Dear Editor:
Michael Bloomberg’s big money bid for the White House is an insult not only to the democratic process, but it also denigrates the will of the people and the sovereignty of the electorate with an arrogance of treasure over wisdom to benefit the American people.
By the people speaking in the just 14-state primaries, the message went out to “Stop Bloomberg,” reading between the lines that he’s showing billionaires how to bet the presidency — and that’s dangerous.
Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign wasn’t just an obnoxious distraction — it was a case study for the danger that billionaires pose to democracy. What Bloomberg has contemptuously ignored, or failed to accept, is the notion of “We the People” who cannot be bought off—and that is dangerous! Big money may finance revolutions but big money is not a “Revolution.”
Bloomberg is a man of undisguised arrogance. As mayor, he already saw himself as a sort of little president, once boasting that “I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh largest army in the world… I have my own State Department, to Foggy Bottom’s annoyance. We have the UN in New York, so we have entree into the diplomatic world that Washington does not have. I don’t listen to Washington very much, which is something they’re not thrilled about.” Should he gain access to the real Army and State Department, he’ll use them as he sees fit, and with little concern for the will of the voters.
Already a modern-day Crassus, Bloomberg has both the wealth and the brains to emerge as a true Caesar, albeit a short-statured and aging one. Just as Caesar used the wealth of Gaul to finance his takeover of the Republic, Bloomberg thought he could use his private fortune to bribe, cajole and otherwise promote his ascendancy. In his 12 years as ruler of New York, he showed his willingness to “buy” elective office, spending half a billion dollars on his three runs.
In the long run, the message to billionaires is clear: the American people cannot be bought off.
John Amato
