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OLIGARCHY RISING, DEMOCRATS FAILING  

by Joseph Geevarghese

President Biden warned too little and too late in his farewell address on January 15,  “An oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our democracy.” Days later, on January 20, his words came to life as President Trump took the Oath of Office, flanked by Oil and Tech Oligarchs who funded his campaign. This moment signaled the beginning of a new political alignment between corporate and state power.

Trump has quickly rewarded his corporate benefactors. His first executive orders rolled back Biden-era environmental protections and boosted aggressive dirty energy production.  Meanwhile, he advanced AI and cryptocurrency policies while stripping government oversight of Big Tech. The result:  Big Tech’s need for vast energy supplies to fuel AI and crypto dovetailed seamlessly with Big Oil’s push to expand market demand for fossil fuels.

Trump is also purging career civil servants and replacing them with political loyalists and industry executives.  These actions ensure agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy serve corporate interests rather than the public good.

Trump and his benefactors’ increasing control over the public square – and their bullying of the free press – means that citizens are deprived of the information required to speak out.  Big Tech’s grip on digital platforms has fragmented public discourse, allowing misinformation to flourish. Meanwhile, surveillance technology—driven by firms like Palantir—is expanding state monitoring powers and eroding privacy protections.  

Also dangerous are Trump’s pardons of the January 6 insurrectionists which will embolden extremists and likely make paramilitary-style political violence a permanent feature of our political life.  

Taken together, the U.S. is fast moving toward the economic and political model of Russia, India, China, and Hungary—where strongmen are surrounded by oligarchs who rule with ruthlessness behind a facade of Democracy.

With this new oligarchy rising, America needs a real opposition party.  Yet, despite Biden’s farewell warning, Democrats are failing to speak with a unified voice about the true dangers of Trump and challenge him on every front. 

Some Democratic members of Congress are breaking ranks to confirm Trump’s nominees and offering to collaborate with advancing his policy agenda.  The Democrats’ failure to act with courage or conviction is undermining the trust of rank-and-file voters and volunteers who donate and knock doors election after election.   

Our Revolution recently surveyed more than 5,000 of our most active supporters, and only 14 percent said they feel ‘very confident’ that Democratic leaders will effectively counter Trump and his agenda.  Nearly nine in 10 support efforts to want Democratic politicians and party officials “to lead a real opposition party by rejecting corporate money and influence,” but the remaining 12 percent told us not to bother because they’ve already given up on the Democratic Party. 

Here are two of many comments the survey received sharing similar sentiments of despair with the Democratic Party. One woman said:  “The Democratic Party needs to stop playing nice and fight fire with fire. I’m sick and disgusted today.  I am ashamed of our country and the fact that there is no real plan to overhaul the Democratic Party.”  Another commented: “I am not motivated to give Democrats money because I don’t think they know how to fight effectively and I don’t trust them to do what is necessary to effect real change.”

The base wants Democrats to provide more than reactive opposition—they want their leaders to reject corporate rule by renouncing corporate money themselves, demand Constitutional accountability from Trump, and present a unified front against his policies and personnel picks.  

That’s why Our Revolution sent an open letter  to all DNC members, who are gathering to elect new leaders this weekend, to chart a new course given the oligarchic takeover underway.  But even in this they’ve managed to continue the blind push for insular control — going out of their way to shut out the public as just 448 insiders prepare to vote. 

The grassroots base, progressives, young voters, working class voters, and others often shunted to the edges of the party have long been calling for a rejection of corporate power and a return to the working class roots, but this cry is reaching a crescendo.  The Party and its politicians must listen now.  They must open up transparency, break with corporate influences, and repair public trust if they want to win this existential battle.

Even Democratic governors are speaking out, speaking to Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer as a group, and urging him to do all that he can to slow down the confirmation of President Trump’s nominees and to do more to block his agenda,the New York Times reported this week. 

And citizens – whether Democrat, Republican or Independent – must mobilise, inform, and engage their friends and neighbors in the work of saving our nation from peril. Without concerted action, Biden’s warning of the rising American oligarchy may become the dystopian future we cannot escape.

Joseph Geevarghese is Executive Director of Our Revolution, the largest independent grassroots political action organization in the US, which was founded by Bernie Sanders in 2016.