What Jan. 6 and far-right billionaires have in common

As the Jan. 6 committee hearings begin in prime time, the American people will finally have the chance to learn the truth behind one of the darkest days in our nation’s history. They’ll hear the select committee make its case that former President Donald Trump and his allies — through election fraud lies and outright encouragement of violence — sought to overturn not just the results of the 2020 election, but American democracy itself.

What they likely won’t hear is that this assault on our democracy has been going on for years. Trump and his followers may have taken things to a violent extreme on Jan. 6, but their goals are consistent with over a decade of work by far-right billionaires and legislators seeking to shift America from a democracy to an outright oligarchy. 

Through the immense influence their wealth has afforded them in a political system that treats money as speech, a small number of ultra-wealthy Americans have reshaped our society and government to reflect their own personal preferences, rather than the will of the people. We saw this on Jan. 6, when a few ultra-rich donors were the ones that indirectly enabled Trump and his allies.

The “Save America” rally at the White House Ellipse was for all intents and purposes the staging ground for the attack on the Capitol. There are reports that as much as $3 million was raised to stage the rally, with most of the funding coming from a handful of dark money groups — the Rule of Law Defense Fund, the Tea Party Express, Turning Point, and Women for America First — which themselves were financed by a few ultra-wealthy donors. One of the most notable donors was Publix supermarket heiress Julie Jenkins Fancelli, who gave a whopping $650,000 to these groups just eight days before the event.

The Ellipse rally would not have happened were it not for the $3 million in funding that organizers received. The funding was necessary to pay for the robocalls that invited the thousands of “patriots” that attended the event. It was necessary to pay for the event’s elaborate staging, video and sound equipment. It was necessary to pay for VIP tents, refreshments and hotel rooms. And yes, it was even necessary to pay for port-a-potties.

The rally gave President Trump and his far-right friends an incredible platform with which to spew their election lies and hate speech. In all likelihood, the riot that erupted two miles away at the Capitol would not have happened without it. Taking things a step further, we can say that the riot would not have happened were it not for the dark money groups and ultra-wealthy donors that bankrolled the rally, almost all of whom were able to do so anonymously thanks to weak campaign finance and disclosure laws.

Recent Supreme Court decisions have only made it easier for the ultra-rich to wage successful battles against our democracy. Since the infamous 2010 Citizens United ruling, billionaire donors have poured nearly 40 times more money into federal elections — upping their spending from $31 million in 2010 to a dizzying $1.2 billion in 2020 — and the number of Super PACs and dark money groups has exploded. In fact, in 2020 nearly one in every 10 dollars spent on the election was spent by a billionaire, despite that group consisting of less than 0.01 percent of donors. More recent rulings, most notably FEC vs. Ted Cruz for Senate which made it drastically easier for wealthy individuals to (legally) bribe candidates, have only made things worse. 

Contrary to what the conservative justices on the Supreme Court would have you believe, money is not speech. Instead, money is power. All of us have the opportunity to contribute to our favored political causes and campaigns and make our voices heard, but only the rich have the financial power to really make use of that opportunity. This drowns out the speech of everyone else in America and is unfair and undemocratic. And as we saw on Jan. 6, the consequences of this unbridled power can be dire.

The Capitol assault made clear the urgent need to combat election misinformation and hate speech in America. But it also underscored the equally urgent need to reform our political system to dilute the power and influence of big money. Only then will we be able to turn the volume down on the massive megaphones that allow rich and powerful political actors like Trump to spew their venom in the first place.

Ron Guillot is the vice president of sales at HeartBeam and an investor in equities, options and direct start-ups. He is a member of the Patriotic Millionaires.