Billionaires vs. Mamdani: Democracy for Sale

The billionaire class is spending millions to block Zohran Mamdani’s rise — not because he threatens New York City’s stability, but because he threatens their supremacy. Mamdani’s agenda of taxing the ultra-rich to fund housing, public transit, and child care strikes at the heart of a system that lets the few profit while the many struggle. His opponents — hedge-fund moguls, property tycoons, and Wall Street donors — are pouring unprecedented sums into super PACs to drown out a movement built on ordinary citizens.

This isn’t about protecting the economy; it’s about protecting privilege. The same billionaires who hoard wealth offshore suddenly claim to care about fiscal discipline. Their fear is ideological — that Mamdani’s victory will prove that grassroots politics can defeat corporate cash. They see democracy not as a marketplace of ideas, but as an asset they can buy, trade, and hedge against.

By weaponizing money to silence dissenting voices, they expose the fragility of American democracy. A candidate advocating fairness is branded a threat, while those funding inequality are hailed as “defenders of growth.” The irony is suffocating.

Mamdani’s campaign is more than a local contest — it’s a referendum on whether voters or billionaires rule America. Every dollar spent against him is a vote against equality, against the idea that power should serve the people, not purchase them. If billionaires succeed in crushing his candidacy, it will not be a victory for democracy — it will be its price tag.

Trump and his plutocrats

In one of my not so recent posts, US Election: Selecting Lesser (Bigger) Evil dated July 27, 2024, I had written whoever wins the US Presidential Election will have to work according to the wishes of three most influential groups of the country: 1) military complexes, 2) oil & gas exploration companies and 3) Wall Street. Donald Trump is schedules to take oath on Monday, January 20, 2025.

Today, I refer to an article by Trope Folarin, Executive Director of Institute of Policy Studies (IPS). The details are worth reading and should be an eye opener for those who are under illusion that Trump era-2 will bring peace and prosperity in the United States and around the world.

Trump will be joined onstage by Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and other billionaires. Despite Trump’s ostensibly populist campaign, the moment will symbolize his toxic linkage of extremist, far-right bigotry with the class interests of billionaires.

Their wealth is already skyrocketing. As Chuck Collins calculates from Forbes wealth data, at the end of 2024 there were 813 US billionaires with a combined total wealth of US$6.72 trillion. These billionaires and plutocrats are getting a front row seat in the next administration, Sam Pizzigati adds.

In another piece, Chuck highlights new data showing how fossil fuel barons are bankrolling Trump. It’s no wonder Trump is expected to immediately withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accords (again) — a step the Climate Policy Program has condemned.

It is another irony that the inauguration will be held on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. 

As a courageous advocate of racial and economic justice, King would be disgusted by this display. But through the multi-racial, multi-issue Poor People’s Campaign he co-founded toward the end of his life, King also showed how these racist plutocrats can be defeated ‑ by coming together.

IPS is the research arm of the modern Poor People’s Campaign, a movement of poor people for peace and racial, economic, and environmental justice. And despite the crisis in the US politics, Americans see several signs people can still pull together to transform the system.

As Trump takes office, Peter Certo lays out five popular checks on Trump's agenda, building on some major wins in 2024 — from unionization campaigns to an invigorated peace movement, climate wins, and progressive victories at the state and local levels.

"Our politics are a mess right now. But our country isn’t 'lost' — only our leaders are,” he writes. “When Americans organize around our common decency, it’s going to get a lot harder for bullies like Trump to walk over us.”

 

John Feffer has also warned how Trump’s policies could deepen the global climate crisis. Hanna Homestead and Aspen Coriz-Romero explain how the US subsidizes militarism while underfunding climate solutions. Sulma Arias connects Trump’s looming immigration crackdown to the greed of private prison companies.

Christine Ahn explains in the Chronicle of Philanthropy how philanthropists can embrace a progressive feminist policy vision and fight militarism through their giving.

 

Trope Folarin, Executive Director IPA offers a bit of inauguration counterprogramming with his new piece in Places Journal, “The City Was All I Had.” 

 

A wakeup call for the US citizens

Let's acknowledge the reality, the United States operates under a façade of democracy. At best, it can be described as a "hybrid democracy," where elected representatives do not truly govern. Instead, military-industrial complexes, oil corporations, and Wall Street exert control.

Both major political candidates receive substantial financial backing from these powerful non-state entities. Once elected, presidents often find themselves subservient to these interests rather than serving the people.

People worldwide should remember that Democrats and Republicans have often united to erode fundamental freedoms, establishing a secretive regime of mass surveillance, unconstitutional detention, and torture.

They have dragged the nation into illegal wars based on lies, resulting in millions of deaths and the squandering of trillions of dollars.

It is essential not to forget the millions who stood against the exploitation of national grief to further the neoconservative agenda of global military domination—citizens whose voices were ignored and demonized by the political elite.

We must also remember how Muslims and their neighbors have been unjustly targeted, surveilled, smeared, and falsely accused in the name of "protecting the United States."

Patriotism has been weaponized to undermine the First Amendment, stifling dissent, journalism, whistleblowing, and activism. To this day, there are ongoing efforts to criminalize protests against injustice, war, and genocide.

Never forget how both Democrats and Republicans have set the country on a path toward fascism, leading to an administration openly supporting the genocide of the Palestinian people.

True patriotism requires the courage to stand up for justice, not blindly following orders. By resisting both war-driven political parties, the American people can halt the descent into fascism and fight for a peaceful, just, and livable future for the generations to come.