How the Oligarchs Have Won

 I want my friends to understand some things about the Musk-Trump administration. If you’ve followed me or my blog, you’ll know my discussion here is based on monitoring the Trump activity since 2015 and from reading books and other materials, starting in 2020 with “Democracy in Chains.” I’ve posted this list so many times so I am not gong to repeat myself. What I’d like to do here is offer you some thoughts and reflections from having read these books.

First, please stop saying or stop agreeing with those who say Trump is stupid or an idiot or anything else to paint him as someone without mental faculties. He’s probably an idiot savant with his skills being grifting and cult-like persuasion. He is also a tool of the billionaire class — willingly or unwillingly or knowingly or unknowingly. It’s pretty clear he is also a Russian asset.

Second, he is not in this alone. An entire cabal of one-percenters support this destruction of our government. These libertarian oligarchs and plutocrats have fueled this government takeover with billions of dollars, much coming from but not limited to the fossil fuel industry. The network of this cabal is more widespread than most people know and includes billions of dollars, thousands of participants, thousands of meetings and hundreds of right-wing organizations.

Third, this is a 71-year effort starting with elite southern whites rebelling against Brown v Board of Education. The effort, supported by billions of dollars, has been sophisticated, stealthy and has allowed the right-wing libertarians to use the most up-to-date technology to further their goals. They’ve played the long game and every step toward their goals has been incremental enough to go unnoticed until it broke into the open fully with Trump’s election in 2016.

Fourth, the Democratic Party leadership and other progressives in the country not only failed to see what was happening but ignored the few who did see what was happening. In being so feckless, the party failed to muster its resources in order to expose and push back the stealth revolution. When Hillary Clinton said we are facing a “vast right-wing conspiracy,” the feckless party leadership blew off the warning as hyperbolic rhetoric. She was right and they were wrong. The Democratic Party has been a eunuch ever since.

Fifth, the Seven Mountain dominionists (one of the most visible being Ted Cruz) and Christian nationalists managed to infiltrate the evangelical, non-denomination Christian community. James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Jim and Tammy Baker, Jimmy Swaggart, Kenneth Copeland, (yes, even) Billy Graham and many more were manipulated or were manipulators to jump on the hot-button issues. The anti-LBGTQT, anti-abortion-pro-birth movement, purity culture and birth control were effective distractions for the real work at hand, although some of those in the so-called Jesus movement were sincere in their beliefs. Supported by the billionaire class behind this, a vast number of evangelical congregations and mega-churches violated the law by flat out endorsing right-wing candidates either from the pulpit or through other means. The goal is to grow a population of poor controllable masses.

Sixth, Texas and Florida have been the test beds for this radicalization. Along with the hot-button issues, the goal is to destroy the public education system, and in doing so, eliminate critical thinking skills for the masses. It will infuse curricula with revisionist history to eliminate the wall between church and state. And we know what church that will be and how Christian sharia law will unfold. The so-called parental choice is really a propaganda phrase for vouchers to build an elite educated base to undertake the real work of running industries and a country. It is also to further Christian-nationalist segregation and line the pockets of the education-industrial complex. Further, suppressing votes with obstacles and gerrymandering are part of this.

Seventh, the long-range effort to control the judiciary has largely succeeded. The U.S. Supreme Court is now fully corrupt and right-wing. So are many of the lower federal courts. While some of the ongoing lower court rulings are legitimate in overturning some of the Trump administrations activities, the concerns about the administration’s ignoring them will be moot. The guardrails are essentially gone with the oligarchs owning SCOTUS. The constitutional crisis won’t be the regime ignoring lower court orders nor in having no way to force compliance. The ongoing appeals will go to SCOTUS where the rulings will favor the oligarchs. One of the enablers of this takeover of the courts was Mitch McConnell when he was the Senate majority leader. Flying well below the radar, McConnell attended many of the Koch Industries right-wing briefings and benefited greatly from their contributions, as well as those from Russia.

Eighth, the right-wing oligarchs will also use violence to get what they want. The January 6, 2021 insurrection was a rehearsal. The Proud Boys and other right-wing militia are out there waiting for the call to arms, which is part explains the pardons for the insurrectionists. Just in the last few days I’ve heard rumblings that the Republicans who aren’t Trumpers are being intimidated. It’s more than the fear being primaried. Some are silent because of direct threats to them or their families in order to keep them in line. In short, the oligarchs own the United States Congress.

Ninth, following the Third Reich’s Joseph Goebbels, it’s chief propagandist, the attack on the First Amendment has ramped up. Of course, Trump himself has been beating on the press for years. But now, it’s in earnest. The White House Correspondents Association has traditionally controlled what media representatives attend briefings in the White House, but now the administration has ripped away that guardrail and is now favoring the right-wing echo chamber. Just this week, Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos made clear where he stands and, along with spiking a presidential endorsement last year, he is making the Post’s opinion pages reflect the libertarian agenda. Real journalists are jumping ship. It’s probably the start of a campaign to shape the media to his will. And the BigMedia is also helping with its bread and circuses celebrity worship having been in place for years.

Tenth, there are actually two endgames. As we watch Elon Musk and the Trump administration dismantle other government departments, we have to realize that these libertarian oligarchs know some services are indispensable; e.g. air traffic control, NOAA and some public health functions. Don’t be fooled. These people are not stupid. Their plan will be to privatize these essential services so only those with wealth can afford them. The current moves are telegraphing this corruption with Musk already having billions in government contracts and reaching for more, such as the air traffic control program. Look for others to cash in. Musk and Bezos will benefit from space exploration and IT contracts. Koch Industries will benefit from mineral and fossil fuel extraction, And, so it goes. As for the regulatory programs to prevent pollution and other deleterious effects from industry, those will be destroyed.

The second end game is a Convention of the States under Article V of the United States Constitution to roll back our foundational document to the 1850s. It will leave only two functions for government — militarized law enforcement and national defense. Those priorities explain why police departments have been militarized over the past seven decades and why Trump is filling up the Pentagon and the military with loyalists. When enough people wake up and start resisting and rioting, the federal government and police forces are not only prepared but also will have aid from the right-wing militias.

Finally, I have yet to see or hear anyone proposing a way to resist and save our democracy.