Great wealth concentration made the American elite openly antidemocratic

Evidence

But the new elite, who had amassed significantly more money and power than the old guard, flourished their wealth, distanced themselves from “the people,” and became suspicious of—even antagonistic toward—democracy, just as several of the founders had been. It was easier to be restrained, it seems, when the money was. In 1935 Du Bois described the spirit of this new ruling class: “Profit, income, uncontrolled power in My Business for My Property and for Me—this was the aim and method of the new monarchial dictatorship that displaced democracy in the United States.” — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 594

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Wealthy elites saw social-welfare state publicity as an antirevolutionary necessity; Gilded Age elites circumscribed democracy to protect their economic regime — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 343