Daniel Kinderman (@danielk24.bsky.social)

Some have argued that the United States is an oligarchy, i.e., ruled by a small, rich elite. Are they correct? Should we take these claims seriously? I think so. I recently wrote a short text about this. To access it, follow this link cqpress.sagepub.com/cqresearcher... go to Pro/Con and select Pro

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CQ Researcher - Oligarchy in the United States In his farewell address to the nation, President Joe Biden warned of a rising “tech-industrial” oligarchy. Days later, Donald J. Trump was sworn in for his second presidency, flanked by several of the billionaires who backed him: Sam Altman, CEO of Open AI; Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon; Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, Starlink and Tesla; and Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Trump appointed a record 13 billionaires to his cabinet and put Musk in charge of dramatically cutting the federal government. In response, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders embarked on a cross-country “Fight Oligarchy” tour. Nearly half of Americans polled in April said the U.S. had become an oligarchy, in which the rich rule, and respondents across the political spectrum said billionaire rule threatened democracy. Some experts disagree; others say oligarchy can coexist with democracy and, for better or worse, has always been a feature of American governance. https://cqpress.sagepub.com/cqresearcher/report/cqpromo/ZXbJyf/oligarchy-in-the-united-states-cqresrre20251205#text-section-17-0