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Aristocrats are “the most difficult Animals to manage, of anything in the whole Theory and practice of Government. They will not suffer themselves to be governed,” John Adams warned, writing after his presidency. Banning titles was insufficient; a few would still be distinguished by birth or, especially, wealth. The problem was not just their ability to buy political favours but the grip that their money had on people’s minds.
Economic and political power entwine everywhere. Fear of the rich’s outsized influence has existed throughout US history. Yet at times the relationship becomes especially stark and threatening. On Wednesday, Joe Biden evoked the 19th-century Gilded Age and the robber barons – who crushed competitors, exploited workers, bought judges and politicians, and flaunted wealth – in his warning against oligarchs.
In his parting words from the Oval Office, the president talked up his achievements: “The seeds are planted, and they’ll grow, and they’ll bloom for decades to come.” It is true that he received insufficient credit for the strengthened economy, green investment, massive healthcare expansion and his management of the Covid disaster that he inherited from Donald Trump, alongside his support for Ukraine. But his carelessness towards Palestinian lives in Gaza and his refusal to stand aside sooner – extraordinarily, he still maintains that he could have beaten Mr Trump – contributed to the Democrats’ defeat.
What resonated, however, was his alarm call as he warned of the “dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people”, adding: “An oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”
Like Dwight Eisenhower’s parting warning against the military-industrial complex – which Mr Biden cited – this was an unexpected and ominous alert to the American public. Inequality is at staggering levels. The top 0.1% of the US population hold nearly six times as much total wealth as the bottom 50%. Democrats as well as Republicans have profited from the super-rich: at least 83 billionaires backed Kamala Harris’s campaign. No one imagines that they all did so from disinterested concern for their nation.
Yet rarely has the marriage of politics and riches been as naked or unashamed as with Mr Trump. The man who rages against elites has assembled a cabinet with 13 billionaires. Elon Musk, the first person whose net worth has passed $400bn, says that citizens will face “temporary hardship” as his department of government efficiency slashes public spending. “Oilgarchs” are already reaping the rewards for backing fossil-fuel-friendly Mr Trump.
Though multiple large egos are in close proximity, this marriage is likely to thrive without external challenges. As anger grew at the turn of the last century, Theodore Roosevelt weakened the “malefactors of wealth” by trust-busting, creating regulatory agencies and putting land off limits to commercial exploitation. Many Americans long for another “square deal”. But wealth allows its owners to shape reality. The railroads that enriched 19th-century tycoons literally set the time to which the nation ran. Now the “tech industrial complex” highlighted by Mr Biden and run by Mr Trump’s new friends works at an even more intimate level, determining what voters see. At stake may ultimately be the question of who shall rule: the people or America’s new aristocrats.
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