Smothered By Riches

Smothered by Riches is the story of a systematic and disciplined effort on the part of an extremely wealthy group of Americans, to do several things. One, is to see that ruling the United States is done according to principles and beliefs that benefits their class and interests. They are a largely invisible group, present in America from its earliest days, but America's post-WWII victory delivered into their hands enormous resources. These have been amplified by their anti-democratic impulses and belief that "they" as a group, are "the right sort" to lead and bend the populace (which they tend to regard as an unlettered mob) to their will. They coalesced recently in opposition to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal and have never weakened their efforts to defeat its democratic and universal faith in working people. This aspect of the story begins with a letter written by Lewis Powell to the US Chamber of Commerce, decrying the failure of free enterprise to stand up for itself against veins of liberalism swelling the country as unpopular wars; the rights of minorities and women, the demands of the environmental movement began compelling citizens to behave in ways that flouted the values of the ruling elites. Funded by young billionaires they went on to construct a 65-year-long disciplined assault on liberalism, the unshapely fruit of which terminated in the second election of Donald Trump to the Presidency. It is easier to understand the damage he has been able to wreak on our institutions when we understood that the organizing principle of American values is often the accumulation of riches rather than a true understanding of wealth. Where we are today, is no accident. The failure of successive generations to protect our political system from the overwhelming power of money has brought us to this pass.