Opinion

Biden’s oligarchy warnings ring hollow

If an oligarchy threatens American democracy it exists inside both parties and should not be used to divide the nation. Pictured: Former U.S. president Joe Biden. Photo Credit: Joe Biden/X. 

Former president Joe Biden’s farewell speech on Jan. 15 included a series of questionable claims and several assertions of dubious accomplishments. The one that received fanfare and scrutiny declared that a tech oligarchy threatened American democracy. The effort on the part of the Left in America to gin up a threat to democracy keeps taking on new forms with different faces. Biden’s lack of awareness or complete ignorance makes this one particularly rich. 

The rise of rich young innovators has alarmed Biden and the Democratic Party since they lost the narrative on social media and Elon Musk turned his back on them. I am always amused by the Left (Democratic Party, Mainstream Media, Entertainment Industry). When progressive millionaires think it perfectly fine to spend boatloads of cash pushing agendas that advance climate concerns at the expense of jobs, ideas that transform thousands of years of practice into alternative facts (what is a woman?), and initiatives like the 1619 project that reinvents America as a nation born out of racism alone Democrats line up and cheer. They will fete these heroes of the moneyed class as virtuous and moral because they are helping to advance a cause that will bring social justice to a nation guilty of many sins. 

These moralists determine what should be legal or illegal and pressure companies into mandates based on good and evil. As a result, we end up with DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives that eat up large portions of public administrative costs and destroy merit for work, incentive to improve, and pay consummate with production. Or better yet, we watch free speech on social media be destroyed because D-class journalists proclaim themselves fact-checkers who should be arbitrating what people can post on their accounts. In the name of misinformation, the Hunter Biden laptop story was smothered at the end of the 2020 election campaign. As we later learned, the story was not a Russian concoction. It happened and Hunter’s father had to pardon him on his way out of the White House. 

In his speech, Biden’s exact words were: “Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that…threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedom.”  He warned about an ultra-wealthy “tech-industrial complex” stealing words from President Dwight Eisenhower who referred to a “military-industrial complex” in his 1961 farewell speech. Biden also complained about the changes in social media saying, “Social media is giving up on fact-checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit.” 

The problem with Biden’s criticisms does not lie in the concerns about the wealthy having too much influence or a lot of misinformation being present on social media or elsewhere. The problem occurs because the era we are arising from includes some of the biggest whoppers ever told to the American people. COVID alone provided several examples. The vaccines proved short-lived after the public was told the shot would be over 90 per cent protective. Schools were closed for up to 18 months because children endangered their teachers. This was untrue. Children were not superspreaders and masks were supposed to keep everyone safe anyway, another assertion that proved to be false. And do we know the source of COVID? Many on both sides believe it leaked out of a Lab in Wuhan, but for years social media suspended the accounts of those who even suggested this as a possibility. This does not take into account vaccine mandates, the loss of jobs, and those who lost loved ones without saying good-bye because of distancing regimes put in place that turned out to be completely fabricated. 

So Biden sheds tears for fact-checkers? They did a lousy job during COVID, protected those who lied about Biden’s cognitive condition and dismissed facts that people should have had access to but were prevented from hearing because self-appointed arbiters of truth decided they knew what was best for the hoi polloi. 

Biden and the Democratic Party (including its adherents) dislike money being poured into political coffers when the cash is used to promote ideas they disagree with. When former vice president Kamala Harris replaced Biden in the great switcheroo of 2024, she immediately captured the money many on the Left were reluctant to give to a losing Biden campaign. Her billion-dollar-plus raised did not bother Biden then, but after Trump won and many in the tech world began to mend fences with him, the now-former president felt it necessary to sound the alarm. The threat of an oligarchy has long haunted America because of its capitalistic nature. The creation of wealth has long been rewarded and incentivized entrepreneurs to invest and reinvest creating companies that have become global in span and synonymous with products people want, use, and purchase from across the world. Many of them supported the Democratic Party in recent elections. The restoration of Donald Trump to the presidency forced leaders like Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Tim Cook (Apple), and Jeff Bezos (Amazon) to reconcile with the new president. Elon Musk simply read the room early and led the parade. 

Does an oligarchy threaten American democracy? If so, both parties have a role in welcoming the cash flowing from big companies and their CEOs. In rulings like the one in Citizens United v Federal Election Commission (2010), “A 5–4 majority of the Supreme Court sided with Citizens United, ruling that corporations and other outside groups can spend unlimited money on elections” (Brennan Center for Justice). The case had been launched because a conservative nonprofit group (not a filthy rich donor) was prevented from airing a film criticizing presidential candidate Hilary Clinton before the 2008 primaries. The Brennan Center explained, “In the court’s opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that limiting ‘independent political spending’ from corporations and other groups violates the First Amendment right to free speech.” In practice, there is heated debate about the court’s ruling and its impact on campaigns. 

Democratic politicians like Biden’s complaints seem insincere. In every election since then the Democrats have outraised the GOP candidate and enjoy the support of some of the wealthiest and most influential people in society. If an oligarchy threatens American democracy it exists inside both parties and should not be used to divide the nation. If Democrats honestly believe that an oligarchy prowls about the land seeking to control the levers of power, they had better get their own house in order before pointing fingers at the Republicans. If they don’t, they may begin to look like they are not so worried about democracy as they are their path to power.   

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