Steve Randy Waldman
plutocracy and democracy cannot coexist. we don't need a guillotine. we just need a tax code. https://elk.zone/mas.to/@sltrib/110180784027294881
sltrib (@[email protected])

After Texas billionaire Harlan Crow's lavish gifts to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas were revealed, Utah Sen. Mike Lee quickly came to Thomas' defense, calling him an "American hero." Lee, it turns out, has received thousands in donations from Crow. https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2023/04/11/harlan-crow-who-showered-clarence/

mas.to
Apr 11, 2023 at 3:03pmWeb
Show threadBlake LeonardApr 11, 2023
@interfluidity @interfluidity who do you think has the power to change the tax code? that's right, the billionaires!
Show threadSteve Randy WaldmanApr 11, 2023

@blake No.

The billionaires are privileged in every large-scale domain, including of course manipulating government action. But the state is where they are least privileged. That's still a lot privileged! But their money can't reliably buy elections, electoral outcomes often defy funding flows, and politicians are only reliably bought while issues are obscure to public scrutiny. It's an uphill fight everywhere but the quasidemocratic state is not a futile battleground. Cynicism is foolish.

Show threadEugene YokotaApr 11, 2023

@interfluidity I used to think so, but given that the American democracy has a lot of indirection, partly plutocracy (PAC), but also voter suppression against non-whites, Senate, *NC, gerrymandering, etc I now think plutocracy (small dollar donation) can bring purer democracy, or populism, as is often called today

Plutocracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others

Show threadSteve Randy WaldmanApr 11, 2023
@eed3si9n small dollar donations bring a kind of populism, but i think it’s definitionally distinct from plutocracy, which refers to government by the very wealthy. a few years ago i was hopeful that small-dollar populism might be a net plus, but experience has diminished my optimism’, small dollars go disproportionately to and incentivize circus-like arousal of public passions. ad hoc self-selection of “voters” (ie donors) and reasonable forms of representation are in serious tension. 1/
Show threadSteve Randy WaldmanApr 11, 2023
@eed3si9n i’m very grateful that small dollar donations made Bernie a real contender, but again pessimistically, i think the days when a candidate as sober and serious as he is would win the small-dollar race have passed, it was an artifact of professional politics not yet having optimized itself for small dollars. now Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene will win that contest. i still probably prefer the effect of small dollars on the D side to the prior and mostly continuing 2/
Show threadSteve Randy WaldmanApr 11, 2023
@eed3si9n situation in which D insiders basically locked out the broad public. so my views remain somewhat mixed. but fundamentally, small dollar donations are like box-office receipts, they reflect a kind of enthusiasm of mostly upper middle class people unusually invested in the dramas of politics. i think they encourage comic book heroes and villians (which is which just depends on your side). 3/
Show threadSteve Randy WaldmanApr 11, 2023
@eed3si9n regardless of all of this (there are lots of nuances! i might be overly cynical!), “plutocracy” in the sense of big-dollar donors is what is behind the takeover of the judiciary, the well-organized and execute project to gerrymander and suppress, etc. there is big money for small government led by the most plutocracy-sympathetic politicians possible, and it’s done fabulous work, on its own terms. 4/
Show threadSteve Randy WaldmanApr 11, 2023
@eed3si9n maybe small-donor populism is a net virtue as a check on this, maybe its circus incentives make it a net harm. but regardless of all that, plutocracy as people mostly understand the term, rule by the influence of the very wealthy, is pretty clearly incompatible with any reasonable version of democracy. and i don’t think it possible to untether great personal wealth from outsize public influence. ergo… (thank you for sbt!) /fin