{"id":38439,"date":"2024-12-28T12:27:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-28T20:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=38439"},"modified":"2024-12-28T12:27:01","modified_gmt":"2024-12-28T20:27:01","slug":"bernie-sanders-calls-out-us-oligarchy-in-fox-news-op-ed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/12\/28\/bernie-sanders-calls-out-us-oligarchy-in-fox-news-op-ed\/","title":{"rendered":"Bernie Sanders Calls Out US Oligarchy in Fox News Op-Ed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Sen.<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks during the Democratic National Convention on August 20, 2024 in Chicago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo: Robert Gauthier\/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s not just the billionaire ownership and control over the economy and the media that should concern us. The uber-rich are also buying our government and undermining American democracy,” wrote Sanders.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

ELOISE GOLDSMITH<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dec 27, 2024 (CommonDreams.org)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senator Bernie Sanders<\/a> has a message for Fox News<\/em> readers: The United States is increasingly a country of have and have nots, and it will “move rapidly down the path of oligarchy and the rule of the super-rich” unless the people and political leaders fight for a government and economy that works for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Vermont Independent who caucuses with Democrats framed the two Americas as “the people vs. the billionaires” in an op-ed published<\/a> Friday by Fox News.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his article, Sanders specifically calls out three billionaires\u2014Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg, each of whom has signaled support U.S. President-elect Donald Trump\u2014for their staggering wealth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In this America, the three wealthiest men (Elon Musk<\/a>, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg) own more wealth than the bottom half of our society\u2014over 165 million people. And their wealth is skyrocketing” he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After favoring<\/a> President Joe Biden in 2020, Elon Musk became a major backer of Trump on the campaign trail this year, donating<\/a> more than quarter of a billion dollars via political action committees to Trump and other GOP candidates ahead of Election Day. He’s since been tapped to play a role in the incoming administration’s efforts to cut government spending and regulation, and already made a demonstration of his political influence by helping to tank a proposed spending deal<\/a> that had bipartisan support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meta and Amazon, the respective companies of Zuckerberg and Bezos, have already given or said they would give a million dollars each to Trump’s inaugural<\/a> fund. A number of other large and powerful U.S. firms have donated<\/a> to the inaugural committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanders’ piece doesn’t address these specific connections to Trump, but he does denounce the political spending by economic elites more generally unleashed by the “disastrous” Citizens United<\/a><\/em>Supreme Court ruling<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/x.com\/SenSanders\/status\/1872686770929975575?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1872686770929975575%7Ctwgr%5Ec0a64c6d8bf10f7903f3eb6cba5daa1a3ee01832%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fbernie-sanders-oligarchy-fox-op-ed<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“During the 2024 election cycle, just 150 billionaires spent nearly $2 billion to buy politicians who support their agenda and to defeat candidates who oppose their special interests. Billionaires who represent just .0005% of our population accounted for 18% of total campaign spending,” according to Sanders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That is not democracy. That is not one person, one vote,” he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanders has penned opinion pieces for Fox<\/em> in the past, including about topics<\/a> like the moral imperative to combat climate change\u2014an issue that runs counter<\/a> to Fox’s usual editorial slant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His latest piece decries inequality in America, a common talking point for Sanders, but also goes after billionaire ownership of large swaths of the media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Never before in American history have so few media conglomerates, all owned by the billionaire class, had so much influence over the public. It is estimated that six huge media corporations now own 90% of what the American people see, hear, and read,” Sanders wrote. “This handful of corporations determines what is ‘important’ and what we discuss, and what is ‘unimportant’ and what we ignore.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also lambasted concentration of ownership in the economy: “In sector after sector\u2014healthcare, agriculture, financial services, energy, transportation\u2014a handful of giant corporations control what is produced and how much we, as consumers, pay for their products.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ELOISE GOLDSMITH<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eloise Goldsmith is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks during the Democratic National Convention on August 20, 2024 in Chicago. \u00a0(Photo: Robert Gauthier\/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) “It’s not just the billionaire ownership and control over the economy and the media that should concern us. The uber-rich are also buying our government and… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38439"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38439"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38440,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38439\/revisions\/38440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}