I. The Abdication of Democracy

The United States was founded as a democratic republic, a nation where governance was entrusted to the people and their elected representatives. Yet, in the present age, democracy appears increasingly untenable, not because of external threats, but because the citizenry itself seems willing to surrender its role in self-governance. Rather than engaging in the messy and difficult work of democracy, Americans have increasingly deferred power to an elite class—oligarchs whose wealth, status, and influence have elevated them beyond the reach of ordinary accountability. In doing so, we have embraced a political theology that anoints the rich as our rightful rulers, sanctifying economic disparity as though it were ordained by divine providence.

A key factor in this transformation is the theological justification for inequality, particularly through the Prosperity Gospel—a strain of Christianity that equates material wealth with divine favor. If wealth is a sign of God’s blessing, then poverty must be a mark of moral or spiritual failure. This belief, deeply embedded in the American consciousness, has provided a convenient ideological foundation for the rise of oligarchy. The result is a republic in name only, where the wealthy govern without meaningful challenge, and where democracy is tolerated only to the extent that it does not threaten the interests of the ruling elite.

Alexis de Tocqueville, in Democracy in America, warned that “the aristocracy of manufacturers… are one of the most dangerous that has ever appeared in the world” because they hold power over the masses without obligation or accountability. Likewise, James Madison in The Federalist No. 10 cautioned that factions dominated by economic interests would threaten the republic, as “the most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property.”

II. The Historical Cycle: Republics in Decline

America is not the first republic to slide into oligarchy. The Roman Republic offers a particularly illuminating parallel. Beginning as a relatively participatory system after the expulsion of its kings, Rome’s republic gradually concentrated power in the hands of wealthy patricians. By the late republic, a handful of families controlled vast estates worked by slaves, while formerly independent farmers were displaced into a dependent urban proletariat. The final century of the republic saw repeated attempts at reform by populist leaders like the Gracchi brothers, who were assassinated for proposing land redistribution. When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49 BC, the republic that had stood for nearly 500 years had already been hollowed out by economic inequality.

Venice provides another instructive example. The Republic of Venice began with a relatively broad-based Great Council of citizens. However, in 1297, the Serrata (closure) of the Great Council permanently fixed membership to established families, creating a hereditary aristocracy. Over time, even within this oligarchy, power concentrated further into the hands of the Council of Ten and eventually the three State Inquisitors. What began as a merchant republic gradually calcified into rule by the few, with elaborate ceremonies maintaining the fiction of the Serenissima Respublica (Most Serene Republic) while actual democratic elements withered.

The Weimar Republic’s collapse demonstrates how economic crisis can accelerate democratic decline. The hyperinflation of 1923 and the Great Depression devastated Germany’s middle class, traditionally democracy’s strongest supporters. As economic security vanished, so did commitment to democratic processes, with many seeking salvation in authoritarian alternatives. Alarmingly, in contemporary America, we witness similar anti-democratic impulses despite experiencing nothing remotely comparable to Weimar’s catastrophic conditions—suggesting that our democratic erosion stems not from genuine economic devastation but from manufactured grievance and the deliberate exploitation of social divisions.

But what fuels this manufactured grievance? Unlike the desperate economic collapse of Weimar Germany, today’s American discontent is stoked less by material suffering and more by a carefully cultivated sense of resentment. The modern oligarchy has perfected the art of distraction, channeling public anger away from corporate excess and systemic inequality and toward cultural and ideological battles that serve no economic interest for the working and middles classes. Instead of demanding higher wages, we are encouraged to fight over identity politics. Instead of questioning why billionaires pay lower tax rates than teachers, Americans are bombarded with outrage over books in libraries. Economic anxiety is repackaged into tribal conflict, ensuring that the real architects of inequality remain unchallenged.

