Bryan Johnson is, of course, not the only ultra-rich man trying to transform the way the rest of us live to his own benefit. Senator Bernie Sanders has been sweeping through the Midwest, telling us that the United States of Oligarchy is alive and well. “The broader contention that America is basically allergic to oligarchy… has long been catnip to respectable pundits,” Chris Lehmann explained earlier this week. But we can’t be afraid to call a spade a spade. “The claim that the word ‘oligarchy’ is somehow too recondite and obscure to land with its intended mass audience is not only refuted by the response to the Sanders tour… it’s also disarmed by the MAGA movement’s embrace of the phrase ‘deep state,’” which began as “a far more obscurantist and specialized term than oligarchy has ever been.”

Whether or not you subscribe to the word “oligarchy,” look no further than our very own journalism to see how we’ve landed in its grips. “We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets,” Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post wrote to opinion staff on Wednesday. “Surely it is time for a new slogan,” John Nichols writes. “Oligarchy Lives at The Washington Post.”

-Alana Pockros

Engagement Editor, The Nation

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