A majority of those who hold the power and wealth of our nation run their coercive top-down empires as personal wealth and power generators. They see themselves as decision makers who should shape the world (i.e., similar to the ‘rule of the few’ model used in China). They believe in their system of unquestioned force-based rule. They believe that that the American Constitutional system of governance, law, and elected representatives interferes with their perceived ‘right’ to rule.
Their use of power and their control of resources, dictate government and economic policies. Their present approach is to take over any government (County, State, and Federal) that has goals other than their own. For example, turn public lands including national parks over to them and let them exploit the resources. Turn the schools over to them and let them limit education and profit from the money taxpayers pay for public education. Privatize every aspect of government, including prisons, for profit. Appoint czars to run cities, schools, and public services. Reject elected officials.
Representative Democracy is an irritant to this loosely affiliated oligarchy. They do whatever it takes to control those elected and get them to do their bidding. They subvert the Democratic system and stop citizens from organizing, voting, or questioning them. An educated populous must be dumbed-down, and public comprehensive education must be disrupted. An example is what they have already accomplished in Red States – states that have the worst education, medical care, women’s rights, work opportunities, freedom, and obviously, representation.
As individuals, these would-be kings are above the law. Corporations are used as veils that shield them from the consequences of their acts. They have created corporations as persons with rights, but almost no responsibilities. Recently, the billionaires have used the facades provided by non-profit charities – usually with names that seem patriotic (Freedom or Heritage) or providing service to children (Students First and TFA) to operate out of the public view. Their money can be channeled through tax-exempt foundations (examples: The Gates Foundation and The Broad Foundation) and directed to carry out their plans.
Attempts by our Courts to hold corporations responsible for violations of rights and guarantees are limited to fines that are tax deductible and can be passed on to the citizens through higher prices. The IRS (as directed by those they control in Congress) has been used as a means to avoid paying taxes and having to support the government they do not like. The current SCOTUS is arguably pro corporations and five members seem to think like the billionaires.
American citizens – the American People – have become troublesome as they attempt to perfect a government OF, BY, and FOR THE PEOPLE.
As an emerging form of not-elected government, the billionaires believe anyone who questions them must be silenced. They have gained majority control of the Press and use it to manipulate, insert, and omit information. Few politicians can run without allegiance to, and financial backing from, the billionaires whom they must represent.
To these would be kings, America is not profitable for them due to the cost of labor and public services. As consumers, citizens were once thought necessary for continued economic growth. In reality, a large middle class emerged and labor became expensive. Demands for social services, pensions, and things like rebuilding the infrastructure are seen as unnecessary, because people in other countries can be exploited for less, and demand less – i.e., health care, public schools, public services, infrastructure. They believe that workers’ rights are granted by them. Rights or benefits must be limited by what is good for the few (them), not the many.
The American people are a hindrance to their power, not an asset. As a result, they take their great wealth gleaned from America and focus on global power. They fear that the American system of representative government could limit the use of, or even take, their accumulated wealth. They know that America’s system of Representative Democracy must be crippled or destroyed to prevent that from happening.
A few citizens threaten them – way too few! For example, on many fronts where this Oligarch-Corporate-veiled system is establishing itself, parents and educators are fighting for public comprehensive education and demonstrating that they will not allow the destruction of the great American Education System. Other leaders are emerging to take on the powerful few – including a very few in Congress like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, and great educators like Diane Ravitch, who are not owned by the billionaires. It may be too late. Recently the billionaires demonstrated their power by thwarting the Presidency and stopping the Constitutional functions of government. As they are too powerful to be held accountable, only an election can remove their minions. As the would-be-kings control gerrymandering, and those who can run in the primaries, and, sadly, those who can vote, hopes for the election of the People’s representatives are slim.
Oligarchies and Feudal systems are not new. They have been the rule, not the exception since mankind’s beginning. They are amoral and often evil, as political-economic history shows. They get what they want regardless of those they hurt. If they are not stopped, the American Dream will be.
The United States Of America was created to end the rule of kings and feudal lords. The would-be kings are working hard to change that.
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