American oligarchs are selling out democracy to curry favor with Trump

It’s a slap in the face to ordinary Americans who get up every day and do what those extraordinary rich ones won’t- put the country first.

This week, just days before the election, and only days after General John Kelly told us that Trump is determined to govern as a dictator, the owners of the Washington Post and the LA Times announced they would not publish endorsements. In both cases the editorial boards, whose job it is to write up those endorsements, had already made their choice.  And Kamala Harris was their choice.

This last-minute punt by the billionaire owners of two formerly great news organizations is just one more sign of the failure of our major legacy media.

But it might actually help Kamala Harris.

First, since the press covers itself better than it covers politics, more people are going to know that these papers intended to support Harris than if they actually published the pieces. Second, it’s a reminder that today’s really rich guys with large media platforms are no different than the fictional Citizen Kane with all his abuses. Third, just in time to vote, we get another demonstration that these rich guys are so greedy they would happily sell out the democracy for defense contract. Finally, this volte face, coming so soon after the warnings from General Kelly, tells us that these guys also believe that Trump will govern as a despot.

The Post’s Jeff Bezos is no different than X’s Elon Musk. Both men own companies that get billions of taxpayer money. Both are afraid a corrupt Donald Trump would cancel those contracts if they don’t support him now. Both expect a corrupt Donald Trump to reward them if they do. They don’t mind the corruption. They don’t mind the despotism. They like it better than a working democracy because, well, favor is something they can buy.

I’m sorry. No. That’s not who we are. That’s not what honest government is. Most of us do not benefit when insiders curry favor with rulers. Just ask ordinary Russians how that’s working for them. They are being sent to the front in a war of imperial greed while the oligarchs are enjoying their caviar.

Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson, is back. You remember Tucker. He got kicked off his perch at FOX Cable for lying so blatantly the network had to pay nearly a billion dollars to a voting machine company he defamed. Now, according to the testimony of Canada’s Prime Minister, he’s on Russia’s payroll. Carlson and Musk, the other guy in frequent contact with Putin, are now regulars at Trump rallies.

Let’s put the pieces together. The rich guys expect their flattery to make them even richer, because that’s what corrupt governments do. Carlson says Trump will be like a father who spanks is daughters because he revels in the idea that women will be punished for their independence. Trump’s big independent expenditure money is coming from fossil fuel lobbyists because they expect an end to the EPA’s annoying habit of telling them not to wreck our planet, and like Musk and Bezos, they know that their cash is good in Trump’s store. Heck, Trump told them so directly when he said that he would kill green energy efforts for a billion dollars. Taken together, these things spell out dictatorship in big easy to read letters.

I get it. These guys, the super-rich, the woman haters, the polluters, they look down on Democrats as too honest and too weak to make them pay for their efforts to undermine our nation. They think an honest government might make them compete for work but would never punish them for their views. So it’s an easy choice. For them, supporting Trump has no downside, and maybe a new contract or two if he wins. Whereas, supporting Harris might cost them a contract if she loses, but won’t gain them anything if she wins.

Saving the democracy, making space for common decency, treating all Americans as equal participants in our society—that’s just not something they care about.

Hmph.

And here’s the thing, this eleventh hour reminder that rich courtiers and dictatorial rulers don’t even think about the rest of us? It’s a slap in the face to ordinary Americans who get up every day and do what those extraordinary rich ones won’t- put the country first.

No matter what these guys say, we aren’t suckers and losers when we volunteer to fight for our nation. We aren’t terrible people when we show up every day in underfunded schools to teach our children, and we certainly aren’t eating their dogs.

I am so tired of all their lies, all their condescension, all their determination to rule.

Like tens of thousands of others, I am out knocking on doors in a close election because a good get-out-the-vote operation matters when it’s close. The Democrats have an awesome GOTV operation in the swing states. The other guys?  They are not out doing this. They wouldn’t think of talking to ordinary folks. Instead, the GOP is paying others to do it for them. And those others? Well, it’s reported that they are taking the money and not showing up. There’s more than a little irony in that.

As Simon Rosenberg likes to say, we have momentum. We have a better candidate. We have plans Americans actually like. We treat each other with respect and common decency. We believe democracy is worth fighting for.

Donald Trump may be for sale, but America isn’t. Mr. Bezos and those other guys are about to learn the difference. When we win, I anticipate we will finish the job by doing the hard work of strengthening the guard rails of democracy, so these wanna-be oligarchs and dictators never again try to bring us down.