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Date: 2025-08-21 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00027152
COMMENTARY
ROBERT REICH

Robert Reich: My Ultimate History Crash Course | Robert Reich


Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFhEoeA5Yj0
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess
My Ultimate History Crash Course | Robert Reich Robert Reich Premiered Feb 21, 2024 (Archived July 2024) 730K subscribers ... 236,971 views ... 13K likes Are we in a second Gilded Age? Is Trump really a Fascist? Why are we so politically polarized? How did corporations take over our politics? To understand the present, study the past. Transcript
  • 0:01
  • Oh! Hello. I was just studying some history. We can learn a lot about our present moment from studying the past.
  • I want to share with you six tales from history that I find especially meaningful — some from before my time, like the rise of fascism
  • in the 1930s, Another is that I witnessed with my own eyes. Please join me for this journey through history.
  • 0:25
  • Let's start with the robber barons of the 19th century. Now, you might be surprised by just how much
  • 0:31
  • they have in common with today's billionaires. Watch this.
  • The Gilded Age
  • 0:37
  • Ultra-wealthy elites, political corruption, vast inequality... These problems are not new.
  • 0:44
  • In the late 1800s, they dominated the country during America's first Gilded Age.
  • 0:50
  • We overcame these abuses back then, and we can do it again.
  • 0:55
  • Mark Twain coined the moniker “The Gilded Age” in his 1873 novel to describe the era in American history
  • 1:03
  • characterized by corruption and inequality that was masked by a thin layer of prosperity for a select few.
  • 1:11
  • The end of the 19th century and start of the 20th century marked a time of great invention — bustling railroads,
  • 1:19
  • telephones, motion pictures, electricity, automobiles — which changed American life forever.
  • 1:28
  • But it was also an era of giant monopolies — oil, railroad, steel, finance —
  • 1:35
  • run by a small group of men who had grown rich beyond anything America had ever seen.
  • 1:41
  • They were known as “robber barons” because they ran competitors out of business, exploited
  • 1:46
  • workers, charged customers exorbitant prices, and lived like royalty as a result.
  • 1:52
  • Money consumed politics. Robber barons and their lackeys donated bundles of cash to any lawmaker willing to do bidding on their behalf.
  • 2:02
  • And when lobbying wasn't enough, the powerful turned to bribery, resulting in some of the most infamous political scandals in American history.
  • 2:12
  • The gap between the rich and poor in America reached astronomical levels. Large numbers of Americans lived in squalor.
  • 2:19
  • Anti-immigrant sentiment raged, leading to the enactment of racist laws to restrict immigration.
  • 2:25
  • And voter suppression, largely aimed at black men who had recently won the right to vote, was rampant.
  • 2:32
  • The era was also marked by dangerous working conditions. Children, often as young as ten years old, but sometimes younger, worked brutal hours in sweatshops.
  • 2:41
  • Workers trying to organize labor unions were attacked, sometimes killed. It seemed as if American capitalism was out of control, and American democracy couldn't do anything about it
  • 2:53
  • because it was bought and paid for by the rich. But Americans were fed up and they demanded reform.
  • 3:01
  • Many took to the streets in protest. Investigative journalists, often called “muckrakers” then, helped amplify their cries
  • 3:09
  • by exposing what was occurring throughout the country. And a new generation of political leaders rose to end the abuses.
  • 3:16
  • Politicians like Teddy Roosevelt, who warned that, “a small class of enormously wealthy and economically
  • 3:23
  • powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power,” could destroy American democracy.
  • 3:30
  • After becoming president in 1901, Roosevelt used the Sherman Antitrust Act to break up dozens
  • 3:37
  • of powerful corporations. Seeking to limit the vast fortunes that were creating a new American aristocracy,
  • 3:44
  • Congress enacted a progressive income tax through the 16th Amendment, as well as two wealth taxes.
  • 3:51
  • The first wealth tax, in 1916, was the estate tax — a tax on the wealth of someone accumulated during their lifetime, paid by the heirs who inherited it.
