Who Rules in America? Not You. By Pedro Gonzalez.
“Top CEOs plan to get dramatically tougher on state legislators over proposed new restrictions on voting,” Axios reported on Monday. After a weekend Zoom summit, these CEOs are “threatening to withhold campaign contributions — and to punish states by yanking investments in factories, stadiums and other lucrative projects.” The call featured a constellation of leading industry managers, including James Murdoch, Ken Chenault, Ken Frazier, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Levi Strauss CEO Chip Bergh, Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, and executives of Delta, United, and American Airlines.
The debate over whether the [US voting] laws in question are racist or excessively restrictive is ultimately a waste of time because this has less to do with policy than it does with power. Even with ideological considerations accounted for … the outcome is the same: a stronger Democratic Party is good for them.
Of course, the Republican Party is similarly beholden to the same economic elites and organized interest groups — which makes them especially pathetic because, by an odd turn of fate, corporations have aligned themselves more closely with the Democratic Party. Recall Joe Biden received more billionaire support than former President Donald Trump during the 2020 election, and there was, by Time’s proud admission, “a conspiracy . . . behind the scenes” spearheaded by CEOs to ensure Biden’s victory. …
Conservatives, Republicans, and others who, in response to these woke corporatists, attempt to disprove that a specific law is racist miss the point. There is no good faith argument to be had, no common ground to seek.
For too long the right has deluded itself with the belief that the better argument will prevail on the merits. But these people don’t care about rational debate, and as long as that is the situation, neither should you. In the current reality, only power checks power and what the Right lacks is not a better argument, but a willingness to exercise power where and how it can. …
The challenge CEOs are issuing to Americans is that they are too big to take on and too big to fail. The only appropriate response would be to raise their taxes, close tax loopholes, deploy anti-trust action, fine, and see as many of them go bankrupt as possible. If we can’t do that, then they’re right about who rules America, and we’re left waiting for Caesar.
We are edging ever closer to the pre-Christian politics of might makes right, where morality is irrelevant.
