Senator Bernie Sanders prefers private jets to flying coach for the people and the heir to the Hyatt fortune is now a frontrunner in the new resistance while Democrats outraise and outspend their Republican counterparts from shady big donors. It seems some billionaires and associated luxuries are more equal than others.
Last week, democratic socialist senator Bernie Sanders was confronted by Fox News’ Brett Baier on his extensive use of private jets during the recent “Fighting Oligarchy” tour. At first, he attempted to deflect the question, asking instead, “When is the last time you saw Donald Trump, during a campaign mode, at National Airport?” Mr. Baier, however, insisted correctly that President Donald Trump had not embarked on a self-proclaimed crusade against the rich as Senator Sanders has; instead he has proudly flown his own plane while on campaign. Ultimately, the Senator from Vermont rationalized the luxury and the expense, claiming it was necessary for the people, somehow. “You run a campaign and you do three or four or five rallies in a week,” he said. “The only way you can get around to talk to 30,000 people. Think I’m going to be sitting on a waiting line at United, waiting while 30,000 people are waiting? That’s the only way you can get around. No apologies for that. That’s what campaign travel is about. We have done it in the past, and we’re going to do it in the future.” Apparently, Senator Sanders has never heard of a traveling salesperson, who does essentially the same thing, visiting multiple customers per week, frequently stuck in coach, but in this at least, he was honest: Stories about Senator Sanders’ penchant for flying exclusively by private date back almost a decade. As Politico reported in 2019, after losing the 2016 primary to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, he insisted on the use of a private jet to campaign on her behalf, “in the final months of the 2016 campaign, Sanders repeatedly requested and received the use of a carbon-spewing private jet for himself and his traveling staff when he served as a surrogate campaigner for Hillary Clinton.” According to the Clinton Campaign itself, he was so annoying in these requests that they openly mocked him as King Bernie. “I’m not shocked that while thousands of volunteers braved the heat and cold to knock on doors until their fingers bled in a desperate effort to stop Donald Trump, his Royal Majesty King Bernie Sanders would only deign to leave his plush D.C. office or his brand new second home on the lake if he was flown around on a cushy private jet like a billionaire master of the universe,” explained Zac Petkanas, director of rapid response, to Politico. Nor did his flirtation with the incredibly expensive, out of reach for the 99%, carbon-spewing transportation end there, there, “In the two years following the presidential election, Sanders continued his frequent private jet travel, spending at least $342,000 on the flights.” While I do not begrudge the Senator the luxury and or the convenience, certainly I would have liked a private jet on my recent flight to India for work, but it’s worth noting that his rationale could justly apply to anyone: He, you see, is just simply too important and too busy to travel with the rest of us, experiencing the indignities and delays of an ordinary airport. Putting this another way, isn’t that precisely what the billionaires he rails against say about their own indulgences?
At the same time, Senator Sanders is practically a pauper compared to some in his party who rail just as vociferously about the wealthy. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has become something of a firebrand in his own right during these early days of the second Trump Administration. According to the Associated Press, he along with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have emerged as two key leaders in the new resistance, apparently even more so than even Senator Sanders himself. In February, Mr. Pritzker compared the current position of the United States government to pre-World War II Germany, “If you think I’m overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this: It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic,” he said during his joint budget and State of the State address on February 19. “All I’m saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control,” he continued. More recently, he called for the people to take to the streets in something perilously close to violent revolt. After assailing “Those same do-nothing Democrats want to blame our losses on our defense of Black people, of trans kids, of immigrants, instead of their own lack of guts and gumption,” he declared, “Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption, but I am now,” stressing that Democrats “must castigate them on the soapbox and then punish them at the ballot box.” “We will never join so many Republicans in a special place in hell reserved for quislings and cowards,” he added. Based on his pedigree, however, Mr. Pritzker is a rather odd messenger to eat the rich. The heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune, he was born in Palo Alto, California into almost unimaginable wealth and privilege, which he promptly turned into even more of both. Together with his brother, he founded Pritzker Private Group Capital, a private equity fund that owns and operates middle market companies for massive profits, which was considered bad, very bad when Mitt Romney was the Republican Presidential candidate in 2012. Even so, the Associated Press themselves acknowledged his massive wealth while proclaiming him a leader of this new resistance. As they see it, progressives have the “billionaire heir and the former bartender. Many Democrats have been in and out of the spotlight as the party looks for effective counters to President Donald Trump and his second administration. But two disparate figures, Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, have seen their national profiles rise by delivering messages that excite a demoralized and fractured party. The governor, a 60-year-old heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune, and the congresswoman, the 35-year-old with working-class roots, both won their first elections in 2018. Both have urged mass resistance and accused their party of not fighting more. Each has stood out enough to draw sharp retorts from Trump loyalists.” For the record, Mr. Pritzker currently boasts a net worth of somewhere around $3.7 billion, making him one of the richest politicians in office, as a member of one of the richest families in the world. The Pritzkers overall boast 13 billionaires, making them shall we say less than ideal messengers in general.
