Welcome to the United States of ‘Broligarchy, Inc.’

America’s descent into a broligarchy was an inevitable, steady, and calculated takeover of the country’s wealth, Supreme Court, political parties, and presidency by a cabal of selfish billionaires.

This article was originally published in February’s issue of The Progressive

Once upon a time in the United States of America, a plurality of voters decided to voluntarily hand over their democracy to an incestuous band of racist billionaires because they were worried about the price of eggs.

Donald Trump, the criminal son of a multimillionaire real estate tycoon, was re-elected as President, thanks in part to $250 million from Elon Musk, the richest man on Earth, thereby cementing the fact that America is now officially a “broligarchy.”

Back in the day, those with extreme wealth had the good sense to pull the strings from behind a curtain, like the Wizard of Oz. Appearances, and the fiction of a representative democracy, had to be maintained for the sake of decorum and public relations. But members of the new broligarchy, with their capture and domination of social media companies, have realized they no longer need to perform the ruse. They won’t be punished or even admonished for flaunting their obscene influence via tweets and other means.

Before Christmas, Musk fired off several posts on X, the money-burning site he purchased to spread dangerous MAGA disinformation, platform white nationalists, and attack his critics. At 4:15 a.m., he tweeted that House Republicans must nuke the short-term bipartisan spending deal, orchestrated in part by U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, to keep the government open until March. Musk promised to target and primary any GOP defector who didn’t toe the line.

Trump, most likely roused from an evening of sloth and gluttony at Mar-a-Lago, quickly posted in support of Musk’s agenda, even though he had expressed no previous complaints about the bipartisan plan. Trump even went after U.S. Representative Chip Roy, a stalwart MAGA soldier from Texas who wasn’t bending the knee on this issue. These disturbing events made many Americans wonder, “Wait, who won the presidential election, Trump or Musk?”

You certainly couldn’t blame them for asking. After all, Trump had vowed to put Musk and another shady (almost) billionaire, Vivek Ramaswamy, in charge of “DOGE”—the newly created “Department of Government Efficiency,” a nongovernmental entity tasked with streamlining the government and cutting unnecessary costs. Coincidentally, DOGE shares the name of a type of cryptocurrency.

Speaking of crypto, Trump tapped another South African-born multimillionaire with a racist worldview, Musk’s friend David Sacks, to be the “Czar of AI and Crypto,” which is what a President who cares about the everyday challenges of American workers would naturally prioritize. Peter Thiel, the racist billionaire friend of Musk and Sacks, and who also spent his childhood in South Africa, didn’t acquire a role. Most likely, he was content to groom his former mentee J.D. Vance, another multimillionaire, to be Vice President.

One would hope the most wealthy, privileged, and influential men on earth would use their newfound access to political power to help the majority of Americans who are suffering from crippling health care debt, lowered life expectancy, stagnant wages, declining public education, and weekly mass shootings.

Sadly, no. Musk and Ramaswamy revealed that instead, they want to exercise their unelected power to end remote work; fire federal employees; cut pediatric cancer research; slash humanitarian aid; privatize the mail to enrich other millionaires; end diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in education; eliminate the Internal Revenue Service; and dismantle the Federal Reserve. They did, however, express an interest in increasing defense spending. After all, billionaires hate government spending except when it’s in the form of subsidies for their own companies, such as Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla.

None of this should be surprising. America’s descent into a broligarchy was an inevitable, steady, and calculated takeover of the country’s wealth, Supreme Court, political parties, and presidency by a cabal of selfish billionaires seeking tax cuts, deregulation, and unfettered power. Long gone were the days of President Theodore Roosevelt, who went after the Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan monopolies. Since the presidency of Ronald Reagan, Republicans have found a means to empower the 1 percent at the expense of the rest of us.

They began by chipping away at unions and weakening the labor movement. The GOP’s infamous “trickle-down” economics ensured that workers would become poorer, even as their productivity led to record-breaking profits and salaries for corporate chief executives. Income inequality widened, with the top 1 percent of earners enjoying 150 percent real income growth over the past forty years.

The number of billionaires in the United States has increased from thirteen in 1982 to more than 700 in 2023. Some of them, like Amazon owner Jeff Bezos, bought newspapers like The Washington Post. Others, like Mark Zuckerberg, invented social media sites like Facebook and then turned a blind eye while they were used to incite violence, lies, and hate. Both of these men donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund and dined with Musk and Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Rightwing money also bought the Supreme Court, which, in turn, gave Trump “absolute immunity” for his numerous crimes. Billionaire Barre Seid pledged $1.6 billion to the architect of the Republican judicial takeover, Leonard Leo, to ensure he can continue grooming the next Supreme Court.

However, the avarice, corruption, and injustice did not go unnoticed. The righteous rage and fury of the masses started rising and spreading. Considering that the United States has the most mass shootings and guns of any country on Earth, it was perhaps inevitable that a vigilante would target and murder the CEO of a health insurance company that had denied 31 percent of health claims (with the help of artificial intelligence). Instead of being condemned, the suspect was celebrated as a hero by a disturbingly large number of Americans.

Others channeled their anger toward awareness, organizing, and movement-building. Amazon workers, fed up with atrocious working conditions, united to strike at seven sites across the country.

However, too many Americans remained overwhelmed, overworked, exhausted, distracted, and misinformed. The corporate media, consolidated and owned by billionaires, had them fighting over transgender rights and the undocumented immigrants who keep the economy churning by doing all the jobs no one else wants to do.

Meanwhile, the broligarchy enjoyed the chaos from their lofty perches, licking their fingers after sticking their hands in America’s cookie jar and eating every last crumb. Nothing is free in America, unless you’re a billionaire with access to a transactionally criminal President.

In America, it’s always good to be part of the broligarchy.