Oh. That's. Rich. He does know what an oligarchy is, I would think. But let's spell it out for him anyway: it's rule by a few.
I know what he means by it. He means we shouldn't be ruled by a handful of wealthy businessmen. Now, rule by a handful of wealthy government officials, well, that's a different thing entirely. But why?
Because he's one of those few, that's why. He's made his living in Washington. He's established who he is there. Yet it's those other bad, rich guys we should worry about. Not the ones like him, who hold a power more dangerous than Elon Musk: the arbitrary and unilateral hand of government. The hand which can give thumbs up to what it likes and thumbs down to what it condemns. The hand which can, will, and has broken people.
Not that the private rich aren't without power and pull we plebes don't enjoy. At the risk of understatement, that can be bad. Evil is endemic to the human condition, and we simply cannot eradicate it everywhere and for all times. But I'm with C. S. Lewis on government power over private power:
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
To wit: we can, at least to a degree, avoid dealing with private entities. I don't have to buy a Tesla. But I have to deal with government, and its hunger never stops, precisely because it knows best. It has assured itself of that.
What Uncle Bernie has done is classic: accuse the other guy of the evil you're doing. It makes you seem pure while all along, you're the true oligarch. It's so obvious it astounds me that voters, at least some of them, can't see it.
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