He's right in spirit but wrong on particulars. It's hard to gauge exactly how much influence money has on politics. Certainly being able to buy ads has some impact.
But people consistently make the mistake that established money and influence can buy you control. It does not. It will get you a seat at the table, make it so they can't ignore you. But it cannot and never could actually give you the ability to, among other things, change the political narrative unilaterally.
First off, there are too many other people out there with wealth and influence that will move to counter you. No one controls everything in America. Otherwise-smart people think nothing of invoking "the elites" like they're all one big, shadowy Illuminati-type construct. But nothing could be farther from the truth.
Second, the masses form a giant bloc of influence that can just completely overwhelm attempts to co-opt the narrative. It's really, really easy to throw millions of dollars at a campaign and still bomb at the polls. Candidates have to play ball with this, and it's not always pretty.
As an example, George W. Bush's image has been carefully crafted to give off that folksy vibe, because Americans simply do not respond to intellectuals. (until they do, Obama changed all that.) Bush Jr. is much much smarter than anyone gives him credit for. He went to Harvard and Yale. He did not just sit on a barstool in the National Guard, he flew fighter jets. People with stories of meeting or serving with him that underestimate him consistently report that he just totally schools them.
He did not hide these things out of some duplicitous agenda, it was simply to fit America's ideas of what it's presidential candidates should be. His biggest failing was that he did not exercise his judgment and intelligence enough, and allowed the neo-cons to set his policy agenda, not that he didn't have any.
Bush is a smart fellow, but he went to Harvard and Yale because his last name is Bush, not because he is an intellectual. He didn't engage in any academic activities while he was there, he engaged inn upper ass social clubs. He has a high emotional intelligence and athletic intelligence.
But people consistently make the mistake that established money and influence can buy you control. It does not. It will get you a seat at the table, make it so they can't ignore you. But it cannot and never could actually give you the ability to, among other things, change the political narrative unilaterally.
First off, there are too many other people out there with wealth and influence that will move to counter you. No one controls everything in America. Otherwise-smart people think nothing of invoking "the elites" like they're all one big, shadowy Illuminati-type construct. But nothing could be farther from the truth.
Second, the masses form a giant bloc of influence that can just completely overwhelm attempts to co-opt the narrative. It's really, really easy to throw millions of dollars at a campaign and still bomb at the polls. Candidates have to play ball with this, and it's not always pretty.
As an example, George W. Bush's image has been carefully crafted to give off that folksy vibe, because Americans simply do not respond to intellectuals. (until they do, Obama changed all that.) Bush Jr. is much much smarter than anyone gives him credit for. He went to Harvard and Yale. He did not just sit on a barstool in the National Guard, he flew fighter jets. People with stories of meeting or serving with him that underestimate him consistently report that he just totally schools them.
He did not hide these things out of some duplicitous agenda, it was simply to fit America's ideas of what it's presidential candidates should be. His biggest failing was that he did not exercise his judgment and intelligence enough, and allowed the neo-cons to set his policy agenda, not that he didn't have any.