A Declaration of Independence from the Billionaires
We can have democracy, or we can have billionaires. Not both. At least with these campaign finance laws.
When in the course of human events, it becomes undeniable that the billionaires are kicking our ass and would prefer fascism over slight tax increases, we have to do something.
Look at this chart:
Just 400 mega-donors outspent every other contributor to the Republican Party based on what we know about the spending in the 2024 campaign. Elon Musk alone appears to have outspent every small donor to the Trump campaign. And that’s if you don’t count the multiple billions of dollars he put into the $44 billion he wrangled to purchase Twitter and turn it into a Trump campaign website. In return, Tesla has skyrocketed 40% since Trump’s election, making Elon about $70 billion he can blow on future elections.
And the way that Elon spent degraded democracy itself. His PAC drowned targeted voters with disinformation of the sort tens of millions are now fleeing from on Twitter.
With digital spots, direct mail, text messages, influencer marketing and mobile billboards, the overall project was a high-tech experiment in misdirection — an old political tactic that has been sharpened in recent decades with increasingly precise targeting techniques.
Ads tested better if Muslims felt they were seeing a message meant for Zionists, “Bernie bros” felt they were hearing from the far left, and “Zyn bros” felt they were hearing from activists who wanted “a world without gas-powered vehicles,” a ban on fracking and affordable housing for undocumented Americans — policies Harris did not actually support during her campaign.
Is it possible to overcome this? Harris campaign was able to drive her turnout in the Blue Wall States above Trump’s 2020 numbers but still lost because Trump’s turnout went up.
Trump’s unique appeal to voters who don’t regularly show up tied to his approach of going around the media through podcasts and alternative “guy” culture media helped him win, along with a Russian disinformation campaign that has been savaging the current president and Harris’s former running mate for six years.
But you cannot look at this election and say it was a fair fight. It’s the billionaires versus the people, and the billionaires are kicking our ass with Elon—and his grudge against his daughter and the culture that accepts her in a way he never can—leading the way. His Phishing Scam Approach to politics has helped him, officially the richest human being ever to live, to become significantly richer.
Many factors have made America the most unequal country in the OECD and now threaten our ability to govern ourselves.
You have to start with Reagan’s attacks on unionization paired with the financialization of our markets to make rich people playing with money the most dominating corner of our economy. Combine that with the Roberts Court's rejection of any limitations on how rich people can attempt to buy our elections, typified by Citizens United. Then multiply it by a global alliance of corrupt yet filthy rich authoritarians who see multiracial democracy as an adversary to conquer, and we have a serious fucking problem.
There is an obvious solution. We need to take our own side against the billionaires. We must stop behaving like “temporarily embarrassed billionaires” who are just one video or startup from getting high and playing Halo II with Elon.
There are more of us than there will ever be of them. But that only matters if we have a democracy where it’s even possible for us to fight for our interests.
A massive barrier in this fight is that Democrats feel they need their billionaires to fight the other billionaires. This “choose your fighter” strategy has proven to be a failed one. We will never be able to offer these moguls what they want—minimal taxes on the rich, no consumer protections, and an end to our votes mattering.
So, we need a progressive movement that can take the people’s side. The billionaires are activated. We no longer need to fear them turning on us and our Constitution. It’s happened. They sided with an insurrectionist who has made it clear he intends to rule as a dictator and will refuse ever to leave office peacefully. That’s done.
Now, we need to have the debate that matters most: do we want a democracy or billionaires? Because we can’t have both. Not like this.