The rich don't need extra votes to hold tremendous influence in D.C.

Because the rich already hold tremendous influence in D.C.

Perkins
(Image credit: (Neville Elder/Corbis))

Silicon Valley's Tom Perkins — a venture capitalist last seen comparing grassroots American worries over growing income inequality to Nazi persecution of Jews — recently proposed that we allocate more votes to those who pay more taxes, by which, of course, he means the rich.

Many commentators have been quick to cast Perkins as some sort of lone nut. But his broad antipathy for democracy is not without pedigree. Conservative defenders of the rich have long feared that democracy would upend the economic and political structures that distribute our national income and wealth so unevenly.

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Matt Bruenig writes about poverty, inequality, and economic justice at Demos, Salon, The Atlantic, The American Prospect, and The Week. He is a Texas native and graduate of the University of Oklahoma.