Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, we are told that the large crowds appearing at the Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rallies, where they rant about evil oligarchs, consist mostly of career leftist protesters.
According to GPS data derived from the cell phones of 20,189 people who attended a recent AOC-Bernie rally in Denver, 84 percent of those cell phones (and presumably their owners) had attended nine or more Kamala Harris rallies, BLM/Antifa protests, or pro-Hamas/pro-Palestinian protests, and 31 percent had attended over 20 such gatherings.
Furthermore, based on “psychographic data” compiled by data scientists using sophisticated algorithms looking at data drawn from those cell phones and comparing their proximity to other cell phones, the scientists were able to infer that 90 percent of the individuals owning these cell phones are likely working for one of five radical leftist groups, which all received money from the leftist organization ActBlue: Disruption Project, Rise & Resist, Indivisible Project, Troublemakers and the Democratic Socialists of America. At least three of these groups also received money from USAID.
This helpful information comes to us courtesy of data scientist Tony Seruga, a former CIA/NSA contractor and AI sector investor, whose team specializes in deriving all sorts of interesting information from these tracking devices we all carry with us. Their ability to glean all kinds of information from cell phone data may be a bit unsettling to us laypeople, who rarely give a thought to how the government and nefarious actors can and do also derive such information about US citizens. I’m just glad Mr. Seruga and his friends are on our side.
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As AOC tries to establish herself as the leading light in the radical wing of her party, perhaps supplanting octogenarian Bernie Sanders as America’s leading socialist, she rails against the “oligarchs” supposedly controlling the Republican party. This political line of attack is risible. As journalist Batya Ungar-Sargon helpfully points out, twice as many billionaires backed Kamala Harris over Donald Trump in 2024. Sixty-five percent of Americans earning over $500,000 per year identify as Democrats. Seventy-five percent of hedge fund managers who make political donations, she informs us, donate to Democrats. President Trump’s vote overwhelmingly came from Americans earning less than $100,000 per year.
The wealth alignment of American citizens today is not that of 1965. The old stereotype of America’s wealthy elites backing Republicans while America’s middle class backs Democrats has pretty much been turned on its head. The wealthiest of Americans lean left – or vote largely Democrat in any event – while Joe and Mary Bloe who tend not to have college degrees, but form the backbone of America’s blue-collar class, went with The Donald.
Yet AOC and Bernie seem intent on propagating the old canard that “plutocrats” all vote Republican. Discussion of the role of “oligarchs” in politics dates all the way back to Aristotle (at least) writing in the fourth century BC. Aristotle wrote in his seminal work, Politics, “A constitution based on the middle class is the mean between the extremes of oligarchy (rule by the rich) and democracy (rule by the poor).”
Aristotle recognized that the richest in every society fear the Demos – the poor. Based on their sheer numbers in comparison to the number of rich, the poor represented a great threat to the power of the rich. Aristotle, according to Catholic University of America Senior Fellow William S. Smith, believed that governance by the oligarchy was not ideal, because of the tendency of oligarchs toward corruption and not having the greater good of society in mind, but rather self-enrichment.
Smith viewed the move by Congress to surround the US Capitol complex with troops following the events of January 6, 2021 for an extended period of time as representative of the fear by the elites of the “masses,” although how much that military presence was simply political theater by the Biden administration to continue the myth of the “Great Insurrection” is open to debate.
Smith goes on to make an excellent case that it was the oligarchy that got the United States involved in both Iraq in 2003 and for decades in Afghanistan for the purpose of enriching defense contractors and private equity firms, while sacrificing the lives of thousands of brave American warriors in the process, and leaving many others permanently maimed.
Then, he points out, the financial crisis of 2008 occurred as the result of horrible oligarchic government policies regarding toxic mortgage rates, and later the bailouts of banks deemed “too big to fail.” All benefiting the elites of course, while plunging America into countless foreclosures and financial chaos.
To the extent that President Trump is employing very wealthy individuals to enact drastic reforms aimed at reining in a government that is so ridiculously and obviously (thanks to the DOGE exposures) out of control, it seems that their motivations are noble. Surely, Elon Musk, whose estimated net worth is north of $300 billion, does not need his Tesla dealerships firebombed, his Tesla stock price taking a massive hit, or death threats – all thanks to a coordinated campaign of demonization by leftist organizations and influencers.
The Bernie/AOC “Fighting Oligarchy Tour,” complete with its own website, isn’t exactly a Taylor Swift concert series, but the geriatric Vermont socialist and the young Queens bartender-turned-congresswoman seem to think they have the winning formula for Democrat success. Time will tell. My guess is that the radical wing of the Democratic Party will continue to drag down its popularity, but woe betide those like Chuck Schumer or John Fetterman who try to make a stand for sanity. I wonder what Aristotle would say.
William F. Marshall has been an intelligence analyst and investigator in the government, private, and non-profit sectors for 38 years. He is a senior investigator for Judicial Watch, Inc., and has been a contributor to Townhall, American Thinker, Epoch Times, The Federalist, American Greatness, and other publications. His work has been featured on CBS News 48 Hours and NBC News Dateline. (The views expressed are the author’s alone, and not necessarily those of Judicial Watch.)
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