White billionaire hedge-fund guy Tom Steyer, a prolific funder to Democratic causes the last several cycles and promoter of a self-funded impeachment campaign last cycle, has taken stock of the political climate. While his impeachment effort grew his email list to four million or so, its broader impact on the political process was zero. It was a cynical and doomed effort, as the Republican-led House and Senate were never going to undertake anything resembling oversight, much less impeachment. And Democrats and the broader liberal grassroots shrugged it off as tactical idiocy. (The mainstream Democratic strategy of focusing laser-like on health care successfully carried the day.)
Furthermore, Steyer presumably took a look at the dynamite new Resistance groups who’ve taken the political process by storm—Black Lives Matter, immigrant-rights groups like the DREAMERs, and the dramatic increase of women participation in the political process, fueled by the #MeToo, Women’s March, and other such movements.
And let’s assume that Steyer noticed the refocused progressive energy on economic issues, elevated by Sen. Bernie Sanders’s last cycle, and supercharged this cycle by newly emerging Democratic stars like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
And then he—a male, white billionaire hedge guy—decided that the takeaway from all that was that what the Democratic Party grassroots wanted was a white, billionaire, male hedge-fund guy for president.
He won’t be the first clueless white guy to misread the climate. Former Republican billionaire Michael Bloomberg and billionaire Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz will be right behind him, and over a dozen more with smaller bank accounts will follow.
Thing is, there’s lots of good people like Bloomberg, Schultz, and Steyer can do funding left-wing infrastructure, much as the Mercers, Kochs, and Adelsons are doing for the GOP. Bloomberg could help even the media playing field overnight by turning his Bloomberg media network into liberal TV. Steyer can continue funding campaigns and environmental initiatives, organizing college campuses and other such efforts.
Shultz … well, he hasn’t done shit for progressive infrastructure. He can get right to it. Tons of great efforts to fund. I could suggest several, like organizing, registering, and turning out the 1.4 million newly enfranchised ex-felons in Florida.
Instead, their egos are their egos. And like Donald Trump’s ego, it’s leading them toward ridiculous presidential bids, utterly and completely reading the zeitgeist. Never underestimate the power of a white guy to make it all about himself.
