Uncovering Our Oligarchy
Did you know that major corporations and interest groups on Wall Street, the pharmaceutical industry, insurance companies, defense contractors, and fossil fuel companies contribute to both major political parties at the same time? In the 2020 election, according to Forbes, 290 billionaires donated to Democrat candidates while 133 billionaires donated to Republican candidates. And thanks to the Supreme Court in its 2010 ruling Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, they don’t have to disclose those donations when they contribute to PACs.
Why would they do that? Why all this support for the Democrats? After all, these Democrat liberals have been the proponents of the workers and DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) which is largely dismissed by Republican conservatives.
After much pondering, I remembered my stint in marketing for an industrial manufacturing company. There I learned how to calculate internal rates of return (IRR) and return on investment (ROI), determining the benefits of a proposed project compared to its costs. If the benefits exceeded the cost, the plan went forward. Much the same is true of corporations’ and billionaires’ investments in political candidates.
It turns out that to run for office in the U.S. Senate, a political candidate has a median cost of $7.6 million, for the House $1.3 million, and for President $505 million. To raise this amount of money, most of our politicians are now dependent on these hidden, big-money donors. And as a result, they feel indebted to them, and wish to pay them back in some way.
For the money-driven capitalists, this has great IRR and ROI value. According to Bernie Sanders, their financial staff understands “that a few million dollars in campaign contributions are peanuts compared to a provision in a piece of legislation — or the removal of provisions in past legislation — that could clear the way for them to reap billions in corporate welfare or tax deductions” (Sanders, It’s OK to be Angry about Capitalism, 2023).
As a result, Democrats have been willing to take these needed contributions and water down their pro-worker message. This has allowed more Republicans to be elected in former Democratic districts so that the balance of power in the U.S. Congress has tipped.
So the investment has paid off. “The first year after Trump signed the 2017 Republican tax bill into law, it allowed more than ninety Fortune 500 companies to not only avoid paying federal income taxes, but to actually receive massive tax rebate checks from the IRS. Remarkably, in 2018:
Amazon received a $129 million check from the IRS after making $10.8 billion in profits,
Delta received a $187 million check from the IRS after making $5.1 billion in profits, and
Chevron received a $181 million check from the IRS after making $4.5 billion in profits.
So it appears that the Democratic Party has been converted from a party that suppports the working class to one that supports the upper class. And this has further weakened our country’s democracy, and has turned it into an oligarchy where only a small group of people, our billionaires, have control of our country.