This strategy is not accidental—it is the logical evolution of the media landscape. As traditional journalism declines, political entertainment thrives. Once, the press served as a check on power; now, it too is absorbed into the machinery of grievance, owned by the very oligarchs it should scrutinize. The consolidation is staggering: 90% of U.S. media is now controlled by just six corporations, compared to 50 companies in the 1980s.[1] This concentration has decimated local journalism while amplifying voices that serve oligarchic interests. The electorate is not simply disengaged—it is actively misled, encouraged to see fellow citizens as enemies rather than those who rule over them. This is not the erosion of democracy through neglect, but through engineering.

The success of this model is evident in voter behavior. Discontent no longer translates into economic reform movements or policy advocacy; instead, it is absorbed into personality-driven politics, where would-be strongmen are seen as righteous warriors against manufactured threats. The shift from democracy to oligarchy is not imposed—it is sold, marketed, and ultimately, embraced.

In this light, the warnings of America’s founders appear remarkably prescient. Thomas Jefferson warned against an “aristocracy of monied corporations” and stated, “I hope we shall… crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country” (Letter to George Logan, November 12, 1816). Yet today, we have embraced the very model the Founders feared, allowing economic elites to determine policy, shape culture, and control the mechanisms of governance. The people, rather than resisting this transformation, have largely accepted it—guided in part by a religious narrative that equates power with virtue and poverty with failure.

III. The New Oligarchy: Wealth as Divine Favor

The modern American oligarchy is not merely composed of the wealthy, but of those who have successfully positioned themselves as figures of admiration and near-worship. Silicon Valley billionaires, hedge fund magnates, and political dynasties have become the new aristocracy, justified not by noble birth but by financial success. What separates today’s oligarchs from the robber barons of the past is not their wealth alone, but the theological and cultural framework that has shielded them from critique.

The concentration of wealth has reached unprecedented levels. According to Federal Reserve data, the top .1 percent of Americans—just 330,000 individuals—now hold 12.5% of the wealth, a staggering 40% increase from 8.9% in 2010. Meanwhile, the bottom 50% of Americans—165 million people—now hold only 5.5%.[2] This means the richest one-thousandth of the population controls more than twice the wealth of half the entire country. This marks a historic reversal of the post-WWII economic order. Yet rather than prompting concern, this concentration is often celebrated as evidence of entrepreneurial success and innovation.

This oligarchic influence extends beyond domestic borders. Foreign billionaires and sovereign wealth funds increasingly shape American policy and economic priorities through strategic investments, lobbying efforts, and ownership of U.S. assets. The globalization of capital has created a transnational oligarchic class whose interests often align regardless of nationality, further removed from democratic accountability. While domestic oligarchs at least feign the pretense of national loyalty, foreign wealth operates with even fewer constraints, treating American democracy as simply another market to be influenced or manipulated for profit.

The Prosperity Gospel, a uniquely American theological development, has played a significant role in this transformation. This doctrine teaches that material success is evidence of God’s blessing, while poverty signals a lack of faith or effort. In this view, wealth is not merely economic—it is moral. This ideology serves as a powerful deterrent to any redistributionist impulse, as it frames economic disparity as a reflection of divine will rather than systemic injustice.

Consider concrete manifestations of this oligarchic power: Congressional studies show that policy outcomes overwhelmingly align with the preferences of the wealthy. The Princeton study by Gilens and Page (2014) concluded that “economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.”[3] This influence is maintained through campaign finance—in the 2020 election cycle alone, the top 20 billionaire donors collectively spent $2.3 billion, more than twice as much as Joe Biden’s entire campaign, with a single billionaire contributing over half that sum.[4] Our democracy has effectively been captured by a donor class whose interests dictate policy priorities.

This capture extends to the very institutions designed to safeguard democracy. The judiciary, once a bulwark against concentrated power, has been systematically reshaped through strategic appointments and massive funding of judicial campaigns. Supreme Court decisions like Citizens United have equated money with speech, unleashing unprecedented corporate (thus oligarchic) influence in elections. Meanwhile, elected officials increasingly depend on wealthy donors and corporate PACs to fund ever-more-expensive campaigns, creating a system where access and influence are directly proportional to financial contributions. The result is a government formally elected by the people but functionally beholden to monied interests.

