Billionaires are lining up to eagerly fund Trump’s anti-democratic agenda

spaceghoti@lemmy.one to politics @lemmy.world – 382 points –
Billionaires are lining up to eagerly fund Trump’s anti-democratic agenda | Robert Reich
theguardian.com

In the 2020 presidential election cycle, more than $14bn went to federal candidates, party committees, and Super Pacs – double the $7bn doled out in the 2016 cycle. Total giving in 2024 is bound to be much higher.

That money is not supporting US democracy. If anything, that money is contributing to rising Trumpism and neofascism.

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Capitalist markets adore stability, that's why they had to quell that uncharacteristic spate of increased worker leverage a few months back, as employers must retain stable, unilateral authority over the labor market.

Of fucking course they love the idea of an capitalist exploitation loving authoritarian. Why risk the peasants electing some spoiler bleeding heart that would prefer not to stick it to them every 4 years when you can have stable, dependably hyper cruel leadership that is no longer answerable to anyone? Sounds great for quarterly earnings! And at the end of the day, aren't quarterly earnings for private shareholders the very purpose of our American lives?

Capitalist markets adore stability predictability,

One minor correction. Stability is predictable but a state of extremes is fine too as long as they can predict it and account for it.

American “Job Creators” have always been fascists. From the Business Plot, where they made the mistake of asking Smedley Butler to be our Fuhrer, to Henry Ford’s factories in Nazi Germany.

When Trump was whining about the election 24/7, they lost interest. Now that he’s going full-on naked fascist, he’ll have their full support.

The fact that Smedley Butler isn't loudly championed as one of the greatest heroes in American history is a god damn travesty

What's even more wild is that he went from being a dedicated supporter of the capitalist establishment, to avowing to tackle it because he saw how damaging it was from the inside. That kind of change requires huge character.

Of fucking course they love the idea of an capitalist exploitation loving authoritarian. Why risk the peasants electing some spoiler bleeding heart that would prefer not to stick it to them every 4 years when you can have stable, dependably hyper cruel leadership that is no longer answerable to anyone?

because that capitalist exploitation loving authoritarian's dick is so small that he was comparing the size of his nuclear button to a 3rd-rate tin pot dictator's. Granted, you did answer it in the first sentence:

Capitalist markets adore stability

And Trump is anything but stable. Are some assholes lining up to fund him? sure. they're voting anybody in who'll push their policies in. (and by voting, I mean bribing the fucking hell out of everyone.)

They won't care about climate change until a CAT 6 literally obliterates their supply lines to the third world they exploit.

They won't care about nuclear Armageddon until the bombs are literally dropping.

By stability, I meant market stability, meaning shooty shooty quarterly line goes /.

Capitalists have never and will never give shit 1 about the externalities they cause, because they resent the societies they profit from for taking so much as a dollar from them despite their societal damage. Workers daring to strike after they spent decades changing the laws to hobble unions is of far greater concern to them than nuclear Armageddon, because it's personal. It's a defiance of what they see as their kingdom.

By stability, I meant market stability, meaning shooty shooty quarterly line goes /.

seems like nuclear war would put a kink in those supply lines, huh? not all of them think that far ahead, or that concerned about it. but there's a reason there's other bullionaires supporting democrats. while the republicans are objectively worse... if you thought the democrats were on your side... they're not. when you have that much money, politics isn't about demcorat or republican; and trump is a danger to many as much as others see him as a boon.

And Trump is anything but stable. Are some assholes lining up to fund him? sure. they're voting anybody in who'll push their policies in. (and by voting, I mean bribing the fucking hell out of everyone.)

Because they're confident that they're isolated from the chaos their policies will bring thanks to their walled communities and private armies. Feudalism 2.0. If the king creates too much chaos and disrupts their income, they'll assassinate him and install a new one.

3 more...

Of course they are - they're psychopaths.

They're each and all people who, in a sane society, would be institutionalized in order to protect others from the harm they inevitably do as a consequence of their complete lack of principles, morals, empathy and remorse. But instead they're allowed to run free, and this is what we get.

