Why Did The Working Class Elect A Plutocracy?
The Propaganda Machine: How Billionaires Used Immigration Lies to Win the Presidency
America’s first Oligarchy will start “running the county” on January 20, 2025. Billionaire President Trump and his Legion of 10 Billionaires* will be at the helm, ready to fleece what remains of the American economy.
Trump hasn’t even started and he’s already causing damage, for example, home mortgage interest rates started going back up as the bond market responded to the threat of Trump’s tariffs. The forecast is bleak; it will be an abject failure for America and the world, but especially for the working class that elected them. We’re still living under Trump’s 2017 tax plan that finally expires in 2025, however, he has made it clear he will be raising taxes on everyone earning less than $400,000 per year, especially for those earning under $100,000.
It’s bad enough that so many of the working class (and middle class) think that they’ll be super rich someday, they won’t, but they keep voting against free healthcare and free college because Billionaires tell them to.
The working class is screwed. They fell hook line and sinker for Billionaire propaganda - that America has an immigration problem - we do not. What we have is recycled scare tactics that appeal to American prejudices towards people of color.
Before you read on, let’s get on the same page with defining our terms:
Prejudice is the belief that one race is superior to another, or that one race is inferior to another.
Discrimination is the negative behavior towards those seen as inferior.
Racism is a system that includes prejudice and discrimination to maintain a racial hierarchy.
Billionaire is used interchangeably with “Republican.” Republican refers to the leaders of the party, not the so much the voters.
The Statue of Liberty is nice, but it just doesn’t belong in America. It’s better suited for somewhere like Canada, which is more diverse than the United States, and the attitudes of Canadians towards immigrants its much friendlier. Canada is more Christian than the United States, at least when considering the good things Christianity has to offer, like loving your neighbor and welcoming immigrants: (Leviticus 19:34, The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God, or Matthew 25:35, I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me).
I’m writing a bit more about the Bible here, because it was a major aspect of slavery and the Southern way in the Antebellum South. Remember, the men who enslaved other humans used the Christian Bible to justify slavery and absolve themselves of the horrific evils of this daily way of life. They also raped slaves on a daily to weekly basis, as well as children, they beat them, and lynched them. There was nothing Godly about slavery. They knew it was evil, yet they did it anyway. The Southern men of this time have never come to terms with the evil deeds of their ancestors. Many of them remain racist today, or White Supremacists as a way of affirming and validating the behaviors of their grandparents, great grandparents and lineage.
The Bible is a strange mix of contradictory books and stories that is essentially an empty vessel; watch what people fill it with and you’ll know what they’re about. In America, they filled it with justifications for racism. White Southerners even used a “slave bible” to indoctrinate slaves into a version of Christianity that left out anything about freedom and focused on maintaining the status quo:
Peter 2:18, “Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.”
Timothy 6:1, “All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God’s name and our teaching may not be slandered.”
Colossians 3:22, “Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.”
Ephesians 6:5, “Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.”
Here are examples of omissions from the slave Bible:
Exodus story because it could have inspired hope for liberation;
Galatians 3:28, because it emphasized equality between people, and
Book of Revelation because it told of a new Earth and heaven where evil is punished.
I find the omission of the last one very interesting because it is a tacit omission of guilt by slave owners.
Canada abolished slavery without a civil war, in 1834. In America, one half of the country had to go to war with the other to get them to end slavery, but even after that, they implemented Jim Crow laws and kept slavery legal in US prisons. To this day, many in the South spread lies that the civil war was not about slavery, but “State’s rights.” Below is the first section of the Constitution of Alabama when the seceded from the Union. Notice it specifically and explicitly uses the word, “emancipation.” This was no accident. The South did not want Lincoln to be President because of hit anti-slavery beliefs.
From 1870 to 1968, Jim Crow racism kept Blacks from making political and economic gains. Many misdemeanor laws made and used as justification to incarcerate Blacks, and then use them for Slave Labor in prisons: vagrancy laws, loitering and trespassing laws, disorderly conduct and public nuisance laws, alcohol use laws, morality-based laws, and debt-related offenses. Over-policing in Black communities was and remains a serious problem, especially in Southern states.
