Underwriting The Oligarchy— Here Are Some Of The Worst Villains... But By No Means All Of Them

If Thérèse (professionally known as Madame Defarge) were alive today— and if I had her e-mail address— I’d send her this list, knowing that she’d put down her knitting needs to take the appropriate action. But she’s not… and there’s no one doing her work today— even if we can only hope that the super yacht Bayesian took tech billionaire Mike Lynch to the bottom after the jury in San Francisco failed to do its job last year because someone was doing Madame Defarge’s work.

Yesterday, a trio of Washington Post reporters, took a look at who the top political donors are so far this year: Meet the megadonors pumping millions into the 2024 election. From what I can tell, they’re all a lot worse than Lynch. Not public-spirited? Clara Morse, Luis Melgar and Maeve Reston wrote that “The 50 biggest donors this cycle have collectively pumped $1.5 billion into political committees and other groups competing in the election.” Many of these not public-spirited monsters aren't listed because they've learned how to hide their contributions and because, like, say, Elon Musk, makes in-kind contributions, that don't “count.” Also personal bribes don't count— like the ones so many billionaires, both foreign and domestic, have funneled into Trump's hands.

I was surprised that The Post said out loud what everyone knows but that never gets published by the mainstream media or discussed by shady politicians: “The vast majority of money from top donors has gone to super PACs, which can accept unlimited sums from individuals and often work closely with campaigns despite rules against coordinating their advertising.”

Should there be a death sentence for those who “work closely with campaigns despite rules against coordinating their advertising?” You decide what you think is appropriate. When I say “billionaires should not exist,” I’m not talking about the way Madame Defarge handled it in the late 1700s. I’m just talking about... more equitable tax rates, especially on inheritances from robber barons.

Here are the top 10 individual donors. Which one do you think is the worst? You can practically throw a dart without coming up with a “wrong answer.” (And, by the way, some identified as “Democratic” could— and should— also be identified as anti-progressive.)

Morse, Melgar and Reston closed by listing some of the most offensive donor organizations, the biggies this cycle. AIPAC’s pro-genocide network doesn’t show up because they take efforts to spread it all out between lots of organizations and dubiously-named operations— something they learned from the No Labels/Problem Solvers/Third Way scumbags.

1. Coinbase (both/conservative)- $91.1 million

2. Empower Parents PAC (Republican)- $82.5 million

3. Fund for Policy Reform (Democratic/Soros)- $60 million

4. Future Forward USA (Democratic)- $55.9 million

5. Ripple Labs (both/conservative)- $49 million

6. AH Capital Management (both/conservative- Andreessen)- $48.5 million

7. Koch Industries (Republican)- $43.3 million

8. Majority Forward (Democratic)- $32.3 million

9. League of Conservation Voters (Democratic)- $27.5 million

10. United Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners (Democratic)- $26.4 million