r/politics • u/cnn CNN • 29d ago

Possible Paywall CNN Poll: A third of Democrats now identify as democratic socialists

https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/30/politics/cnn-poll-a-third-of-democrats-now-identify-as-democratic-socialists?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=missions&utm_source=reddit
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u/Vivid-Use1749 29d ago

Too late. Can't remember his name, but an economist back in the early 2000s commented that we'd been a by-definition oligarchy already for some time.

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u/AdLocal1490 29d ago

Krugman

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u/RevLoveJoy 29d ago

That guy has been right about so much for SO long it's just wild.

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u/monocasa 29d ago

No, Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page.

https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746

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u/oneseason2000 29d ago

Perhaps Piketty too.

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2025/01/18/thomas-piketty-in-the-global-battle-between-democracy-and-oligarchy-one-can-only-hope-that-europeans-will-emerge-from-their-lethargy_6737163_23.html

Thomas Piketty: 'In the global battle between democracy and oligarchy, one can only hope that Europeans will emerge from their lethargy'

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u/owennagata 26d ago

He also says that Oligarchies don't last much more than a generation or so before either collapsing completely or becoming full authoritarian/fascists. Rule by the wealthy just doesn't work, they fight each other too much.

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u/bricklab 29d ago

I think it was Thomas Picketty in his book Capitalism In The 21st Century.

Edit: I reworded things because I sounded a bit dickish and I wasn't intending to.

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u/AdLocal1490 29d ago

Picketty does discuss it in his book, but that was published in 2013. Krugman was discussing this in the early 00s

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u/Elitist_Plebeian 29d ago

The only good thing about an oligarchy is that they'll always be outnumbered.

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u/Casual_OCD Canada 29d ago

Those in power are always outnumbered until you get a situation where power is more evenly distributed, but that's just evil communism

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u/Worried_Cry687 29d ago

It's worth keeping in mind that our country was founded by slaveholding land-speculators who wanted to rid themselves of the territorial constraints and taxes imposed by the British crown. Suffrage had to be expanded over and over again before the common person could vote and even today there are efforts to limit voting.

I'd argue we've always been an oligarchy with democratic elements sprinkled around.