In your first post you gave the impression you were referring to Trump as the billionaire to be wary of- otherwise why would you have even posted your idea in a thread that supports Trump's great agenda?
I didn't mention "Trump", or "the President", or any of Trump's agenda items. I did use the term "billionaire", which might not even apply to Trump.
In short, I was not talking about Trump before. But I guess now I am. So here's what I think:
- Trump's net worth ain't anywhere near the other names I've listed so far. Trump knows this, and it bothers him (beyond a certain point, wealth simply becomes a matter of keeping score, and I'm sure that it sucks being down 100:1 to some dweeb like Bezos).
- Prior to winning the Presidency, Trump's influence wasn't anywhere near some of those folks I listed. He didn't own a publishing empire, or control a bank with a few trillion in assets, or own multiple pro sports teams and stadiums, or send rockets into near-earth orbit, or command a private army. He was a big player in arguably the most important city in the world, but that makes him a regional force at best. Obviously, that all changed once he won office - he's now the alpha. But based upon net worth alone? Hell, there are a few engineers at Google who got in early that are worth more than Trump.
- Trump's trade war is the single biggest anti-elist initiative by any politician since, shit, I don't know when. This alone convinces me that he's not part of the elite, because the facade of free trade is the most powerful weapon the elite have wielded to steal from the poor and give to the rich. It's not entirely clear to me what Trump's motivation is for this particular battle, but I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt (something I don't offer to many politicians) and say that his motives are pure. Hell, even if he's doing it just to buy votes in the midwest, it's still more than any politician has done for the working man during my lifetime.
Perhaps I was wrong to think that meant you were in opposition to the general theme of the thread and that you were taking exception to it... If in fact you're a good American who always votes against the dems- please forgive me. Perhaps if you said "leftist elites" it would make it clearer for all, because being an "elite" doesn't define a person's views or voting patterns. If given the chance, not one of us would reject the opportunity to be a billionaire, and I don't begrudge anyone wanting to be wealthy.
The "elites" to which I refer work in ways that cannot easily be categorized as left or right.
I don't begrudge anyone's wealth, but I certainly as fuck have a problem with the way that some people throw it around.
You named some elites- all of whom are leftists, except arguably the Koch brothers, who have in fact given large donations to leftist dems, and huge money towards maintaining the flow of illegal alien cheap labor. It's a myth that they're Repubs.
I could also name folks like Sheldon Adelson, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Steve Ballmer, and Paul Allen - all of whom are not quite so easily associated with the left, and in some cases have directly contributed to Republicans. Hint: they ain't like us, and they don't like us.
I also disagree that the middle and lower classes are fighting amongst ourselves- I don't think that's the reality. I think it's pretty obvious there are two camps fighting a culture war over ideas, with poor to rich in both camps, one side representing traditional American values that are proven to work and that resulted in our republic succeeding beyond wildest dreams, and the dems carrying the flag of communism, fascism, socialism, and the death of freedom.
These differences are being exaggerated, because doing so benefits certain powers-that-be.
Call the economy destroyed, but it's STILL the world's biggest, best, and most stable.
But before Trump came along, it was being manipulated to benefit fewer and fewer. Go look at charts comparing GDP vs median wage; if the former is growing while the latter is shrinking, who was getting fucked?
Trump appears to have turned this around in the short term. Hopefully it holds up, but monetary and fiscal policy has me deeply concerned (and much of that is beyond the president's control). Note that the elites are set themselves up to benefit from the upside of those policies while still avoiding downside risks. Must be nice, eh?
Again, if we're on the same team- my apologies for misreading your first post. But democrats- na, fuck 'em.
I pretty sure we're on the same side, but I also believe that there are number of folks who have gotten suckered into believing the Democrat's lies who are far more likely to line on the correct side than there are billionaires who will do the same.
Note that Trump got voted into office largely by ex-Obama voters, and that the elites would have preferred Hillary or Jeb or literally any other mainstream politician from either party. We need to keep doing more work along these lines.