One of the worst forms of legalized racism was the “convict leasing system,” in which incarcerated Black persons were "leased" to private businesses for labor, effectively replicating slavery under a legal guise. This still occurs in some Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arizona, where inmates are leased to companies like McDonald’s for the day, then return to prison. As of this November, 2024, 393,600 Black Americans were incarcerated in the United States, which is 32% of the total inmate population (Blacks are only 14% of the US population).
In America, we’re not allowed to talk or teach about this country’s horribly racist past. As a result, generations of Americans have grown up lacking a solid perspective on racial issues, leaving them unable to empathize with or have compassion for Black Americans. Florida, Texas and other Southern States have banned books that illustrate historical racism in America, including To Kill A Mockingbird, The Bluest Eye, The Hate You Give, and Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, to name a few. Florida is even using Prager U which promotes completely false history that avoid apologizing slavery and instead frames it as a good thing because slaves “learned skills.”
Eugenics was a phony science created to prove that racism was based in truth, not just a delusion of White Supremacists. White Supremacy was an important aspect of American life for centuries (slavery lasted from 1619 to 1865, about 246 years, followed by another 100 years of institutionalized racism under Jim Crow laws, about 20 generations of Americans). In the 17 and 1800’s our Presidents were openly racist and White Supremacists:
Thomas Jefferson wrote that Black people were "inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind," and believed in the separation of races; he did not think Whites and Blacks could live harmoniously as equals.
Andrew Jackson developed the Indian Removal Act, often said that Whites were the superior race over Native Americans and other groups. He said that Native peoples were "savages" who needed to be displaced to make way for "civilized" white settlers.
James Polk said that White Americans were racially superior and had a divine right to the whole continent. He used his belief in White supremacy to justify annexations of Mexico and Indigenous land.
Abraham Lincoln said, “I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and Black races.” He also expressed a belief that whites were "superior" to Black people but opposed slavery on moral and political grounds.
Teddy Roosevelt believed in the superiority of Anglo-Saxon civilization and expressed eugenicist views. He wrote, “The great majority of Negroes... are a perfectly stupid race incapable of living on terms of equality with the whites.”
Woodrow Wilson, praised the racist film "The Birth of a Nation" (1915) as “writing history with lightning.” Wilson was an outspoken supporter of segregation and actively worked to segregate federal offices during his presidency. He believed in the inherent superiority of the white race and supported policies that reinforced racial hierarchies.
American presidents reflected the common prejudices of Americans towards Blacks and people of color. They maintained and enforced the sentiment of this “great nation,” that Whites were superior and all other races were inferior.
These are examples of racism against Blacks, but Americans were horribly racist towards Mexicans and Asians as well. In the early 1930’s, President Herbert Hoover blamed the recession caused by his Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 on the Mexicans. International trade collapsed by 65% between 1929 and 1934. Farmers and manufacturers had no one to export to.
Hoover and Republicans blamed growing unemployment on Mexican immigrants, and began mass deportations of up to 2 million people, many who were American citizens with Mexican heritage. Hoover was responsible for starting the mythology that Mexican immigrants steal American jobs.
The reality is that Mexican immigrant laborers have only ever been able to work in jobs that other Americans refuse to work. The other reality is that US Corporations sometimes prefer to hire prison labor, teenagers, or Mexican immigrants over adult American workers just to save money. America does not enforce laws to punish employers of “illegal” Mexican immigrants whereas Canada has very strong enforcement of Corporate penalties. Canadian authorities conduct workplace inspections and audits to ensure compliance with immigration laws; Canadians don’t fear monger against the Mexican humans looking for a job, they actually punish the employers who betray the Canadian people.
This is how you know that Republican complaints and fears mongering about immigration are phony, because Republicans don’t enforce laws that punish businesses who hire undocumented immigrants. So, on one hand they complain while with the other they benefit. When Florida passed Senate Bill 1718 (SB 1718), effective on July 1, 2023, it led to many Latinos leaving or avoiding the State out of fear and protest. The Florida Policy Institute projected that the E-Verify mandate could cost Florida’s economy approximately $12.6 billion in one year, primarily affecting industries like construction, agriculture, and hospitality. The real impact of this law has yet to be understood, but agriculture, construction and hospitality businesses have voiced serious concerns about its impact. Meanwhile, voters end up suffering by paying higher prices for everything; Florida is the one State where inflation has been the worst and hardest to recover.
