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The Second Coming Part Four: Plutocracy or Bust?

Many of the policies of Donald Trump are still not clear, though he has tapped many billionaire friends & donors, some of them unelected, to head various governmental departments & to preside over the deregulation, liberalisation & gutting of American industry, bureaucracy and public services. But to what end? Who will benefit, & who will pay the price for this cavalier approach?

Peter Winn-Brown
17 min readJan 6, 2025
Black & white image from 1944 of Harry Truman inspecting a campaign poster for the 1946 election.
The last time the Democrats suffered huge losses, conceding both houses to the Republicans, was the first post-war election. Although incumbent, Harry S. Truman, kept hold of the Presidency his margins were tight. Here he is in 1944 with an early campaign poster. Image from Commonweal (Flickr).

‘In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Musk and Ramaswamy attempted to outline their plan. In their telling, “unelected, unappointed civil servants” create regulations that constrain freedom and waste taxpayer money. Two recent Supreme Court decisions that limit the power of federal departments will help Musk and Ramaswamy achieve their goals. Because of those rulings, Congress and the courts no longer have to defer to agencies’ expertise, so DOGE will be free to recommend which regulations to dispense with. Musk and Ramaswamy argue in their op-ed that Trump can now refuse to enforce the regulations deemed disposable, reducing the agencies’ funding and personnel needs.’

Regina Munch; DOGE Bros, Commonweal, December

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Peter Winn-Brown
Peter Winn-Brown

Written by Peter Winn-Brown

The past can illuminate the present if we shine the light of inquiry openly, truthfully, with attention to detail & care for the salient facts.

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