  • 4:01
  • The second tax on wealth, enacted in 1922, was a capital gains tax — a tax on the increased value of assets,
  • 4:09
  • paid when those assets were sold. The reformers of the Gilded Age also stopped corporations from directly giving money to politicians
  • 4:17
  • or political candidates. And then Teddy Roosevelt's fifth cousin —
  • 4:22
  • you may have heard of him — continued the work through his New Deal programs, creating Social Security, unemployment insurance,
  • 4:30
  • a 40-hour workweek, and requiring that employers bargain in good faith with labor unions.
  • 4:37
  • But following the death of FDR and the end of World War II, when America was building the largest middle class the world had ever seen — we seemed to forget about the abuses of the Gilded Age.
  • 4:49
  • Now, more than a century later, America has entered a second Gilded Age.
  • 4:55
  • It's also a time of extraordinary invention. And a time when monopolies are taking over vast swaths of the economy,
  • 5:02
  • so we must bring new antitrust enforcement to bust up powerful companies. Now, another generation of robber barons is accumulating unprecedented money and power.
  • 5:13
  • So once again, we must tax these exorbitant fortunes. Wealthy individuals and big corporations are once again paying off lawmakers,
  • 5:22
  • sending them billions to conduct their political campaigns, even giving luxurious gifts to Supreme Court justices.
  • 5:29
  • So we need to protect our democracy from big money, just as we did before. Voter suppression runs rampant in the States, as during the first Gilded Age,
  • 5:38
  • making it harder for people of color to participate in what's left of our democracy. So it's once again critical to defend and expand voting rights.
  • 5:47
  • Working people are once again being exploited and abused. Child labor is returning.
  • 5:53
  • Unions are busted. The poor are again living in unhealthy conditions.
  • 5:58
  • Homelessness is on the rise and the gap between the ultra-rich and everyone else is nearly as large as in the first Gilded Age.
  • 6:07
  • So once again, we need to protect the rights of workers to organize, invest in social safety nets,
  • 6:14
  • and revive guardrails to protect against the abuses of great wealth and power.
  • 6:20
  • The question now is the same as it was at the start of the 20th century. Will we fight for an economy and a democracy that works for all rather than the few?
  • 6:31
  • We've done it before. We can and must do it again.
  • 6:40
  • From Teddy Roosevelt's Square Deal to Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, it took a generation to dismantle the power of the robber barons.
  • 6:48
  • FASCISM
  • But during FDR presidency, a new threat emerged. The rise of fascism.
  • 6:54
  • Once again, there are disturbing parallels to the present day. Watch this.
  • Fascism
  • 7:00
  • I want to talk to you about the f-word. No, no, not that f-word. I'm talking about fascism.
  • 7:08
  • Is Donald Trump really a “fascist,” as some would say? Or is the word “authoritarian” sufficient?
  • 7:16
  • The term fascism is often used loosely, but you can generally identify fascists
  • 7:21
  • by their hate of the “other,” vengeful nationalism, and repression of dissent.
  • 7:28
  • To fight these ideas, we need to be aware of what they are and how they fit together.
  • 7:34
  • Let's examine the five elements that define fascism and what makes it distinct from and more dangerous
  • 7:41
  • than authoritarianism. First, the rejection of democracy in favor of a strongman.
  • 7:49
  • Authoritarians believe strong leaders are needed to maintain stability. So they empower strongmen,
  • 7:55
  • dictators, or absolute monarchs to maintain social order through the use of force.
  • 8:01
  • But fascists view strong leaders as the means of discovering what society needs.
  • 8:08
  • They regard the leader as the embodiment of society. The voice of the people.
  • 8:13
  • “I am your voice.” “I alone can fix it.”
  • 8:22
  • Second, stoking rage against cultural elites.
  • 8:28
  • Authoritarian movements cannot succeed without at least some buy-in from establishment elites.
