Oligarchy is not an accident. It is built—deliberately—through laws, financial systems, and corporate structures designed to concentrate power upward. That means it cannot be dismantled with a single reform or election cycle. It requires a systemic counteroffensive that targets the foundations of elite dominance: money, law, and corporate concentration.

What follows is not a wish list, but a practical framework for reclaiming democratic control.

The Three Pillars of Oligarchic Power

1. The Fiscal Hammer: Wealth Taxes as Democratic Self-Defense

The most direct way to weaken oligarchic power is to drain the hoarded wealth that sustains it. Extreme wealth is not just money—it is leverage over politics, media, housing, and labor. Progressive wealth taxation is the fastest way to break that leverage.

California has become a proving ground. The proposed 2026 Billionaire Tax Act would impose a one-time 5% excise tax on residents with net worths exceeding $1 billion. Predictably, billionaires have denounced it as “punitive,” even as working families continue to shoulder the tax burden through sales taxes, rent, and stagnant wages.

State efforts matter, but oligarchy is national. Federal proposals such as the FAST (Financial Assets Sales Tax) target two of the richest Americans’ favorite tricks: untaxed unrealized gains and the “billionaire borrowing loophole,” which allows the ultra-wealthy to live lavishly on low-interest loans while their assets appreciate tax-free.

This is not radical. It is common sense. If working people pay taxes on every paycheck, billionaires should not be exempt simply because their wealth sits in stocks instead of wages.

2. Legal-Constitutional Decoupling: Ending Corporate Rule by Court Decree

Tax policy alone cannot succeed if the legal system continues to treat corporations as citizens and money as speech. Oligarchy survives because the courts have built a protective shell around it.

For decades, rulings like Citizens United have legalized unlimited campaign spending, effectively allowing billionaires and corporations to purchase elections. Legal scholars—including those at elite law schools—have outlined viable paths for challenging Super PACs through targeted test cases that expose the contradictions in existing precedent.

But court challenges are only a stopgap. The long-term solution is a Constitutional Amendment that states plainly:

Money is not speech
Corporations are not people

Until that happens, every reform remains temporary—one court decision away from being overturned by judges groomed in elite donor networks.

3. Aggressive Anti-Monopoly Enforcement: Breaking Sectoral Capture

Modern oligarchy thrives on sectoral capture—the domination of entire industries by a handful of corporations. When a few firms control food, housing, healthcare, tech, or media, democracy becomes a performance rather than a reality.

Reviving antitrust enforcement is not about nostalgia for small businesses; it is about dismantling private governments. Bright-line rules that block vertical and horizontal mergers can prevent corporations from turning market power into political power.

When monopolies fall, wages rise, innovation returns, and lawmakers regain the ability to govern without corporate vetoes.

Countering Wealth Defense: Protests and the “Sergey Brin” Paradox

At Davos 2026, the mood among global elites was not confidence—it was anxiety. Their concern was not climate collapse or inequality, but voters. The response has been a familiar one: wealth defense through flight.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s relocation to Nevada in early 2026 became a flashpoint in California’s wealth-tax debate, exposing the contradiction at the heart of oligarchic politics.

Political Lobbying from Afar

Despite leaving the state, Brin reportedly donated $20 million to a new political group, Building a Better California, designed to lobby against the billionaire tax. Advocates rightly called the move greedy and cynical: profiting from California’s workforce and infrastructure, then funding opposition to paying back into the system.

Public Backlash and Protest

Localized protests followed, targeting what critics describe as “tax-dodging billionaires.” The anger is not symbolic—it is material. While billionaires shift addresses, they continue to reshape housing markets, influence elections, and extract value from communities they no longer claim as home.

Closing the Exit Door

Anticipating this behavior, California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office confirmed that the tax applies retroactively to anyone who was a resident on January 1, 2026. This so-called “trap door” was not punitive—it was defensive. Without it, oligarchs would simply flee before the vote and dare voters to stop them.

The Citizen’s Playbook for Inclusive Institutions

De-oligarchization is not just about taking power away—it is about making sure it can never be hoarded again. That means building inclusive institutions rooted in local control and democratic accountability.

Reclaim Finance Locally

Cities and states can establish public banks and community-led financial institutions that reinvest local wealth into housing, infrastructure, and small businesses—rather than feeding Wall Street speculation.

Empower Labor to Reclaim Value

Strengthening sectoral bargaining and labor rights shifts power back to workers. When people can negotiate collectively, they reclaim the surplus value that would otherwise bankroll the next super-PAC or luxury yacht.

Radical Transparency

Independent media and citizen watchdogs must expose “related-party transactions” and financial shell games that allow elite compensation to be hidden inside nonprofits and political organizations. Sunlight remains one of the most effective anti-corruption tools available.

Reclaiming Democracy Before It Is Too Late

Across the country, cities are electing socialist mayors, states are advancing wealth taxes, and voters are rejecting the myth that oligarchy is inevitable. These are not isolated events—they are early signs of democratic renewal.

The choice is simple: continue living under a system where money governs everything, or finish the work of building a democracy that actually belongs to its people.

Citizens United tried to extinguish that promise. De-oligarchization is how we reclaim it.

References & Further Reading

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010)
California Legislative Analyst’s Office, analysis of the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act
Saez, Emmanuel & Zucman, Gabriel. The Triumph of Injustice
Piketty, Thomas. Capital in the Twenty-First Century
Open Markets Institute, antitrust policy briefs
Harvard Law School Program on Corporate Governance, campaign finance scholarship