The opinion of this writer is not the opinion of the Ridgeview News in any way, shape or form. However, on behalf of the Freedom of Speech still available to us in the United States, Ridgeview News will publish a differing opinion.
A Populist speaks for the ordinary people, the common man, the working class. Ours is a time of massive income inequality. As the 19th century Populists said, we have a society of “tramps and millionaires,” though now it’s billionaires. Left-wing populists, like Bernie Sanders, work for social justice and a fairer distribution of our national wealth.
Donald Trump is a right-wing populist. With his bizarre charisma and rhetoric of lies, bluster, and savage mockery, he claims to speak with the voices of common people. But he does not speak for their interests.
Trump rallies are filled with working class voters, mostly without college degrees; rural voters who lost jobs in manufacturing; people who feel victimized and disenfranchised. To cheers and laughter, Trump punches up, attacking the “deep state” and the liberal elite. And he punches down scapegoating marginalized groups: immigrants, Black and Brown people, LGBTQ, the disabled, and non-Christians.
Trump never attacks the one group actually creating our wealth inequality, the corporate billionaires. Because Trump and the billionaires are on the same side, sucking up the country’s wealth and redistributing it to themselves. Trump claims to speak for the people from his gold-plated toilet in his gold-plated apartment, his resort mansion or his private jet. But money sides with money.
After the Democrats had a record-breaking fundraiser, Donald Trump had to have a bigger one, but it takes a lot of ordinary folks to raise more than $26 million. Happily for Trump, he has an alternative funding source with very simple needs and way too much money. His own people, his real homies. Billionaires.
Billionaires give a lot and want very little. Trump’s only major legislative achievement, the Trump Tax Cuts, are set to expire in 2025 – unless Trump is re-elected. Since 2017, the cuts helped billionaires’ fortunes grow by a collective $2 trillion. The very rich also want government to stop regulating their businesses to help anyone but themselves.
Billionaires have no interest in paying their “fair share” or any share, if they can help it. Trump understands. In 2016 and 2017, Donald Trump paid $750 in income tax. In 10 years between 2000 and 2015, Trump paid $0 (zero) income taxes. In 2020, Trump personally contributed a total of $8,021 to his presidential campaign. (That’s not a typo.) He and his big donors want the same thing. Everything for them and anything accidentally left over can go to everyone else.
Stealing from the poor to give to the rich. If only common people who believe Trump is on their side would see this.
The rich will pay to gain Trump’s favor. The maximum payments are only a small part of their wealth. Consider – $1 billion is a thousand million. So if you give a million, it’s like you had a thousand dollars and gave one to the Trumpcampaign. Owning a president – so handy, so cheap.
Trump loves his billionaire buddies: “You’re rich as hell! . . . We’re going to give you tax cuts.” They love him back as long as he lets them keep their money.
President Biden promises the Trump Tax Cuts will sunset. Democrats will pass a higher corporate tax rate and increase thecapital gains tax rate on investment income. That’s good for all Americans except the super-rich. They hate it.
Democrats’ plans threaten the super-rich who are greedily creating a dynasty of wealth for themselves and hoarding for posterity, at the expense of the rest of us.
In the first Gilded Age, 1870 to 1900, Robber Barons, magnates of railroads, steel, oil and banking (Rockefeller, Carnegie, JP Morgan, Vanderbilt) used their influence at high levels of government, kept workers on slave wages, squashed competition by acquiring competitors to create monopolies, and schemed to sell stock at inflated prices.
In today’s Second Gilded Age, the same methods apply.
Selling stock at inflated prices – for example, Trump Media. A business with no underlying value, it’s down 50%. “Amazing,” Trump says and urges fools to buy more. He’s up a couple billion as long as the marks keep paying $35 for his 12-cent stock.
Trump’s Billionaire Brigade seems to be writing the big checks with their hands over their eyes. Do they not see Project 2025? That’s the detailed blueprint for Trump’s authoritarian administration. Executive orders on Day One will begin rounding up 10 million immigrants to mass detention camps and implementing Schedule F, making decision-making federal employees answerable only to Donald Trump. Trump promises60% tariffs on Chinese goods, a 10% universal import tariff.
Rounding up immigrants will create economic chaos. (And who will do the work?) Authoritarians thrive on chaos, business does not. Taking away civil service protections from the federal workforce will destabilize the federal government. The stability of our government and our banking system make America the center of international finance – for now. Weaponizing the DOJ, FBI and IRS to go after political opponents will make the US an undesirable place to make or keep money. Business works best when backed by the rule of law. Trump’s tariffs will cause inflation to soar.
Do the billionaires believe they can control Trump against the full weight of the dystopian plans of the conservative establishment?
Are the very rich so insulated from reality with their private schools, private security, private banks, private islands with mansions, yachts and private jets, their squads of lawyers, and their billions of dollars that they believe an authoritarian Trump government won’t hurt their bottom line or affect their lifestyle?
Or do the billionaires at Trump’s Billionaire Banquet cynically believe that they will be on the right side of the strong man, thanks to their donations?
Trump talks out of both sides of his mouth: the common-man “populist” side will wreak revenge and retribution; the billionaire side will give tax cuts to billionaires and shred government regulation. Both visions are dangerous and destructive for America and give nothing to ordinary citizens.
Vote for Biden/Harris and a Democratic Congress. Protect democracy, reject authoritarianism. Let’s tax the billionaires, the ultra-wealthy and the corporations and share the vast wealth of our country among all of us.
