Dan Balz might be reassured by the failure of the mega rich’s millions to “produce the support of voters” for the likes of Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) to run for the White House, but I would not see that as proof that the mega rich can’t confiscate power in the United States, as oligarchs did in Russia [“The mega rich are the new political bosses. Is it bad for democracy?,” the Sunday Take, news, Dec. 3].
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Donald Trump is not the only threat to democracy
Picking and financing the next president or governor or mayor are only two of the tools used by the mega rich to confiscate power. As we saw under the Trump administration, not only the electoral process (with ever more gerrymandered maps) but the U.S. judicial apparatus, the U.S. armed forces, federal agencies and U.S. law enforcement forces are also targeted by oligarchs via the “transactional” approach so obvious in the pardon of former Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio, the enormous “gifts” lavished on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, or the promises to defund the IRS or “slitting throats” of federal workers.
In other words, trying to buy elections is but one of the tools to control Americans and get them to cede power until the United States is but a twin of Vladimir Putin’s Russia: a place where any protester can “fall out of windows.”
In fact, Donald Trump has not been shy in promising vengeance as he continues to go after judges (and their wives) and others who did not, or do not, toe his line.
Camille Grosdidier, Washington