Billionaires across the US are worried about losing their grip on one of the country's two major political parties, as establishment Democratic Party candidates fall to progressive challengers and even the most well-funded opposition campaigns come up short against genuine grassroots organizing. From mass surveillance and hyperscale data centers to military aid for Israel and Medicare for All, the current progressive wave is deeply rooted in transformative policies and is accepting no substitutes.
Their backs against the wall, the billionaires have pinned their hopes on San Francisco. Despite the city's lefty reputation, it has become, in recent years, a launchpad for many of the fascistic ills crowding in on American life: Flock Safety, hyperscale data centers, Elon Musk, David Sacks, Peter Thiel and Larry Ellison all emerged from Baghdad by the Bay.
Today's San Francisco doesn't just have the world's highest per-capita concentration of billionaires. It also features a sleek, hand-tooled Democratic Party machine designed to serve their interests. The San Francisco Democratic Party in recent weeks has doubled down on mass surveillance of public space with drones and cameras, and went so far as to break from the state-level Party to oppose preserving Medicaid with a one-time tax on billionaires. The city's mayor, board of supervisors, and district attorney have recently won the praise of conservative mainstays like the American Enterprise Institute and the Cicero Institute, who have applauded their carceral approach to homelessness and addiction along with their reheated Reaganomics.
Just days after ownership of CNN fell into the hands of Larry Ellison, who donated nearly $50 million to help Donald Trump's get reelected, the network's chief political correspondent Dana Bash sat down with San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie to ask "what do you want other big city mayors, Democrats, to know about what you're doing and why you think it is working?"
Lurie explained how his law and order policies have rescued a city "entrapped in our progressive values". That, along with most everything Lurie says, is music to the ears of our nation's embattled billionaires.
