The Oligarchy Isn’t Really In Control

It’s important to understand who you’re fighting

Democrats like running against the oligarchy for pretty obvious reasons. Most voters are not wealthy and most voters (rightfully) resent the wealthy. Populist boilerplate slamming the out-of-touch elites is effective.

More, there’s a lot of truth to that boilerplate, especially when the government is being run by a real-estate scion and the literal richest man on earth. “This nation was built by working people and we’re not going to let a handful of billionaires run the government,” Bernie Sanders declared at a massive “Fighting Oligarchy” rally with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. It’s a solid message.

I’m not saying that Democrats should abandon that message. And oligarchs really are a threat. But I think it’s also worth noting that right now, the oligarchs are…not exactly steering the ship.

WSJ vs. Trump

You can tell that the oligarchs are not entirely thrilled with the way things are going by looking at the Wall Street Journal, official trade paper of the oligarchy. The WSJ’s reliably conservative opinion pages have been apoplectic about Trump’s tariffs, for pretty obvious reasons (stock market go crash.) Trump was so angered by one negative editorial that he threatened to sue the paper.

Trump’s tariffs and his chaotic, cruel administration have not resulted in a bonanza for business. On the contrary, steel workers are being laid off, agriculture is in a nose dive, the tourism industry is likely to take a major hit because Trump’s ICE gestapo keeps throwing foreign visitors in prison for no reason. It is difficult to do business in the middle of a rabid and chaotic authoritarian coup.

Some people will assure you that this is all part of the plan—that tanking stocks are a big opportunity for rich people to buy low, or that the pharmaceutical companies want measles outbreaks, for some reason. But those Wall Street Journal editorials make it fairly clear that the wealthy are not, in fact, thrilled at the prospect of stagflation and a massive contraction in the US economy.

Fascists often work well with oligarchs, because fascists are militant crusaders on behalf of existing hierarchies. But fascism is not solely interested in generating wealth for the rich. Trump and Musk are also obsessed with racial hierarchy, with gender hierarchy, and with crushing immigrants (to point to just three obvious examples.)

Fascism is also a cult of personality, which means that the personal relationships, and passing whims, of whoever is the cult leader, end up taking up a lot of space. The oligarchy does not want to conquer Canada; the entire trade war and the colonial threats are entirely because Trump likes to put his name on crap and he saw a map of Canada and thought, “I want to spread my foul orange effluvia to the north.” Similarly, business leaders in the US are not necessarily eager for Putin to conquer Europe; a world war would, at best, create instability and at worst could obviously end all business as we know it, in every sense. Trump loves Putin because Putin helps him out in elections, not because oligarchs told him to love Putin.

You could go down the line with other policies. Oligarchs like low taxes and are certainly pleased that Trump is gutting the IRS. But Musk’s horrific, genocidal attack on USAID is all about his hatred of Black people and his love of far right conspiracy theories. It’s not a policy Wall Street laid out for him.

Why does it matter?

Again, there are some cases where it’s helpful strategically to just ignore these differences. Anti oligarch rhetoric is in some ways more effective in a white supremacist US than antifascist rhetoric is. So why not just use anti oligarch rhetoric?

Like I said, I’m not against kicking the oligarchy. But it’s worth recognizing the rifts between oligarchs and fascists for a couple of reasons.

First, in cases where the oligarchs and the fascists are fighting, you absolutely do not want to let that be an excuse to take the side of the fascists. Sanders fucked this up himself when he praised RFK for challenging food conglomerates shortly after his nomination.

Fascists often use anti elitist rhetoric; that is sometimes directed at the wealthy. But when fascists attack the wealthy, it is never to the benefit of the not wealthy. It is a way of consolidating power which they then use to (in RFK’s case) engage in a eugenic battle on behalf of cancer and measles. Focusing on fighting oligarchy and only on fighting oligarchy, can undermine antifascism if you don’t pay attention. So paying attention is important.

Second, when you convince yourself that fascists are just a front for the oligarchs, you tend to underestimate the extent of, and the dangers of, fascist incompetence and chaos.

Oligarchs, again, tend to want a certain level of stability. They tend to have fairly straightforward goals—those goals being to collect all the money. Those goals are evil, but they have an internal logic. Oligarchy makes sense; goals and means seem to fit together in ways that are at least vaguely predictable. More, if you can convince oligarchs that a policy is bad for business, or will lose them money, they will often move on to something else.

Fascism has no such logic and no such brake. A lot of Musk/Trump policies are based on pure conspiracy theory nonsense. The effort to destroy the executive branch is motivated by spite and hate as much as by any thoughtful endgame. Mass deportation is just bigotry—and bigotry that’s likely to hurt big business more than help.

Part of why Trump is so dangerous is that he is ignorant and reckless and has little ability to assess what will work or even what will help him personally. If we assume oligarchs are in control, we tend to think that there are guardrails in place when there are not, and that there is a clear plan when there isn’t one of those either.

Trump is corrupt and wants to enrich himself; oligarchs often see fascism as a way to make money. Fascists and oligarchs work together. But fascism is not oligarchy, and oligarchs are not necessarily the secret force behind fascism. Trump and Musk do a lot of things to help the rich. They also do a lot of things because they are true believers in fascist conspiracy theories, or just because they get an idea in their heads and there’s no one who can tell them “no.” And among those who can’t tell them “no” are (other) oligarchs, as the Wall Street Journal is discovering.

Again, running against oligarchy isn’t wrong, either strategically or factually. But it’s important for everyone to remember that the oligarchs and the fascists sometimes have different goals, and that the main thing right now is, and has to be, fighting the fascists.