguing that these lawsuits could have been easily won by the government.
There is an oligarchy, and it is bi-partisan
David Brooks is considered a moderating voice on the New York Times Opinion page (Left bias). “There is an oligarchy, but it's completely bipartisan”, he said on the PBS Newshour. He seemed to see more of a balance than others as he mentioned that there is a “Democratic oligarchy and a Republican oligarchy”, and while you have strong Trump supporter Elon Musk on one side, that “most billionaires in this country are Democrats” and that the Democratic Party has about 75% of the GDP.
The inauguration is over. Now what?
Whether we’re headed for oligarchy or we’re already there, the United States will continue to be influenced by an elite class that uses its power to shape policy outcomes. Their actions may or may not be in line with the desires and well-being of the American populace.
A functioning democratic republic requires an informed public to keep a check on the actions of the elite few. Although we live in the information age, we are too often over-informed by one side that just wants us to click, buy and vote their way. We are all susceptible to feeling that an abundance of information from one side makes us knowledgeable – when in fact, we have become confidently ignorant.
AllSides empowers you to stay confidently informed with balanced news in context – and when you are empowered, oligarchies (of every ideology) are weakened.
John Gable is the CEO and co-founder of AllSides. He has a Lean Right bias.
Contributors:
Krystal Woodworth, Marketing Communications Manager (Lean Left Bias)
Julie Mastrine, Director of Marketing & Media Bias (Lean Right Bias)
Reviewed and edited by Editor-in-chief Henry A. Brechter (Center).
