When the money power gets frightened, the money power stampedes. When the money power stampedes, unless sufficient safeguards have been put in place, fragile norms and institutions get crushed. Society becomes prey to pirates, grifters, and mountebanks. When the money power [stampedes, it] rarely injures itself. It crushes things without knowing what they are, or if they were even there. Democracy is one of those things. This phenomenon, as demonstrated in the previous Gilded Age, was called “anti-democracy” by journalist Jack Beatty in his Age of Betrayal.
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The whole essay is a history lesson and an indictment of Money Power in one. Pierce’s take on Blomberg is deadly.
The latest manifestation of the panic is the sudden emergence of Michael Bloomberg as a Democratic presidential candidate. From a perfectly practical standpoint, and despite what you’re hearing from cable-news personalities, Bloomberg is ultimately irrelevant as a possible nominee. He’s a checkbook, nothing more. He’s almost a walking parody of everything that’s changed within the Democratic Party since the rise of the current president*. He is a massive, irredeemable misreading of the room. And, for those people hoping for a return to what they perceive as the “pragmatic” status quo ante, Bloomberg’s emergence is not only a body blow to the already-staggering campaign of Joe Biden, but also a potential roadblock to people like Amy Klobuchar and Cory Booker, who might also want to run in that lane.
More important, though, is that Bloomberg’s appearance is unquestionably the most vivid manifestation of the fact that the rise of Elizabeth Warren and the resilience of Bernie Sanders—between them, they represent over 40 percent of the Democratic primary electorate, according to most polls—has put the fear of equality deep in the heart of the money power. Sanders is, to an extent, a known quantity, having run a strong race in 2016. But Warren’s sudden surge has wrong-footed them badly. Her wealth tax is an enormously popular idea, and even the how-will-you-pay-for-it? schoolmarm attacks on her healthcare proposal ring hollow against her consistent assaults on corporate brigandage and monopoly control. Suddenly, all the guns of privilege in society have opened up on her campaign. Suddenly, Michael Bloomberg decides he wants to be president, because the terrifying alternative is that the next president might cost him two cents on everything he makes over $50 million.
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Pierce has studied enough history to know this is the Gilded Age all over again, and connects some historical dots by bringing in the campaign by Upton Sinclair for the governorship of California in 1934. Like a certain other candidate of today, Sinclair had a plan — End Poverty In California (EPIC). The response by Money Power was to throw everything at him: attacks in the media of the day, slanted news coverage, advertising campaigns and consultants, words taken out of context, etc. etc. (Pierce draws on Greg Mitchell’s Campaign of the Century, which explores the race and its implications for today.)
Money Power prevailed — Sinclair was crushed. Mitchell quotes the defeated candidate as musing, “It is a revelation of what money can do in politics; what it will do when its privileges are threatened.” But… FDR would take elements of EPIC and roll them into the New Deal.
Money Power is still around and it has brought us to a new Gilded Age. It is telling that the one big legislative accomplishment Trump has seen was a massive tax cut for the rich. “Moscow Mitch” McConnell is busy packing the courts with as many reactionary federal judges as he can find to protect their (and his) privilege. We have a Money Power Supreme Court that has given us Citizens United, Janus, and Shelby County — (now including Brett Kavanaugh.)
Can we learn from history this time around? Money Power is not happy. They have hurt feelings. They’re trying to scare us. Wall Street is getting nervous because people are using their symbols for messages they don’t want heard. When they’re not happy, they take action.
You hear people decrying partisanship and warning against going too far left. Well, partisanship is unavoidable when the differences are real and the consequences of the wrong choices are so stark. If we do not break Money Power, it will break us. Money Power knows this — and they know who they want to win.