They've crunched the numbers on fascism and it turns out that a slave workforce you can execute for not hitting KPIs is great for businesses.

Taylor Swift as well?

She's pretty much the one exception. She's the only billionaire that legitimately earned it without fucking over hundreds of minimum wage employees. The people who work her tours get comprehensive health insurance, and she pays the truckers $100k. She also kept a music store in I think Nashville alive during the pandemic.

She's become a global pop culture phenomenon akin to the Beatles, or at least close to them. It makes sense she's made so much and it's been actually moral.

I'm not a fan of hers, but everything I've heard about her lately makes me think she's a good person.

Several months ago I got back into a Taylor Swift kick by listening to Midnights, and it's pretty much just stuck around. I read some interviews where she's incredibly personable and eloquent, like stopping mid thought because she saw her cute cat lmao.

There's one that was done over the pandemic that I'm thinking of in particular, where she talks more about her politics and coming to realize that she can't stay politely quiet. She used to have large 4th of July parties, but stopped having them sometime after 2016 and I inferred it was because she hated what was going on with Trump.

Anyway, I highly recommend her. Her more recent works are a lot more cutting and introspective, and there's a definite feminist undertone in how she'll talk about gender norms and dating and the public impressions she has to give. I'm a fan of it.

I'm old. If it wasn't recorded past 1998 or so, I generally am not interested.

Just hear me out, maybe billionaires should be lined up?

Lined up and taxed back into being millionaires? Sounds good. No need to be a psychopath. You'll have better chances getting people to agree to raising taxes on the rich than you will getting them to agree to murder.

Liquidating the several thousand billionaires in the world could eliminate world hunger and poverty many times over, and solve the climate crisis. If there was a button that would launch a billionaire into the sun I would press it nonstop

The odds of any politician regulating and taxing billionaires is laughable. Itd probably end up being easier to line them up tbh

We cannot suffer any of them to survive. Not just because of their many varied crimes, not because forcefully separating their heads from their bodies will immediately solve many problems that we cannot otherwise solve. We need to kill each and every one of them, because allowing them to remain will risk them attempting to retake the world. They have never known life without their privilege and cannot fathom a world where they do not have it.

Seems like we would be better off without billionaires.

The rich also had no problem to fund Hitler - they thought they could control him - you all know how that turned out…

Why would you want democracy when you can just give your body buddy 5 million dollars to do whatever you want?

This is because they know climate collapse is about to be fully underway and they want to seize power before society completely collapses and there's a power vacuum.

we look at their wealth, but their holdings that are just as important. the murdochs have redefined what it is to be evil running the fox network.

Sometimes I wonder about who these people are that an advertisement for trump will change their mind. You should know what his deal is by now.

It's probably more about getting them to vote rather than getting their support. "If you don't vote the Jewish Space Lasers will vaporize your guns!"

This is the best summary I could come up with:


As more and more wealth concentrates at the top, the moneyed interests rationally fear that democratic majorities will take it away through higher taxes, stricter regulations (on everything from trade to climate change), enforcement of anti-monopoly laws, pro-union initiatives and price controls.

Trump has publicly vowed to appoint a special prosecutor to “go after” Joe Biden and his family, and has told advisers and friends that he wants the justice department to investigate officials who have criticized his time in office.

Charles Kushner (family net worth of $1.8bn), the real estate mogul and father of Jared, who received a late-term pardon from Trump in December 2020, contributed $1m in June.

Peter Thiel, the multibillionaire tech financier who once wrote that “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible,” contributed more than $35m to 16 federal-level Republican candidates in the 2022 campaign cycle, making him the 10th largest individual donor to either party.

Twelve of Thiel’s candidates won, including Ohio’s now-senator JD Vance, who alleged that the 2020 election was stolen and that Biden’s immigration policy has meant “more Democrat voters pouring into this country”.

A loud pro-democracy movement that fights against concentrated wealth at the top, humongous CEO pay packages, a politically powerful financial sector, and tax cuts for the wealthy and large corporations.


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