2026-10-19 Why Teddy2 ****************************************************** A while back I wrote an article "Why Teddy?" about why Theodore Roosevelt is on Mount Rushmore. If you missed it I posted it here on my website: https://winternet.com/~swezeyt/fromTheFlipSide/Politics/2026-10-02-WhyTeddy.txt Anyway, the short answer is that at a critical moment in our history, he SAVED America from becoming a Plutocracy (Oligarchy). I remember hearing about some of this back in school in History class. How Teddy broke up the big Monopolies of his day and was called the "trust buster". I remember thinking, okay, that's cute, but what's the big deal? ****************************************************** It's only been the last few years that I started to realize just how critically important what he did really was! He really DID save America from becoming a Plutocracy (Oligarchy)! That really WAS as important as Lincoln saving the Union! He really DOES deserve to be considered one of our four TOP Presidents of all time! ****************************************************** I never heard the word "Plutocracy" before - what's that about? Or the word "Oligarchy" either before they started describing what's happening in Russia since the fall of Communism. "Oligarchy" is: "Government by a few, especially by a small faction of persons or families". "Plutocracy" is: "Government by the wealthy". Russia is a Plutocracy not just an Oligarchy. It's ruled by a few Billionaires. ****************************************************** Traditional Americanism consists of two parts: Egalitarianism as our political model and Capitalism as our economic model. Plutocrats only pay lip service to Capitalism. They don't want a "Free Market" - they want to own the market, lock stock and barrel. They don't want competition - they want Monopoly. And they don't want Egalitarianism either. None of that "We the People ..." stuff - They want to be in total control. None of that "All men are created equal" or "One man, one vote" stuff. They effectively want "One dollar, one vote". If you have a billion dollars you get a billion votes, a few thousand dollars a few thousand votes. Guess who wins out on that idea? In a Plutocracy, civil rights shrink to nothing - again look at Russia today. A "Free Press"? Why do you think Putin pressured Trump into shutting down "Voice of America". He didn't want unfiltered/uncontrolled news coming into Russia. They don't have a free press. By the way, what about here? Of our top 4 TV networks, CBS, NBC and FOX are owed or controlled by Billionaires only ABC isn't. And now CNN is too (merged in with CBS). ****************************************************** I think the biggest, most dangerous threat to America is the creeping cancer of Plutocracy. And if we don't stop it, we'll end up like one big Russia. And America as we know it, with our freedom and liberty, will cease to exist. Our country, of the people, by the people, for the people, will turn into a country ruled by the rich, for the rich. And you and I will be modern day serfs serving the modern day lords of the manor. ****************************************************** This isn't a Liberal versus Conservative issue, not a Democrat versus Republican issue. Neither wants Plutocracy - it's a threat to ALL of us! Remember, Teddy Roosevelt was a Republican. Anti-Plutocracy has been a traditional Republican value ever since. Plutocracy destroys Capitalism and disrupts normal business. ****************************************************** Throughout history people have been ruled by kings and barons and dukes. "Aristocracy" is: "Government by a ruling class." Billionaires don't go by these fancy titles anymore but rest assured they're just as powerful as any kings, barons or dukes ever were. "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet", William Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet. ****************************************************** I know you probably think I'm some crazy conspiracy alarmist. Hey, was Paul Revere an "alarmist" when he said "the British are coming"? Okay, so let's invite an impartial third party in to comment on this. The "modern" approach is to ask AI "Artificial Intelligence". After all, everybody says AI knows everything and is just one click down from being God, right? (That's what they tell us isn't it). So I asked AI the following question: "Is the U.S. on the verge of becoming a plutocracy?" And here is AI's answer (try it yourself if you don't believe me). ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ "Yes, the U.S. is increasingly functioning as a plutocracy, where a small wealthy elite holds disproportionate power and influence over political decisions, often at the expense of the broader population. This shift has been facilitated by factors such as the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which allows for unlimited campaign spending by corporations and wealthy individuals." ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Those are AI's words - not mine - argue with AI if you want to. ****************************************************** What can we do to stop Plutocracy and save America in our generation? I can only think of two ways to do this. I'm open to a third way if you've got one. 1. I call this the "French Revolution" approach. In 1789, the French got sick and tired of seeing all their tax dollars going to the Aristocracy, basically paying the rich every year to be even richer. Their solution was to round them all up and literally cut their heads off (guillotine) and take back their money. I DON'T WANT TO SEE THAT HERE! Killing people is immoral, I don't care why you do it, it's wrong. 