The United States has entered a truly extraordinary era of income inequality among its people. Comparable to the former Gilded Age of the late 19th Century, which was finally terminated to the great benefit of this country by the progressive reformer, President Theodore Roosevelt.
In a speech in 1907 upon the occasion of the laying of the cornerstone of the Pilgrim Memorial Monument, with respect to certain individuals whom he referred to as “malefactors of great wealth” President Roosevelt commented as follows:
“In the last six years we have shown that there is no individual and no corporation so powerful that he or it stands above the possibility of punishment under the law…. Moreover, when we thus take action against the wealth which works iniquity, we are acting in the interest of every man of property who acts decently and fairly by his fellows…. I regard this contest as one to determine who shall rule this free country—the people through their governmental agents, or a few ruthless and domineering men whose wealth makes them peculiarly formidable because they hide behind the breastworks of corporate organization.”
And the great Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis added that America could have either “democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few” but not both.
But we have forgotten that the federal income tax was originally conceived to prevent the undue concentration of wealth. It began as a tax only on the top 0.1 percent and was never intended to target the poor. And we have forgotten when we discussed taxes that the top bracket of the federal income tax as recently as 1980 was 70 percent. As a result of these and other errors a new Gilded Age, similar to what was faced by President Theodore Roosevelt, has returned.
In 2012 this fact became obvious to all. It was the first time since the introduction of modern campaign finance law when outside spending groups, flush with unlimited contributions from the country’s richest donors after the Supreme Court decided the Citizens United case spent more than $1 billion to influence federal elections. As Jane Mayer points out in “Dark Money,” in 2012 the top 0.04 percent of donors contributed about the same amount as the bottom 68 percent. For no previous year was there more spending by fewer people. And at no time before did a candidate feel compelled to say in trying to persuade rich donors to support him that “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for this President (Obama) no matter what,” and that these are people who are “dependent on government, who believe they are victims, who believe government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe they are entitled to health care, food, to housing, you name it” and they are “people who pay no income tax.” In other words, not real contributing citizens. If Teddy Roosevelt had been in the 2012 campaign I wonder what he would have said to that. And in spite of this assault on the voting public by the new Oligarchy, President Obama was reelected.
The mid-term election in 2014 on the other hand was a huge victory for the ultra-rich conservative donors and for the Republican Party. On their own the top 100 known donors gave $323 million and this was only the disclosed money. Once all the undisclosed money was factored in, it was beyond doubt that a very small enormously wealthy group had dominated everyone else. It was an oligarchy that the Citizens United era had brought. And in 2016 just the so-called Koch group of donors pledged to spend $889 million on the Presidential election cycle that year. This was very close to the $1 billion it was anticipated that each of established parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, would spend. With this the situation, it is becoming difficult to continue to call the United States of America a Republic. A third party, which perhaps might be called the Money Party or the Oligarch Party, appears to be establishing itself in its attempt to dominate the country.
And what would be our Founder’s view of this?
“As riches increase and accumulate in few hands…the tendency of things will be to depart from the Republican standard.”
Alexander Hamilton – 1788
“Property monopolized or in the possession of a few is a Curse to Mankind.”
John Adams – 1765
That people who pay greater respect to a wealthy villain than to an honest, upright man in poverty, almost deserve to be enslaved; they plainly show that wealth, however it may be acquired, is in their esteem, to be preferred to virtue…. Surely you never will tamely suffer this country to be a den of thieves.”
John Hancock – 1774
John Jay