Hello Reader,
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"Bedlam broke loose" and "delirium reigned supreme" in Chicago as William Jennings Bryan reached his crescendo. "You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!" he thundered, sending the 1896 Democratic Convention audience into a frenzy. When he decried "financial magnates who, in a back room, corner the money of the world", it was the apex of American populist fervor.
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Bryan's "cross of gold" speech marked the birth of modern populist fury against concentrated wealth. His anger was justified—real monopolies controlled entire industries through corruption and backroom deals. Yet Bryan believed deeply in free markets and individual liberty, advocating for equal opportunity as he fought corrupt monopolists who gained wealth through market manipulation and political connections, not entrepreneurial innovation.

From Righteous Cause to Demonization

Fast-forward to today, as Bernie Sanders drones on endlessly about oligarchy, declaring that America has become "a government of the billionaires, by the billionaires, and for the billionaires" while Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claims oligarchy is already "fully here". Today's Democrats have perverted Bryan's legacy into a "soak the rich" platform built on repeated attacks against evil billionaires, as if some people getting rich prevents others from prospering—a zero-sum fallacy that ignores how wealth creation actually works.
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This reflexive billionaire-blaming reveals toxic grievance politics wrapped in conspiracy thinking, where every fortune must be ill-gotten and every success suspicious. They've weaponized righteous fury against corruption into destructive hatred of business and of achievement itself.

Debunking the Oligarchy Myth

The oligarchy claims collapse under scrutiny. In actual oligarchies like Russia, 20-30 oligarchs control over 70% of the economy through political connections. In America, wealth concentration tells a different story: The Gilded Age of Vanderbilt, Morgan, and Rockefeller saw the top 1% owning nearly half the country's wealth. Progressive reforms and the Great Depression compressed that share to under 20% by mid-century. Since the 1980s, there's been sharp re-concentration that peaked in the late 90's and hovers around 30-35% today—still significantly lower than Bryan's era.
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Federal tax receipts further undermine Sanders' claim: the top 1% of taxpayers, many of whom create jobs and prosperity, now pay over 40% of all federal income taxes. The top half pay 97%.
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Today's inequality requires vigilance—not by tearing successful people down, but by lifting more people up. We need better education, fewer regulatory barriers that favor big corporations over startups, and competitive markets that reward innovation. Yes, companies like Meta may deserve antitrust scrutiny, but any action must protect the innovation that creates jobs and benefits everyone.
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Consider what we're actually defending: Jan Koum fled Soviet Ukraine as a Jewish immigrant, stood in food stamp lines, and scrubbed floors to survive while he built WhatsApp to help immigrants like himself stay connected. Today, it connects billions across the globe. How many fewer lives would he have touched if politicians had confiscated his earnings before he could reinvest?
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Jeff Bezos left his lucrative Wall Street career, packed books by hand in his Bellevue garage, and personally drove packages to the post office. That garage-born vision now employs 1.56 million people worldwide.
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Every app on your phone exists because someone had the financial incentive to take the great risk of building it.

The Tyranny of Wealth Confiscation

The real threat isn't oligarchy—it's government wealth confiscation masquerading as justice. Picture a small biotech entrepreneur who discovers a life-saving treatment, only to watch 60% of their earnings seized by politicians who contributed nothing to the breakthrough. Today's Democrats don't just want to tax success; they want to redistribute it, treating the nation's earned wealth as society's property to be allocated by politicians. When government picks the winners and losers, it breaks the incentive structure that drives innovation and prosperity.
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Look at the catastrophic results of punitive taxation. Denmark levies 55.9%, France 55.4%, and Austria 55% top rates—essentially confiscating the majority of earned income. These policies produce economic stagnation: from 2008-2023, EU GDP grew by only 13.5% while U.S. GDP rose by 87%.
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At what point should government confiscate someone's earnings? The uncomfortable truth is everyone supports an arbitrary ceiling until it falls below their own income. But why should we cap human achievement? Why limit how much someone can innovate, create, and reinvest into society on their own terms? This strikes at America's founding promise of unlimited opportunity.

"Destiny Is Not a Matter of Choice"

Today's entrepreneurs, however flawed, generate massive societal value. Amazon employs 1.56 million people worldwide while driving a decrease in inflation, according to Fed policymakers. Tesla employs over 125,000 workers while making eco-friendly cars accessible to the middle class. American pharmaceutical companies have delivered life-saving medicines to the world through massive R&D investments—though drug prices in America remain unconscionably high. These achievements came from entrepreneurial vision competing in open markets, not government mandate.
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Yes, Citizens United allows troubling political influence through dark money. The solution is transparency through stronger disclosure laws, not wealth confiscation. We should close tax loopholes and end corporate subsidies, but policy must protect the innovation that creates jobs and drives progress.
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Economic freedom remains our greatest weapon against poverty and inequality. America's promise lies in protecting equal opportunity—ensuring everyone can strive, achieve, and flourish without government confiscation of their success.
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William Jennings Bryan believed 'destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.' He fought corruption, not success—monopoly, not entrepreneurship. In choosing economic freedom, we honor his true legacy.
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