  • 8:35
  • While fascist movements often seek to co-opt the establishment, they largely depend on fueling
  • 8:41
  • resentment and anger against presumed cultural elites for supposedly displacing regular people.
  • 8:49
  • Fascists rile up their followers to seek revenge on the elites. “The out-of-touch media elites,”
  • 8:56
  • “The political elites,” “But the elites,” “From the elites who led us
  • 9:02
  • from one financial and foreign policy disaster to another.”
  • 9:07
  • They create mass political parties and demand participation. They encourage violence.
  • 9:14
  • “Know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this?” “They'd be carried out on a stretcher, folks.”
  • 9:20
  • “I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell you.” “Knock the crap out of ‘em, would you?” “We fight. We fight like hell.”
  • 9:27
  • Third, nationalism based on “superior” race and historic bloodlines.
  • 9:33
  • Authoritarians see nationalism as a means of asserting the power of the state. For fascists, the state embodies what is considered a “superior”
  • 9:43
  • group — based on race, religion and historic bloodlines. To fascists,
  • 9:49
  • the state is a means of asserting that superiority. “When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best.
  • 9:58
  • They're not sending you. They're not sending you.” Fascists worry about disloyalty and replacement
  • 10:04
  • by groups that don't share the same race or bloodlines. “And I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat,
  • 10:13
  • I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.” Fascists encourage their followers to scapegoat, expel
  • 10:21
  • and sometimes even kill such “others.” Fourth, extolling brute strength and heroic warriors.
  • 10:29
  • The goal of authoritarianism is to gain and maintain state power at any cost. For authoritarians, strength comes in the form of large
  • 10:37
  • standing armies that can enforce their rule. They seek power to wield power. Fascists seek state power to achieve their ostensible goal,
  • 10:47
  • achieving their vision of society. Fascism accomplishes this by rewarding those who win
  • 10:55
  • economically and physically and denigrating or even exterminating those who lose.
  • 11:03
  • Fascism depends on organized bullying — a form of Social Darwinism.
  • 11:08
  • “Our people are tougher and stronger and meaner and smarter.” For the fascist,
  • 11:13
  • war and violence are means of strengthening society by culling the weak and glorifying heroic warriors.
  • 11:23
  • “I am your warrior. I am your justice. I am your retribution. I am your retribution.”
  • 11:29
  • Fifth and finally, disdain of women and LGBTQ+ people.
  • 11:36
  • Authoritarianism imposes hierarchies. It's about order. Fascism's idea of order is organized around
  • 11:43
  • a particular hierarchy of male dominance. The fascist “heroic warrior” is male.
  • 11:51
  • Women are relegated to subservient roles. In fascism, anything that
  • 11:57
  • challenges the traditional heroic male roles of protector, provider, and controller of the family
  • 12:04
  • is considered a threat to the social order. Fascism seeks to eliminate homosexuals,
  • 12:11
  • nonbinary, transgender, and queer people because they are thought to challenge or weaken
  • 12:17
  • the heroic male warrior. “I will ask Congress to pass a bill establishing
  • 12:23
  • that the only genders recognized by the United States government are male and female,
  • 12:29
  • and they are assigned at birth.” These five elements of fascism fit together
  • 12:35
  • and reinforce each other. Rejection of democracy in favor of a strongman
  • 12:40
  • depends on galvanizing popular rage. Popular rage draws on a nationalism
  • 12:47
  • based on a supposed superior race or ethnicity. That superior race or ethnicity is justified
  • 12:54
  • by a Social Darwinist idea of strength and violence, as exemplified by heroic warriors.
  • 13:02
  • Strength, violence, and the heroic warrior are centered on male power.
  • 13:08
  • These five elements find exact expression in Donald Trump.
  • 13:14
  • His uniquely American version of fascism is rooted largely in white Christian nationalism.
