Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.
We see the consequences all across America. And we’ve seen it before, more than a century ago. But the American people stood up to the robber barons back then and busted the trusts.
They didn’t punish the wealthy. They just made the wealthy pay the by — play by the rules everybody else had to. Workers won rights to earn their fair share. You know, they were dealt into the deal, and it helped put us on the path to building the largest middle class and the most prosperous century any nation the world has ever seen, and we’ve got to do that again.”
President Joe Biden, Farewell Address, January 15, 2025
President Biden delivered his farewell address on January 15, 2025. While Biden himself would admit he is not the greatest orator, the speech is a good speech. It’s well written and reflective and accomplishes what a farewell address is supposed to do. He highlighted America’s strengths and reflected on the accomplishments of his administration. Then he provided a warning for the future. One in which he warned Americans of the concentration of power in the hands of select few.
He warned Americans of an oligarchy taking root.
And so, for the rest of the day and into January 16, 2025, the top trending search no Google was “what is an oligarchy?”
I don’t know if this speaks more to interest or to a failure in our Civics education that we are googling the answer, but here we are. Our first Big Question of 2025. One whose importance was highlighted at Trump’s second inauguration.
And one I wish I still had my notes from a certain “-Isms” test to answer, but I’ll do my best in the interim. For at least this question has a definitional answer. We can talk about what constitutes an oligarchy and discuss examples of it. Beyond that, we also have to discuss why it matters now.
First, definitions.
An oligarchy is government by the few. A power structure in which the power rests with a small number of people. We contrast this with a monarchy, in which power rests with one person, or a democracy, where power rests with a large number of people. The oligarchy rests somewhere in between. No set number, but just recognizing all the power rests with a defined subset of people.
The people in the group are usually distinguishable from the general populace in certain specific ways. Nobility, education, fame, wealth, or some sort of degree of control. Military control, religious control, economic control, political control.
Generally, today, we focus on economic control. A group of the wealthy. As it goes, money makes the world go round. Money buys influence and political power. Money can buy fame.
This puts us in a subset of the oligarchy - the plutocracy. Rule by the wealthy elite, where wealth rather than merit controls.
Our most recognized current example is Russia. Since the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, the general view is that Russia has been ruled by a class of individuals with significant economic power intertwined with the role of the President. A group of individual leaders in the energy, natural resources, and metals sectors, overseeing and working through President Putin. A list of around 13 individuals controlling the direction of the Russian Federation. These are the people our sanctions against Russia have targeted - not the country specifically, but these wealthy individuals that can effectuate change in the country.
In America, we can look at examples in our past of economic oligarchies. We called these trusts or monopolies. Collusion by a few companies to control a particular market. Standard Oil, American Tobacco, US Steel. Power in the hands of specific conglomerates, allowing for rampant abuse in the market. Price fixing, income inequality, strong arm elimination of competition, worker abuse. All so the small group in charge could remain in charge.
Commentators have been more recently rising alarms about an oligarchy in modern America, as we’ve seen continued increases in the power of the financial elites. The Supreme Court in Citizens United removed campaign donation limits, seemingly okay with the wealthy being able to buy politicians. Former President Jimmy Carter described America afterwards as “an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery.”
A 2014 political science study found evidence that the United States’ political system does not primarily reflect the preferences of its average citizens. Analysis of policy outcomes between 1981 and 2002 suggested that the wealthy and business groups held substantial and disproportionate influence over political decisions, to the detriment of the majority of Americans.
Which brings us to today.
To the inauguration on Monday in which the seats normally reserved for state governors were filled by the tech industry elites. Tech industry billionaires all currying favor with the incoming and returning president. Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Shou Zi Chew, Sunar Pichai, and Sam Altman. Tesla/SpaceX,Twitter, Facebook/Meta, Amazon, Apple, TikTok, Google, and OpenAI. Combined they represent around over $1 trillion in wealth. To put that in perspective, the combined wealth of the bottom fifty percent of Americans or around 170 million people is just less than $4 trillion. Disparity and income inequality on a factor it’s hard to fathom. All there in seats of prominence at this most recent transfer of power.
The more concerning part is that all of these CEOs represent control over our modern media. Social media platforms, devices, satellite internet, and servers. That does not even start on e-commerce. Put simply, these CEOs can control the information that we receive and how it flows between us. They can decide what is acceptable information and what is misinformation. What fits their agenda and what does not.
The power of these companies and their leaders is concerning in and of itself. Their intertwining with President Trump is downright alarming. This is why so many people have had concerns regarding Elon’s connectedness to the President. There have already been questions about his election interference in this recent election via Twitter(X). We will only see those grow.
America is structured as a constitutional republic because we recognize that real power should belong to the people and should be acted on by their representatives to prevent mob mentality. It should be purposefully diffused. It’s why we have separation of powers, why we wrote in checks and balances, why we have historically busted trusts and fought against monopolies.
This should be an apolitical issue. Something all sides could agree upon.
We should all refuse to allow any group of wealthy elites to exert influence over our government and country. But I fear, this has just become another political hotbed. The Republican Party and MAGA sect seem to love and respect Elon Musk and are excited for his influence in the government, thanks to the Department of Government Efficiency push. Trump has scored major points by reinstating TikTok, and Zuckerberg is showing his alignment by removing fact checking.
What remains to us is to resist.
We should hold our representatives accountable to oppose the oligarchic intrusion. We should push our representatives for strong antitrust measures. To reinstate common sense campaign finance restrictions. To demand our elected officials make appropriate divestitures and not profit off their time in office (looking at you TrumpCoin).
You know, things we used to expect and demand.
In the interim, we just have to keep reminding ourselves this is not normal. This is not how things are supposed to work.
That will remain a thread in all of these entries coming up.
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