Well, now we have one Michael Bloomberg interested in perhaps running in the Democratic primaries. For those unaware, Mr. Bloomberg is a 77-year-old former New York City mayor and billionaire businessman who has been outspoken in his criticism of President Trump, even prior to the last election. Bloomberg’s entering the race would make him the richest person to ever run for president, beating out billionaire Ross Perot who ran as a third party candidate in the 1990s. Bloomberg is considered to be a centrist policy-wise. One of the main reasons he is considering running is his stated belief that he doesn’t think that former Vice-President Joe Biden or Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders could beat Donald Trump.
I have another theory. Bloomberg may not like the left-leaning Democratic candidates Senators Warren and Sanders, who are among the top performers in early primary polling. One of Warren’s signature policy proposals is a wealth tax that would require the rich to pay 2 cents for every dollar over $50 million in their personal fortunes. Sanders, a self-declared democratic socialist, has also proposed a version of a wealth tax and is famous for railing against “millionaires and billionaires” in his campaign speeches. Now this has made a number of multi-millionaires nervous, including Bill Gates, Tom Steyer and John Delaney to name a few.
Although it may be that the Democratic Party believes it is the party of working people and people of colour, there is always the danger of its policies being taken over by the super rich. Allowing an ultra-wealthy centrist to dominate its platform would be an unhealthy turn of events. Indeed, one could argue that the 2020 Democratic primary is a referendum on billionaire control of the Democratic Party. I strongly believe that working-class Americans would prefer to see a clear delineation between the corporate stooges in the Republican Party led by Donald Trump and the more progressive policies supported by the likes of Biden, Sanders or Warren.
Make no doubt, the Democratic Party has its supporters among the .1 percenters. No political party in the U.S., as in Canada, can ignore the influence of the super wealthy. However, it is a perilous move to allow a billionaire or multi-billionaire take control of its platform. After all, it was many of these same people who got us into the worst recession since the great depression, from which many ordinary Americans and Canadians are still recovering. In any democracy, one needs some clear choices. With Mr. Bloomberg’s candidacy, we would only be muddying the political waters.
FROLITICKS 
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