Mike Bloomberg is putting his money where his mouth is
I really don’t like Mike Bloomberg. I thought his campaign was cynical, ridiculous, and frankly, disturbing. He effectively tried buying the presidency. Fortunately, it didn’t work. Bloomberg has a history of sounding exactly as crass and sexist as Trump, and being a loudmouth businessman who used to be a Republican, that shouldn’t be too surprising. But I have to say, he’s doing something that almost no other rich democrat does — he’s putting his money where his mouth is.
A few months ago, Bloomberg pledged to fund the Democratic nominee for the 2020 presidential race, even if it wouldn’t be him. At the time, I was heartened, but skeptical. Now, however, Bloomberg is doing just that, and in a big way. Bloomberg is transferring $18 million from his presidential campaign to the DNC to help the nominee beat Trump, just like he said he would. This is a good first step, and I’m glad to see he isn’t being vindictive or bitter about having to drop out.
But Bloomberg cannot stop here. As that Guardian article notes, he is estimated has a net worth in excess of $60 billion, which of course is an absurd amount of money. $18 million of his campaign funds is hardly even a drop in the $60 billion bucket. If Bloomberg is serious about defeating Trump, he must give more—he can certainly afford it.
Bloomberg, however, absolutely should not have to bankroll the DNC all by himself. There are a large number of extremely wealthy liberals who need to donate as well. Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, is supposedly a liberal and he has a beef with Trump and a major Trump ally. He’s also the wealthiest man alive. If Bezos just gave $1 billion to the DNC, they might actually outspend the Trump campaign, which — prepare yourselves — has raised almost a half a billion dollars in 2019 with more cash coming in for 2020, and an expected record-setting fundraising total of $1 billion.
Supposedly, rich people are starting to head to the Democrats as they become increasingly alienated by Trump. If they intend to have their favorite candidates win, they need to start donating the way rich Republican megadonors have for years. This cannot be a one-sided fight.
Democracy thrives in snarkiness