America’s unemployment rate has been at record lows for several years. Yet, somehow we’re supposed to believe Billionaire logic that Mexicans are taking all the jobs - but there are none to take; they’re also not paying taxes and, they’re collecting public aid. They also find time to commit all sorts of crime while avoiding jail or deportation. If anything, we should study these people to understand how they’re so adept at making it in American when “they don’t even speak the language.”
Unfortunately, our working class is just gullible. Or are they? The uneducated voted for Trump at high rates, but there were still a lot of educated people who voted for him - I think what they have in common is racism. You don’t hear them complaining about illegal immigrant Melania Trump, but you never stopped hearing about allegations that Obama was not American (Trump and the Birther conspiracy). QAnon is one of many racist-based conspiracy theories, primarily against Jews. Nearly all right-wing conspiracy theories are grandiose, mixing religion and politics, making gullible, trust voters feel as though they are soldiers in a battle of good (Republican) versus evil (Democrat). Without religion, they would not succeed. The conspiracy propaganda creates very intense emotional experiences that cause “emotional reasoning.” It manipulates the shit out of otherwise good Americans to gladly go do the killing for the Billionaires who could care less about them once their in jail. Just look at how Trump left office and never pardoned the J6 insurrectionists.
Many Americans would be surprised to hear that Whites make up about 75% of the US Population. You can lower that to about 58% if you parse out Hispanic v. non-Hispanic Whites, but for many Americans, if they have one White parent, they are likely to consider themselves “White.” It’s all so goddamn arbitrary. Don’t get me wrong, ethnicity is important, but in America, racial identity is being used to manipulate voters into voting for Billionaires.
It’s expensive to hire people and push propaganda; Democrats just can’t afford it, but Billionaires can, and that’s why 90+% of what you see is right-wing propaganda. Great Replacement propaganda was pushed by Billionaires to get votes for White race-baiting candidates. And it worked. The working class fell for this shit again. This happens so often, it’s really kind of laughable (read about the “Great Replacement” propaganda or conspiracy theory, here). The Great Replacement idea has been around a long time, but it’s really been effective in the last 10 years.
In November 2023, Musk responded to a post on his White Supremacist social media company, X, that claimed that Jewish communities were promoting hatred against White people and supporting mass immigration to replace them. Musk typed: "You have said the actual truth."
America does not and has never had an immigration problem, but it has always had a problem with racism. For many reasons, parents insist on raising their kids with racist attitudes, but there’s more to it than that. If you were to escape your childhood without your White parents condemning people of color, you’re bound to hear it schools, from teachers and friends, from coaches, and for Gen Z, all over social media.
Billionaires have clearly made a concerted effort to create social media algorithms that push White Supremacist content over social media apps so effectively that Gen Z White males are growing up to be even more racist, xenophobic and “conservative,” than their Boomer grandparents. This is in addition to sexist and misogynistic content that very concerning but outside the scope of this article.
No country has relied on propaganda as a weapon more than Russia; this is because they could not keep up with Western economies and American military might. Stalin was not a Communist, he was an imperialist who converted Russia’s agrarian economy to a military one; he failed, but Russia never recovered.
One of the richest men in the world, Putin, who may have actually been the world’s first trillionaire at one point, has used immigration propaganda to help establish right-wing pro-Russia political parties throughout Europe. He also used to it to push Brexit, an amazing outcome considering that the entire United Kingdom voted to catapult itself into last century based on their racist feelings. To this day, Russia still uses immigration propaganda in the UK and it works, causing riots and maintaining social discord. The UK is in such a bad mental condition socially, from the impact of Russian propaganda, they have been reduced to sort of a puppet State of Russia. America may soon follow.