  • 13:20
  • It is the direction that most of the Republican Party is now heading in. It's not enough to call Trump and those promoting his ideas
  • 13:29
  • authoritarians when what they are really advocating is something far worse:
  • 13:37
  • fascism. Shortly after America helped defeat the fascists, something happened in 1946
  • 13:46
  • that had a bigger impact on my life than anything before, or possibly since. I was born.
  • 13:53
  • Since then, I've watched our country become more divided than I ever could have imagined.
  • 13:58
  • But it didn't happen for the reasons the pundits claim. Watch this.
  • Political Spectrum
  • 14:14
  • Look, I got my start in American politics 50 years ago. My political views then — to grossly simplify them —
  • 14:21
  • were that I was against the Vietnam War and the military-industrial complex, strongly supportive
  • 14:27
  • of civil and voting rights, and against the power of big corporations. That put me here: just left of the center.
  • 14:35
  • Back then, the political spectrum from left to right was short. The biggest political issue was the Vietnam War.
  • 14:41
  • The left was demonstrating against it, sometimes violently. Since I was committed to ending the war through peaceful
  • 14:47
  • political means, I volunteered for George McGovern, the anti-war presidential candidate.
  • 14:53
  • Even Richard Nixon on the right was starting to look for ways out of Vietnam. 25 years later, I was in Bill Clinton’s cabinet,
  • 15:00
  • and the left-to-right political spectrum stretched much longer. The biggest change was how much further right
  • 15:07
  • the right had moved. Ronald Reagan had opened the political floodgates
  • 15:12
  • to corporate and Wall Street money — bankrolling right-wing candidates and messages that decried
  • 15:18
  • “big government.” Bill Clinton sought to lead from the “center,” but by then the “center” had moved so
  • 15:24
  • far right that Clinton gutted public assistance, enacted “tough on crime” policies that
  • 15:30
  • unjustly burdened the poor and people of color, and deregulated Wall Street.
  • 15:35
  • All of which put me further to the left of the center — although my political views had barely changed.
  • 15:42
  • Today, the spectrum from left to right is the longest it’s been in my 50 years in and around politics.
  • 15:49
  • The left hasn’t moved much at all. We’re still against the war machine, still pushing for
  • 15:54
  • civil and voting rights, still fighting the power of big corporations. But the right has moved far, far rightward.
  • 16:03
  • Donald Trump brought America about as close as we have ever come to fascism. He incited an attempted coup against the United States.
  • 16:11
  • He and most of the Republican Party continue to deny that he lost the 2020 election.
  • 16:21
  • And they’re getting ready to suppress votes and disregard election outcomes they disagree with.
  • 16:27
  • So don’t believe the fear-mongering that today’s left is “radical.”
  • 16:39
  • So how did the “culture wars” we are now immersed in really get started?
  • 16:44
  • There was a key moment in 1970 that surprisingly few people seemed to know about.
  • 16:50
  • Watch this. Missing from most history books is a key moment leading to the culture wars now ripping through American politics.
  • The Hard Hat Riot
  • 16:59
  • In 1970, hundreds of construction workers pummeled around a thousand student demonstrators in New York City, including two of my friends.
  • 17:08
  • as it came to be known, ushered in an era of cynical fear- mongering aimed at dividing the nation.
  • 17:14
  • The student demonstrators were protesting the Vietnam War and the deadly shooting of four student activists at Kent State University that occurred just days before.
  • 17:22
  • [Crowd chant] Peace now! The workers who attacked them carried American flags and chanted,
  • 17:29
  • “U.S.A. all the way,” and “America, love it or leave it.” They chased the students through the streets, attacking those
  • 17:36
  • who looked like hippies with their hard hats and steel-toed boots. When my friends in the anti-war movement
  • 17:41
  • called to tell me about the riot later that day, I was stunned. Student activists and union workers duking it out in the streets over the war?
  • 17:49
  • I mean, for goodness’ sake, weren’t we on the same side? According to reports, the police did little to stop the mayhem.
