Billionaires line up to save New York from democracy

Do you need to worry? There were two hot wars involving nuclear powers, a false move, unexpected or intentional, that could trigger World War III at any time. Since the end of 2021, then-President Joe Biden administration believes that it might be interesting what would happen if Russia was actually invading Ukraine. They have decided that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s obsession with redefining European security architecture is “non-starter”.

Biden’s team seems convinced that diplomacy and the outdated Cold War “intrinsic security” concept is for sissy. After all, nuclear deterrence played a role throughout the Cold War, so why is it different today?

Almost every expert who knows – you don’t know this if you consume Western media – concluded that Russia won the victory on the battlefield. What remains is a useless war of attrition that may last for months or years. Of course, unless the use of tactical nuclear weapons or some other provocative party will result in nuclear escalation. We have been living for the past three and a half years. Many Americans voted for President Donald Trump because he had promised to end the threat within 24 hours.

He is still working hard. But if that’s not enough, then the permanent battle of nuclear-armed Israel’s war against all its neighbors last week turned into a tee-fight when Trump offered to lend a hand through mass bombing Iran, which was tied with Israel. There are concerns that Pakistan may interfere with Tehran’s nuclear energy.

If you live in the Middle East, Russia, Ukraine, almost any European capital or the United States during these dangerous times, you have a reason to think you might be worried every morning when you get out of bed. Something exists.

But if you are more than five billion people living in the heart of Manhattan and happen to be a pro-Israel Trump supporter, the nuclear conflict is the last thing for you. There are more urgent business to participate in.

Bill Ackman, an American billionaire hedge fund manager, proved that in the Democratic primary of Zohran Mamdani’s New York City Mayor’s race, Zohran Mamdani beat celebrity candidate Andrew Cuomo and published a principle last week in a long tweet last week. His tweet started with the idea: “I woke up this morning and cared about New York City.”

He had good reason to worry. Mamdani defines herself as someone who is ready to deal with worker needs and refuses to go to billionaire kowtow. Worse, he openly sympathizes with the evil Palestinians, and with the active support of the U.S. government, the genocide of Ackerman’s favorite “democracy” in Gaza was carried out by Ackerman’s favorite “democracy” – Trump’s no less than Biden. Such a heretic seeks to become the home of Wall Street mayor of Big Apple, the Big Street home, is worse than the prospects in Ackerman’s mind than the risk of a nuclear massacre.

Fortunately, Ackman plans to save New York City, which he listed in his tweet. It contains the following pragmatic suggestions:

“It’s important that there are hundreds of millions of dollars of capital available for competitors to provide overnight competitors (believe me, I’m text strings and WhatsApp groups), such a great alternative candidate won’t spend any time raising money.”

Today’s Weekly Devil’s Dictionary definition:

Raise funds:

Prior activities of American politicians before and after elections, as well as unique standards for determining political talent for those who will play a role in government, state, state, or major cities.

Context Comments

It is no secret to anyone who has conducted serious research in recent years, and after innovating the concept of democracy in the late 18th century, it recently managed to reshape its institutions to assume the nature of an effective oligarchy with a strong instinctive tendency. What we know about how Washington works, the role of lobbyists, everything we know, the way in which campaign financing is legally and financially confirmed that what we are looking at is a functional oligarch that hides itself and hides the rituals of a large amount of financing elections.

If evidence is needed, then Ackman’s long tweet provides it. Today, Ackman generously described his intentions, just like tomorrow the cash he promised to provide for oligarchy reasons. Like all true blue Americans, he deeply believed in the basic fact that “time is money.” Ackerman assured us that “a great alternative candidate will not spend any time raising money.” He helped us think of the mechanisms that define the entire logic of the current system: the idea of ​​politicians’ work has nothing to do with public services, or the idea of ​​using time to perfect governance tools. It’s about fundraising.

Fundraising is the primary skill that every successful politician must work hard and hard in refining. The art of communication is sometimes called rotation and is an indispensable second skill to master. This consists of two basic components. The first is to learn to speak in a way that sounds informed and potentially authoritative (even if it is not substantial at all). More important with the cultivation of oral style is to create “image” or public “personality” that put a sense of commitment into any reason from a marketing perspective to characterize what Ackman calls “a good alternative candidate.”

The unlimited resources of hedge fund managers will help position and embellish the “great candidates” who are still waiting on the wing to serve. The aesthetic of this approach involves the task of alleviating the chosen candidate’s task, which the average American politician spends most of his working hours on. According to most estimates, the daily schedule for fundraising activities is about 50% of them. By raising funds, candidates can focus full-time on polishing their own image for the media.

History

During the first 50 years of the New American Republic, the aristocratic elite were called “founders” and considered the idea of ​​election campaigning. The Puritan tradition has instilled the idea that community leaders should be selected based on their philosophy. The idea of ​​self-promotion is a disgust with the notion of American democracy. In a modern sense, fundraising does not exist. Politicians count on newspapers to build their infamous. The founding fathers frowned, who tended to call it “factions.”

In Jackson’s era, the expansion of suffrage began in the 1830s, leading to the concept of mass politics. Political parties become the main tool for promoting individual candidates. Fundraising activities are necessary to support local organizations. But raising funds for election candidates is considered a stranger to the spirit of democracy.

In the Gilded Age at the end of the 19th century, things changed fundamentally. The corporate interests associated with the rapid development of large-scale industries have put them in political pressure. The transformation from the previous rural economy to a large-scale industry-oriented transition has changed the nature of political decision-making. It also changed the procedures and rituals surrounding the election. Some traditional politicians feel the danger. In 1907, Congress passed the Tillman Act, the first federal law prohibiting donations to federal candidates. In the name of democratic ideals, the political culture of the first half of the new century retained its moral prejudice and opposed campaign funds.

After the world war, American culture quickly changed the mind of the traditional system. The emergence of the art of public relations (PR) and work in the political and electoral fields of PR professionals such as Ivy Lee and Edward Bernays, publicity (Preferred with a positive and benign concept), changed political culture.

Since then, the politician’s mentality has shifted from a focus on governance issues to a more important issue: election. This means doing everything you need before and after the election to maintain your position. This does not rule out the interest of politicians in serious public issues, but it will undoubtedly encourage them to focus on anything that brings cash. This includes support issues favored by those who donate the biggest to the campaign.

Starting around 1950, Madison Street advertising culture began to occupy the supreme era, and this trend accelerated from the advertising era. It reached two highly visible events: the Supreme Court ruled corporate funds in Citizens United (2010), followed by Trump, who was elected six years later, a candidate whose political and personal psyche was controlled by his belief in the power of money. Trump’s political career marks a victory for new self-propaganda ideals, overshadowing virtuous citizens.

Although Mamdani has himself developed the requestite skills of self-promotion that enabled him to defeat establishment stalwart, Cuomo, his commitment to causes defined as morally virtual (combating wealth inequality, refusing complicity in genocide) challenges the status quo — a status quo Bill Ackman and his anonymous billionaire friends are committed to defending, in the name of democracy!

* (In the time of Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain, another American, journalist Ambrose Bierce, produced a series of satirical definitions of common terms that articulate their hidden meaning in real discourse. Bierce eventually collected and published it as a book, as a book, the devil’s desire, our interest in 1911. We continue to work hard, and his title is his title. News readers The Dictionary of Fair Observer Devil)

((Lee Thompson-Kolar Edited this. )

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of fair observers.