To put this irony in perspective, both Senator Sanders and Mr. Pritzker appeared at the Democrat National Convention to support Vice President Kamala Harris last August. Senator Sanders was up first, when he claimed “Too many of our fellow Americans are struggling everyday to just get by. To put food on the table to pay the rent and to get the healthcare they need.” “Brothers and sisters, bottom line we need an economy that works for all of us not just the billionaire class,” he added. “My fellow Americans, when 60% of us live paycheck to paycheck the top 1% have never ever had it so good.” Mr. Pritzker, however, promptly took the stage and bragged about his massive wealth, “Donald Trump thinks that we should trust him on the economy because he claims to be very rich, but take it from an actual billionaire, Trump is rich in only one thing — stupidity,” causing the crowd to erupt in cheers.
Of course, hypocrisy in politics and life in general for that matter is nothing new, but like so many other things in the Trump Era, there is something deeper happening beneath the surface. Senator Sanders, JB Pritzker, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and their progressive allies clearly have no problems with wealth and the associated luxuries accompanying it. In addition to championing billionaires like Mr. Pritzker, they regularly raise and spend far more money than Republicans on political campaigns. Following last fall’s election, NBC News reported that an incredible $11 billion was spent by both parties across all races, up from $9 billion in 2020. In the presidential campaign, Democrats more than doubled their Republican counterparts. Vice President Kamala Harris’ political operation spent more than $880 million since the start of 2023 (including spending when President Joe Biden was at the top of the ticket, as well as joint fundraising committees aligned with the campaign and the Democratic National Committee). President-elect Donald Trump’s political operation, including his campaign, the national party and affiliated joint fundraising committees, spent about $425 million on ads.” This was true for outside groups as well, where Democrats spent $1.8 billion compared to $1.4 billion. While not quite achieving that disparity in down ballot races, Democrats consistently raised and spent more. “The campaign for the Senate, which will be controlled by Republicans at the start of next year, drew about $2.6 billion in spending — $1.4 billion from Democratic candidates and outside groups and $1.2 billion from Republican candidates and pro-Republican groups. Ohio’s Senate race, won by Republican Bernie Moreno, was the most expensive race as far as ad spending goes, with more than $538 million spent between the campaigns and outside groups. House races drew $1.7 billion in ad spending — $940 million from Democrats and $760 million from Republicans, with New York’s 19th District (where NBC News’ Decision Desk projects Democrat Josh Riley will defeat Republican Rep. Marc Molinaro) leading the pack with almost $40 million in ad spending.” Further, it’s no secret that many American business leaders and billionaires tend to be either left of center or outright progressive. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffet, and others have all consistently or at least occasionally advocated for progressive causes, and weren’t shy about spending money to advance their objectives. Then and now, Democrats were more than happy to lap it up, but somehow, we’re not supposed to be concerned that as Senator Sanders recently put it, “You have billionaires in both political parties determine what legislation gets to the floor and who is the candidate. We have a corrupt campaign finance system. Billionaires in both political parties are calling the tunes. The American people understand that…This is a government of the billionaire class for the billionaire class.”
While someone should ask him how one can partake of the benefits of that billionaire class, align themselves with a party that of his own admission is corrupt to the point where he speaks on behalf of Democrat candidates and votes with them the vast, vast majority of the time, and yet still fight the good fight, it’s hard to avoid the obvious conclusion that billionaires aren’t the real problem in their mind. As ever, the problem is purely President Trump and equally as ever, there is no limiting principle to the lengths they will go to resist him. Thus, we can add some billionaires are more equal than others to a long list of some laws more equal than others, some violence more equal than others, some people more equal than others, and so on.
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