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Saving Democracy And Reality-Based Politics Requires Billionaire Realism
Billionaires don't just try to buy elections. They also promote the conspiracy theories and malaise that steer people toward fascist politicians, who in turn allow billionaires to loot the country.
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Ending this vicious cycle has to be a top priority for Democrats, if they ever want a fair shot at governing again.
Democrats might still win elections despite the best efforts of right-wing oligarchs. But as long as those oligarchs have unlimited wealth and increasing control over mass-media platforms, they will make responsive liberal democracy in America impossible to sustain. They will spend fortunes to finance the Republican opposition, and flood their media outlets with right-wing propaganda, until the public turns on Democrats, or Democrats abandon their egalitarian agenda, or both.
The only way out is to dramatically reduce their power—through taxation, regulation, contracting reform, and the revival of public corruption law, among other levers.
I think that’s the best synthesis of the conversation I had with political scientists Seth Masket on Thursday, to help mark the relaunch of his politics newsletter.
We actually discussed all of these things piecemeal:
The flourishing of conspiracy theories in the Trump era, and whether Democrats should be more welcoming to conspiracy-minded voters;
The origins of the rotten tech-billionaire culture that now subverts democracy, and the vindication of the progressive critique of wealth concentration;
The (likely) tech-induced revolution in public-opinion formation.
Each topic is worth examining independently, because they’re the building blocks of this larger, overarching story.
I suspect that if Democrats don’t retool their politic