We see this play out in specific policies. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act delivered massive benefits to corporations and wealthy individuals while adding $1.9 trillion to the national debt. Meanwhile, proposals for universal healthcare, student debt relief, or expanded social services—policies that would benefit the broader citizenry—face insurmountable opposition despite popular support. The revolving door between Wall Street and government regulatory agencies ensures that financial regulations are written by and for the financial elite. Figures like Steven Mnuchin, who moved from Goldman Sachs to hedge fund companies to Treasury Secretary, or Gary Gensler, who went from Goldman Sachs to Assistant Treasury Secretary, Under Secretary of the Treasury, Chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, exemplify how the line between regulator and regulated has blurred beyond recognition. When financial institutions faced collapse in 2008, they received immediate bailouts, while millions of Americans lost their homes with minimal assistance.

The tax system itself has been shaped to benefit the oligarchy. In 2021, ProPublica revealed that the 25 richest Americans paid an effective tax rate of just 3.4% between 2014-2018, while the average American paid around 14%.[5] This disparity did not occur by accident but through deliberate policy choices that allow the wealthy to categorize income as capital gains, exploit loopholes, and shield assets through complex financial structures unavailable to ordinary citizens.

Yet, the same religious justifications that elevate the wealthy conveniently overlook the conduct of those at the top. The modern oligarchs are often anything but paragons of virtue. Their lifestyles, filled with excess, exploitation, and moral as well as often legal bankruptcy, are far removed from the Christian ideals of humility, charity, and service. As Jesus himself warned in Matthew 19:24, “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” And yet, the rich are celebrated, while the poor—often vilified as lazy or undeserving—are left to navigate a system rigged against them.

IV. The Willing Servitude of the Electorate

This transition from democracy to oligarchy has not been solely imposed from above; it has been embraced from below. A significant portion of the American electorate has come to see governance not as a participatory duty, but as a spectacle—one in which wanna-be strongmen and billionaires are revered as saviors rather than as figures to be held accountable.

Some defend this system as a meritocracy, where wealth reflects productivity and innovation. Yet Federal Reserve data shows that, using historically typical rates of return, inherited rather than earned wealth may account for over half of total wealth, undermining the narrative that economic status is purely the result of individual effort.[6] When nearly half of all wealth comes through inheritance, the myth of pure meritocracy becomes impossible to maintain. Nevertheless, the electorate continues to defend a system that increasingly resembles the hereditary aristocracies our founders sought to abolish.

The cultural obsession with wealth, combined with religious narratives that equate prosperity with righteousness, has dulled the instinct for democratic engagement. Why question the morality of economic inequality when it is perceived as a reflection of God’s order? Proverbs 22:7 states, “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.” Why demand accountability from the ruling class when they are seen as divinely chosen stewards of the nation’s fate?

This abdication of democratic responsibility has been significantly accelerated by the capture of media institutions by the same oligarchic interests. Independent, objective news sources have largely disappeared from citizens’ lives, replaced by conglomerates owned by the very elites whose power should be scrutinized. What passes for journalism often amounts to ideologically laden content designed to reinforce existing power structures while appearing to inform. The resulting information ecosystem leaves citizens simultaneously overwhelmed with content yet starved of the context and critical analysis necessary for meaningful democratic participation. This theological deference to wealth has allowed democracy to wither, not through violent overthrow, but through active acquiescence.

The illusion of consumer choice masks growing corporate concentration, where 75% of household items are now controlled by just ten corporations.[7] When we believe we are making free market choices, we are often simply selecting between products owned by the same conglomerate. This mirrors our increasingly limited political choices, where candidates across the spectrum rely on the same donor base and serve similar corporate interests despite superficial differences in rhetoric.

