(TheLibertyRevolution.com)- In an op-ed published on May 23 by “The Guardian,” liberal economist Robert Reich investigates a troubling trend: millionaires and billionaires backing Republican politicians who are explicitly anti-democratic.
Reich argues that America’s monied interests bankrolled a Republican elite that believed in fiscal conservatism, anti-communism, and constitutional democracy decades ago. Today’s wealthy elite is pursuing a profoundly anti-democratic agenda for America, supporting Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was rigged, pressing for voting limits, and even doubting democracy’s value.
In a 2009 op-ed on the Cato Institute’s website, Peter Thiel said that he no longer believes that freedom and democracy are compatible. Thiel also claims that the phrase “capitalist democracy” is a contradiction. According to Reich, such utterances reveal a lot about his mindset.
Reich said Thiel had given at least $10 million to Blake Masters’ Arizona Republican primary campaign. Masters also believes Trump won the 2020 election and admires Lee Kuan Yew, the dictatorial creator of modern Singapore.
Reich, sounding paranoid, said that former generations of wealthy conservatives supported politicians like Barry Goldwater, who advocated for the preservation of American institutions. Thiel and his anti-democracy cohorts aren’t interested in preserving much of anything, at least not anything that happened after the 1920s, such as Social Security, civil rights, and even women’s ability to vote.
Reich’s claims are unsupported by facts.
The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) conducted a conference in Budapest, Hungary, on May 19 and 20, with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as the keynote speaker. According to Reich, many MAGA Republicans hold Orbán in such high regard, revealing their authoritarian mindset.
Reich warns that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his ruling Fidesz party have become a key source of inspiration for America’s anti-democracy movement.
Reich concludes that Thiel’s vision is a formula for totalitarianism.
Reich says that Peter Thiel may define freedom as the ability to build enormous riches without paying taxes on it.
The leftwing economist said that most of us understand living under the rule of law, with rights against arbitrary authority and a say in what is determined. To maintain what is left of our freedom, we must counter today’s anti-democracy movement with a robust pro-democracy campaign that defends self-government institutions against authoritarian strongmen like Trump and his wannabes and large money like Peter Thiel.
Bill Gates and George Soros were unavailable for comment.
