| And to further explore the point, the USA itself is not particularly close to oligarchy. There are just too many wealthy and non-wealthy voices, though it's hard not to see Trump as being at least more favourable to oligarchy (if not autocracy) as a principle, even though enacting it would be a long way off. (I think this point can be made observationally and apolitically, but others may see it differently) If it was trending particularly strongly towards oligarchy, I am not even sure who those oligarchs would be -- it's kind of fun to come up with names, though. So here's a go at it -- you can assume I am not projecting any particular position on these people. Jeff Bezos for sure; he has exactly the kind of empire that would be useful to an oligarch in a situation where there was no resistance to it, and I think Trump reacted to Bezos the way he did out of an instinctive feeling for that. As to others: Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, one or two of the Waltons, one of the Mercers (Rebekah, probably), Rupert Murdoch? |