The Oligarchy that Trump is establishing in America is one that is fully aligned with Russia and Putin. These are horrific dictators. Putin’s agenda is to tear America down. Putin knows that he cannot make Russia more powerful than America, so, his best option has been to try to bring America down.
Putin uses a divide and conquer approach; divide and conquer NATO, FVEY, and other Western alliances. He also has made efforts to undermine America’s economy by decreasing immigration and creating a trade-war, undermine America’s currency with threats from BRICS, and Crypto-currencies, and increase inflation from Tariffs. Putin seeks to undermine America’s social net by pushing for Trump to cut Social Security and Medicare, and have RFK, Jr. installed as head of the FDA to undermine the CDC and promote ant-vax ideas. All of these tactics taken together undermine America’s standing. Other tactics, such as degrading our human rights record by locking kids in cages, creating social discord around LGBTQ and women’s rights, and aligning the country with other dictators, also degrade the image and credibility of America. We can no longer complain about China or North Korea’s human rights issues when we aren’t much better.
Putin will surely succeed at most of these efforts in the coming four years. I don’t think Americans are ready for the onslaught of problems that face us in such a short time. An immense amount of damage will be done. What’s worse is that this is coming during a time when the Climate Crisis is becoming an emergency and the world economy is changing from oil to renewables, as well as from industrial to artificial intelligence.
Trump’s close ties with Elon Musk and this new phony, “DOGE” department are a sign of things to come. Musk knows how to ruin things, like the Hyperloop in California, Tesla, Starlink, Space X, and X - no one has done more damage to more companies in such a short time than this loser. It’s seems that Musk has been working with Putin for a long time. Musk will be working with other billionaires to establish an Oligarchy-Deep-State, something that did not exist but that the working class wanted Trump to destroy is something he will actually bring to life, and it will be terrible for America’s working class. Trump said he will be firing hundreds of federal employees and replacing them with loyalists; that’s a Deep State.
To summarize, racism is deeply rooted in American society and continues to be an issues that deeply divides Americans. Billionaires appealed to the prejudices of Americans, as well as pushed propaganda to instill prejudices amongst younger generations. Millions of Americans voted for Trump because they are prejudiced against people of color. Putin, Trump and his team of Billionaires use the prejudicial attitudes of Americans to get them to vote against their own interests.
For America to truly be great, we must confront and overcome our deep-rooted prejudices against people of color. We must recognize that the strength of this nation lies in its diversity—welcoming those who come here to live, work, and build a better future. Immigrants have always been the lifeblood of America, contributing to its progress and resilience. After all, unless you are Indigenous, we are all descendants of immigrants.
Yet history tells a sobering truth: those who have faced the harshest discrimination have often been the most loyal to this country. They’ve fought in our wars, built our infrastructure, and taken on jobs that others refused to do. My own grandfathers worked tirelessly in Pennsylvania’s coal mines, sacrificing for a dream of a better life. But not long before my family arrived from Italy in 1921, a mob in the South lynched around 10 Italian immigrants—innocent men, falsely accused. President Teddy Roosevelt even called the atrocity a “good thing.” That was not greatness. There is no greatness in a nation that allows lynch mobs to murder its own people.
Today, racism continues to tear at the fabric of our country—exploited by billionaires and powerful interests to keep us divided. It’s a strategy as old as America itself: pit us against one another so we fail to see who benefits from our disunity.
We cannot allow this to continue. To build a truly great nation, we must reject prejudice in all its forms and teach the next generation a better way. Racism is not inherited; it is taught. Let’s stop raising our children to hate, and instead inspire them to embrace the values that can make this country worthwhile—equality, justice, and opportunity for all.
Because America cannot be great until it is great for everyone.
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*When I initially posted this article, I had written that there were “14 Billionaires” that Trump had nominated to his Cabinet. I later learned that this number was incorrect. Trump has nominated 10 Billionaires to various executive posts. This difference does not change the fact that America is a Plutocracy. I also changed the title to Plutocracy instead of Oligarchy. After thinking about it, a Plutocracy is more fitting because it is specific to the Super Rich running the country whereas an Oligarchy is a small group of people regardless of their wealth. This is an important distinction.