Most think that the 2020 presidential election is almost two years away. Not so! The first vote, the vote of the billionaires who choose our candidates, is happening right now. It happens every four years and Democrats and Republicans simply change places. This time it is the Democrats lining up with an alms bowl in hand -- not to their constituents or the little donors that used to be their base long ago but to the super-rich, whom they pretend to oppose.
Candidates each take their "dance" before the billionaire club and are picked by one or more of them. Almost everyone has noticed the dramatic shift to socialism made by the Democrat Party presidential candidates, not because their constituents necessarily demand such but because their real bosses, the moneyed elite, do. Their moneyed sponsors, primarily George Soros, the leading funder of far-left causes and elections the past two decades who is said to have spent $25 million on Hilary Clinton and other Democrat candidates in 2016 and another $15 million in the recent midterms, and Tom Steyer, who "promised to spend at least $30 million to elect progressives this campaign season," making him the "most important Democrat donor in the United States."
Tucker Carlson reported last week on Fox News, "This coming Saturday, Sen. Cory Booker is attending a Silicon Valley fundraiser. It is hosted by Gary and Laura Lauder. They are heirs to the $14 billion Estee Lauder fortune. Kamala Harris just had a fundraiser in Beverly Hills that was attended by an army of wealthy studio execs. Kristin Gillibrand did not even start her campaign for president before asking the permission of Wall Street."
Yes, Republicans do something similar when it is their turn to oppose a seated Democrat president. Trump was the exception as he financed his own primary, making him the only presidential candidate since William McKinley that is not largely purchased by wealthy donors. There are more Democrat political billionaire activists than Republican. Taken together, Soros money and organizations, and now Steyer's money, easily dwarf that of the Koch brothers, said to be funding most of the right side of the political spectrum.
The billionaire club easily favors the Democrat Party and the far-left side of the political spectrum. What is far worse is that Soros and Steyer seem not to be promoting rank and file Democrats but, instead, radicals who want to upend our political system. It appears that the rich who initially controlled the Republican Party, then both major parties for over 100 years, now have much greater dominance over the Democrat Party. Should they succeed, we will become a socialist country.
So why are the super-rich overwhelmingly progressive -- code for socialist? Tucker Carlson argues, "They love mass immigration -- it brings them servants. They support federally-mandated snobbery, masquerading as environmentalism. Abortion is essentially a sacrament to them, especially when practiced in poor neighborhoods" (February 21, 2019).
What is certain is that, essentially, socialism allows them to command society with their money, to right all wrongs. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex is now wondering if society should limit its number of children. Everything is managed from cradle to grave. Other forms of government deny them this kind of control.
So, if most of the billionaire club are progressives and Democrat, why do they overwhelmingly fund the party and philosophy that purports to seize their wealth and control? Have not Democrats identified the enemy as "old white men," which most billionaires are? Taxing is their favorite instrument of control, and Democrats have been for higher taxes on the "rich" for decades. Cortez advocates 70 percent, Elizabeth Warren even higher.
Don't they pay more taxes because they make more? Yes, but only to a point. The secret is that the rich will never pay more than 24 percent no matter how much they make. And they, being the financiers of the presidential candidates, will never be required to.
Carlson explains how it works: "The top federal income tax rate stops at about 500 grand. So what's the difference between someone making $500,000 a year and someone making $50 million a year? The answer: The richer one can much more easily evade paying full freight, and they do."
The rich that the Democrats want to tax are not the "real rich," only those who make less than $500,000 per year. Those making more are locked in at no more than 27 percent and the richest of the rich at only 24 percent. "According to the IRS, the top 1 percent of Americans pay about 27 percent of their income in taxes. But the top tenth of 1 percent -- that's people who make $35 million a year -- pay less than 26 percent. And the top thousandth of a percent -- the absolute richest -- pay less than 24 percent. In other words, past a certain point, the richer you are, the less you pay. That's why billionaires back socialism. It doesn't cost them much."
The first election is theirs because they fund the candidates who share their socialist views and get a tax cut as well. The show part of the election, the one acknowledged by everyone, does come in two years but well after their candidates are safely placed to win. The masses then salivate over their choice among the anointed the moneyed elite have preselected for us.
Harold W. Pease, Ph.D., is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for more than 30 years at Taft College. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Editorial on 03/06/2019