Consider Amazon’s successful opposition to unionization efforts in Bessemer, Alabama (2021-2022), where billions in corporate resources were deployed to defeat workers seeking basic protections and better wages.[8] Rather than seeing this as class conflict, many Americans defend corporate interests against their own economic self-interest, having internalized a worldview where the market is sacrosanct and labor organization is somehow un-American. This represents the culmination of decades of ideological cult conditioning that has separated Americans from their own civic and economic power.

V. The Disappearance of Ethics in Public Life

If the Prosperity Gospel were true to Christianity, it would demand that the wealthy adhere to moral obligations—generosity, humility, and justice. Yet the reality is quite the opposite. The modern oligarchy exploits faith not to guide ethical behavior, but to silence dissent.

Throughout history, faith has been a force for challenging power—from the Social Gospel movement’s advocacy for labor rights to Martin Luther King Jr.’s invocation of Christian morality in the fight for civil rights. Dr. King warned, “We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society” (Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence, April 4, 1967), criticizing the worship of material success over human dignity.

Yet today, much of American Christianity has been hollowed out, transformed into a vehicle for wealth-worship rather than a challenge to injustice. The teachings of Jesus, who spoke of the poor inheriting the kingdom of God and the moral dangers of riches, have been replaced by a doctrine that tells the poor they simply need to pray harder and wait their turn.

VI. The Oligarchs’ America

The American experiment in democracy appears to be in retreat, not because of foreign invaders or external threats, but because we have abandoned the very principles that sustain it. A democracy requires engaged citizens, yet we have become a nation content to let the wealthy govern without challenge. A republic requires accountability, yet we have deified billionaires and accepted their dominion as inevitable, if not righteous.

The Prosperity Gospel and its ideological offshoots have played a crucial role in this transformation. By equating wealth with divine favor, they have given a theological foundation to inequality and sanctioned the rise of oligarchy. This ideology has not only justified the unchecked power of the rich, but has also pacified the poor, persuading them that their struggles are personal failings rather than structural injustices.

If America is to reclaim its democratic aspirations, it must first confront the myths that have enabled its decline. We the People must remember that wealth is not virtue. Power is not righteousness. And democracy is not sustainable when its people cease to believe in their own right to govern. Until these truths are recognized, the nation will remain in the hands of those who have been deemed, by wealth and by providence, our betters.

History shows that oligarchic rule is not an inevitability. From the antitrust reforms of the early 20th century to the labor movements that shaped the New Deal, democratic resurgence is possible when citizens recognize their own power. But this requires first dispelling the myths that sustain the status quo: that wealth equals virtue, that political change is impossible, and that democracy is someone else’s responsibility.

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[1] Ashley Lutz, “These 6 Corporations Control 90% of the Media in America,”’ Business Insider, June 14, 2012.

[2] Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, “Distributional Financial Accounts,” Q3 2024 Distribution of Wealth, accessed March 4, 2025,https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/

[3] Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page. “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens.” Perspectives on Politics 12, no. 3 (2014), 565.

[4] Michela Tindera, “These Billionaire Donors Spent The Most Money On The 2020 Election,” Forbes, February 25, 2021, updated April 16, 2021, https://www.forbes.com/sites/michelatindera/2021/02/25/these-billionaire-donors-spent-the-most-money-on-the-2020-election/ 

[5] Jesse Eisinger, Jeff Ernsthausen, and Paul Kiel. “The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax.” ProPublica, June 8, 2021. https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax

[6] Laura Feiveson and John Sabelhaus. “How Does Intergenerational Wealth Transmission Affect Wealth Concentration?” Federal Reserve FEDS Notes, June 1, 2018.

[7] Oxfam. “Behind the brands: Food justice and the ‘Big 10’ food and beverage companies.” Oxfam International, 2013, https://www-cdn.oxfam.org/s3fs-public/file_attachments/bp166-behind-the-brands-260213-en_2.pdf

[8] Karen Weise. “Amazon Workers Vote Down Union Drive at Alabama Warehouse,” The New York Times, April 9, 2021.  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/09/technology/amazon-defeats-union.html?smid=url-share