2. The second, peaceful, approach is through Government Regulation and Taxation. Billionaires are already constantly whining about being "over regulated". Regulations are just laws, like we have against murder and theft. I have no doubt murderers and thieves think they're being over regulated. That doesn't mean they are. In America, "We the People" set the laws and regulations and intend they be applied evenly across everybody for the good of everybody. If there is a bad regulation "We the People" can change it. Regulation isn't a bad thing, I rather like not having mercury in my tuna or salmonella in my guacamole or that when I deposit my paycheck in a bank it won't be ripped off by some unscrupulous banker. It's called the "rule of law" - I call it "Civilization". Plutocrats corrupt Governments and turn them into "money mills" for their own gain. "Drain the swamp"? Sure - drain it into their own back pockets. ****************************************************** In America you can own a gun, you have a Second Amendment Right to do so. But you can't own an Atomic Bomb. You could make the arguments, if I want to spend my money developing one that's my business, you can't tell me what to do, I don't have to explain to you why I want it, it's none of your business, it's private property, you can't take it away from me. No! No! No! Sure, we do respect private property, but Society will never allow a person or small group to own an Atomic Bomb. It's too much power in the hands of too few people. It's too dangerous to everybody else. I'm sorry, you just can't have one. So why do we allow Billionaires to own what amounts to an economic Atomic Bomb? If you have a billion dollars you have a LOT more power than the average Citizen. That's not right. That's not America. Worse, it's not safe for the rest of us. America is about distributing power not concentrating it in the hands of a very few. The United States is a federation of 50 states, more formally described as a constitutional federal republic. America is not a kingdom. Our three branches of Government are designed such that if any one goes nutso the other two can reign it in - checks and balances. That all dies in a Plutocracy. Nobody elects Billionaires to be Billionaires. We have no control over them, they're not answerable to anyone. In a Plutocracy, if we don't like what they're doing, tough. ****************************************************** I'm not talking about Socialism. I don't want the Government to take over their businesses, just regulate and tax them. Set the tax rates at the very high end so high that nobody can ever become a billionaire or if they are one can stay a billionaire. So no one must ever be allowed to own an economic atomic bomb. ****************************************************** I've heard people say, but what about all the jobs Billionaires provide for us? Billionaires only hire people when they have to in order to exploit them for profit. Do you think they won't replace all of us with robots and AI as soon as they can? They're not creating jobs out of some sort of altruism. They don't care about people's jobs, they're just an expense. One they'd like to cut. ****************************************************** But didn't they earn their money? I read somewhere that Elon Musk makes over 30 MILLION dollars per hour. Maybe he just works harder than the rest of us do. Okay, maybe, but he doesn't work over 100,000 times harder. Thomas Edison invented the light bulb and the phonograph and over 1000 other things. And he became a multi-millionaire. That's great, that's what America is all about. But Edison never became a Billionaire (not even when adjusted for inflation). How can any individual EARN a billion dollars HONESTLY if Edison couldn't do it in his lifetime of major inventions? ****************************************************** I think it's easy to lose track of just how much a million, billion, trillion is. It used to be if you had a pile of a million bucks you were pretty well off. Billionaires don't have ten piles or 100 piles, they have a THOUSAND piles of a MILLION bucks. One hundred billion is 100,000 piles of a MILLION bucks. One trillion is a MILLION piles of a MILLION bucks. ****************************************************** How much is an obscene amount of money? I'm reminded of Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, on how he would define pornography. "I know it when I see it". Five U.S. Billionaires have over 250 billion. Fifty have above $23 billion. There are about 900 total Billionaires. That's approximately 0.0003% of the U.S. population. I asked A.I. how much of America does that 0.0003% own? "how much of America's wealth is owned by billionaires" Here is A.I.'s answer: ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ "Billionaires in the United States own approximately 40% of the country's total wealth. This concentration of wealth has been increasing, with the richest 1% holding about 32.5% of all U.S. wealth as of 2026." ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ****************************************************** You're probably thinking I'm just jealous because I'm not a Billionaire. No, but I AM jealous about hanging on to ALL of my rights of freedom, liberty and equality that I currently hold as a Citizen of the United States of America! The Government is suppose to protect our rights, not enrich a very few super rich people. ****************************************************** We're still in a transitional phase to Plutocracy. Hopefully it's not too late yet. But we either start taxing Billionaires back into being Millionaires now or we will surely end up as their servants later. Again, look at what happened to Russia. ****************************************************** Keep the faith baby! ...