Democratic Primaries
Showing Original Post only (View all)Robert Reich: Bloomberg Wants to Buy Our Democracy [View all]
( Love Robert )
Robert Reich
Contributor
Robert B. Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies.
Bad enough that a tyrant is destroying American democracy. Now an oligarch is trying to buy the presidency.
Michael Bloombergs net worth is over $60 billion. The yearly return on $60 billion is at least $2 billion which is what Bloomberg says hell pour into buying the highest office in the land.
Im not saying that great wealth should disqualify you from becoming president. America has had some talented and capable presidents who were enormously wealthy Franklin D. Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, for example.
The problem lies at the nexus of wealth and power, where those with great wealth use it to gain great power. This is how oligarchy destroys democracy.
So far, Bloomberg spent over $380 million on campaign advertising. Thats more than Hillary Clinton spent on advertising during her entire presidential run. Its multiples of what all other Democratic candidates have spent, including billionaire Tom Steyer.
Encouraged by the murky outcome from the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries, Bloomberg has doubled his spending on TV commercials in every market where he is currently advertising and is expanding his campaigns field staff to more than 2,000.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/robert-reich-bloomberg-wants-to-buy-our-democracy/
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden