Rule by the rich: Western governments are oligarchies, not democracies from Geopolitical Economy Report

Geopolitical Economy Report

Ben Norton

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Rule by the rich: Western governments are oligarchies, not democracies

42 minutes Posted Jul 19, 2025 at 4:18 pm.

Narrative of Western "democracies"

(CLIP) Joe Biden on "democracy vs autocracy"

Western governments are oligarchies

Summary of oligarchic Western leaders

Scientific research shows USA is an oligarchy

US public opinion on healthcare

Money buys 80-90% of seats in US Congress

Citizens United ruling

Donald Trump: perfect symbol of US oligarchy

Robber barons

One Big Beautiful Bill: class war by the rich

Billionaires pay lower tax rate than most Americans

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent

Ex US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin

Steve Bannon worked for Goldman Sachs

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick

Crypto was taken over by Wall Street

Trump is the symptom, not the cause

Biden promised nothing would change

Barack Obama: funded by Wall Street

Mitt Romney: servant of Wall Street

Super PACs

Bloomberg funded Biden's 2020 race

Billionaires funded Trump's 2024 race

Elon Musk donated $288 million for Trump

(CLIP) Elon Musk bought 2024 US election

World's richest man buys US politics

Wall Street wages war on Zohran Mamdani

Democratic Party sabotaged Bernie Sanders

UK Labour Party sabotaged Jeremy Corbyn

British spy agencies sabotaged Jeremy Corbyn

Symbol of UK oligarchy: Rishi Sunak

Neoliberal Keir Starmer: Tony Blair reincarnated

France's President of the rich: Emmanuel Macron

BlackRock's man in Germany: Friedrich Merz

Goldman Sachs' man in Italy: Mario Draghi

Goldman Sachs' man in Canada: Mark Carney

Summary of oligarchic Western leaders

Western governments are not democracies

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Western governments claim to be models of democracy, and demonize their geopolitical adversaries as "authoritarian", but empirical evidence shows that the USA and European countries are oligarchies dominated by economic elites and large corporations. Billionaire Donald Trump is the perfect symbol of this, but he's by no means the only one. Ben Norton explains.

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BONnmHRmp_M

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