Jan 7, 2018 4 min read

Oligarchy n, 1 : government by the few 2 : a government in which a small group exercises control esp. for corrupt and selfish purposes. (Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition)

Our republic has been displaced by an oligarchy. If anyone doubts this is so, one need only read the Republican tax bill that was approved in December. It was shoved down the throat of the American people by a Republican Congress and a president who wants to be a dictator.

The bill passed strictly along party lines, with Republicans voting yea and the Democrats nay. Consolidating the House and Senate versions was accomplished only among Republican members of both houses. The Republican majority, doing the bidding of the oligarchic, billionaire-supported superPACs, are providing 83 percent of the tax cuts to 1 percent of the population. Twelve Republican members of the House of Representatives voted against the bill. Nine members from New York and New Jersey, both high-tax states, did so largely because of the $10,000 cap on deductions for state and local taxes. Two members of the California delegation voted against it because they fear they will lose their seats to Democrats in this year’s midterm elections, and one member from North Carolina voted against the measure because of deficit concerns.

When some voters see $30 to $40 more in their paychecks next year, many will believe that the Republicans have done them a favor. But we can only hope that most will look further, and realize that their tax break is ephemeral. By 2025, their tax cuts will become tax increases. And those who will reach retirement age during this period will see their stake in Social Security and Medicare become much smaller.

I haven’t even mentioned what this will do to health care. The $1.5 trillion in additional debt that this bill will create must be paid for.

Becoming an oligarchy makes it much easier for us to slip into a dictatorship. While some figures in various industries, including the media and government, have admitted to sexual misconduct and have resigned or been removed from their posts, President Trump continues to deny being among them, despite his brazen admission to such acts on the notorious “Access Hollywood” tape. The groper-in-chief and his minions remain active in trying to delegitimize the press and the courts, and now are attempting to do the same to the Justice Department, the FBI and Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Pundits on the Fox News Channel state that the FBI is comparable to the KGB. They know better, but perpetuate the myth hoping that they can discredit whatever facts emerge from Muller’s investigation. The KGB was the secret police of Soviet Russia, and its members were guilty of torture and murder. The FBI commits none of these crimes, and operates within strict constitutional laws.

There are strong indications that U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, along with a small cabal of fellow Republicans on the committee, are working to begin an investigation of the FBI and the special counsel, alleging corruption and malfeasance. They are hanging their hat on the text messages of FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, which were highly critical and disparaging of Trump. So far as I have been able to learn, Strzok wrote all of his emails before being assigned to Mueller’s team. As soon as Mueller learned of the text messages, Strzok was dismissed.

There was a purported conversation between Philadelphia socialite Elizabeth Willing Powel and Benjamin Franklin at the close of the Constitutional Convention in 1787. I don’t think it has ever been conclusively proven to be true, but I think it can be used to illustrate a point. Powel is said to have asked, “Well, doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy”? Franklin replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

We did not keep it. We reside in an oligarchy, and if Trump and his Republican supporters have their way, it will soon be a dictatorship.