Frank: U.S. a plutocracy

Thomas Frank writes in today's Wall Street Journal that America is a plutocracy, which he abhors. According to the dictionary, a government or state run by the wealthy is a plutocracy. But that doesn't describe the America that is apparent to most of us.

Unions seem to have more influence than anybody. They can kill a free trade agreement if they wish to. They can insist on and get higher mileage standards for cars. They can finance a candidate or promote an issue; they can withhold financing from a candidate or kill an issue. Hardly anyone would describe a union as an organization of plutocrats.

Blacks and gays and women and environmentalist are hugely influential in our politics. Without blacks, Obama would be just another candidate, at home and out of the race at this point. Without women, Hillary Clinton would be at home and out of the race. Without environmentalist, the price of gasoline would be lower and most of our electric power would be produced by nuclear energy. Without gays, the penalty for injuring or killing a person would be the same whatever the victim's sexual proclivity.

Wealthy people are influential but less so than organized groups like those mentioned above. The wealthy seem to be fairly equally distributed between those on the left like George Soros and those on the right like Richard Mellon Scaife. Neither runs the government.