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BIDEN’S WARNING OF OLIGARCHY: TRUMP AND THE MALEFACTORS OF WEALTH
 
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Editorial
January 16, 2025
Guardian
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_ The outgoing president was right, in his farewell address, to warn
of the dangers posed by the billionaires around the table _

Joe Biden, by Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 2.0)

 

Aristocrats are “the most difficult Animals to manage, of anything
in the whole Theory and practice of Government. They will not suffer
themselves to be governed,” John Adams warned
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writing after his presidency. Banning titles was insufficient; a few
would still be distinguished by birth or, especially, wealth. The
problem was not just their ability to buy political favours but
the grip that their money had
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people’s minds.

Economic and political power entwine everywhere. Fear of the rich’s
outsized influence has existed throughout US history. Yet at times the
relationship becomes especially stark and threatening. On
Wednesday, Joe Biden
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19th-century Gilded Age and the robber barons – who crushed
competitors, exploited workers, bought judges and politicians, and
flaunted wealth – in his warning against oligarchs.

In his parting words
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the Oval Office, the president talked up his achievements: “The
seeds are planted, and they’ll grow, and they’ll bloom for decades
to come.” It is true that he received insufficient credit for the
strengthened economy, green investment, massive healthcare expansion
and his management of the Covid disaster that he inherited from Donald
Trump, alongside his support for Ukraine. But his carelessness towards
Palestinian lives in Gaza and his refusal to stand aside sooner –
extraordinarily, he still maintains
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he could have beaten Mr Trump – contributed to the Democrats’
defeat.

What resonated, however, was his alarm call as he warned
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the “dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few
ultra-wealthy people”, adding: “An oligarchy is taking shape in
America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally
threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms and a
fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”

Like Dwight Eisenhower’s parting warning
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the military-industrial complex – which Mr Biden cited – this was
an unexpected and ominous alert to the American public. Inequality is
at staggering levels. The top 0.1% of the US population
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times as much total wealth as the bottom 50%
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Republicans have profited from the super-rich: at least 83
billionaires backed Kamala Harris’s
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No one imagines that they all did so from disinterested concern for
their nation.

Yet rarely has the marriage of politics and riches been as naked or
unashamed as with Mr Trump. The man who rages against elites has
assembled a cabinet with 13 billionaires. Elon Musk, the first person
whose net worth has passed $400bn, says that citizens will face
“temporary hardship
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as his department of government efficiency slashes public spending
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“Oilgarchs” are already reaping the rewards
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backing fossil-fuel-friendly Mr Trump.

Though multiple large egos are in close proximity, this marriage is
likely to thrive without external challenges. As anger grew at the
turn of the last century, Theodore Roosevelt weakened the
“malefactors of wealth” by trust-busting, creating regulatory
agencies and putting land off limits to commercial exploitation. Many
Americans long for another “square deal”. But wealth allows its
owners to shape reality. The railroads that enriched 19th-century
tycoons literally set the time
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which the nation ran. Now the “tech industrial complex”
highlighted by Mr Biden and run by Mr Trump’s new friends works at
an even more intimate level, determining what voters see. At stake may
ultimately be the question of who shall rule: the people or
America’s new aristocrats.

_The Guardian [[link removed]] is globally renowned
for its coverage of politics, the environment, science, social
justice, sport and culture. Scroll less and understand more about the
subjects you care about with the Guardian's brilliant email
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* Joe Biden
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* Oligarchy
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* military industrial complex
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* Donald Trump
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* economic inequality
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