  • 17:55
  • Some even egged on the thuggery. When a group of hardhats moved menacingly toward the action, a patrolman
  • 18:01
  • apparently shouted, “Give ’em hell, boys! Give ’em one for me!” The construction workers then marched toward a barely protected city hall.
  • 18:08
  • Why? Because the mayor's staff had lowered the American flag in honor of the Kent State dead.
  • 18:13
  • In a scene eerily foreshadowing the January 6th Capitol riot, they pushed their way toward the building.
  • 18:19
  • Fearing the mob would break in, city officials raised the flag. The hard hats also ripped down the Red Cross banner
  • 18:26
  • that was hanging at nearby Trinity Church. And in their fury against university students protesting the war,
  • 18:31
  • they stormed a nearby Pace University building, smashing lobby windows with their tools and beating students and professors.
  • 18:39
  • Around 100 people were wounded that day, most of whom were college students. Several police officers were also hurt.
  • 18:44
  • Six people were reportedly arrested, but only one construction worker. My friends escaped injury, but they were traumatized.
  • 18:51
  • The Hard Hat Riot had immediate political consequences. It was, in my opinion, a seminal moment in America's culture wars.
  • 18:59
  • Then President Richard Nixon exploited the riot for political advantage. His administration had been working on a “blue collar strategy”
  • 19:07
  • to shift white working class voters to the Republican Party. Nixon exclaimed when he heard about the riot.
  • 19:14
  • But rather than passing pro-labor policies to court workers, which would go against the values of the pro-business Republican Party,
  • 19:22
  • Nixon sought to use cultural issues like patriotism and support for the troops to drive a wedge between factions of the Democratic Party —
  • 19:30
  • workers without college degrees, and progressives. Nixon invited union leaders, some of whom were involved in the riot,
  • 19:37
  • to the White House. They presented Nixon with a hard hat inscribed with “Commander in Chief” and an American flag pin.
  • 19:45
  • Nixon praised the union workers as “people from middle America who still have character and guts and a bit of patriotism.”
  • 19:52
  • Nixon’s strategy to use the Hard Hat Riot to appeal to blue-collar voters paid off.
  • 19:58
  • In his 1972 re-election campaign against the anti-war Democrat, George McGovern.
  • 20:03
  • Nixon secured a victory with ease and gained the majority of votes from organized labor – the only time in modern history
  • 20:10
  • a Republican presidential candidate accomplished such a feat. The Hard Hat Riot revealed a deep fracture in the coalition of workers
  • 20:17
  • and progressives that FDR had knitted together in the 1930s and the later alliance of Black Americans, liberals, and blue-collar whites
  • 20:25
  • that led to Lyndon Johnson's landslide reelection in 1964. The mostly white construction workers who attacked the demonstrators had felt
  • 20:33
  • abandoned and forgotten as the Civil Rights movement rightfully took hold. They felt stiffed by the clever college kids with draft deferments
  • 20:41
  • and burdened by an economy no longer guaranteeing upward mobility. The class and race based tensions
  • 20:48
  • that Nixon exploited would worsen over the next half century. I witnessed this when I was secretary of labor during the Clinton administration.
  • 20:56
  • I spent much of my time in the Midwest and other parts of the country where blue-collar workers felt abandoned in an economy dominated by Wall Street.
  • 21:04
  • I saw their anger and resentment. I heard their frustrations. In my view,
  • 21:09
  • the Democratic Party has not done enough to respond as Republicans have destroyed unions,
  • 21:15
  • exacerbated economic inequality through trickle down economic nonsense, tried to gut just about every social safety net we have
  • 21:22
  • and stood in the way of practically every effort to use the power of government to help working people.
  • 21:28
  • Today, the right is trying to channel that same anger and violence against the Black Lives Matter movement, the LGBTQ+ community, especially
  • 21:37
  • transgender people and drag queens, and whatever else they consider “woke.” It's the same cynical ploy to instill a fear of “the other” as a means
  • 21:45
  • to distract from the oppression and looting being done by the oligarchs who dominate so much of our economy and our politics.
  • 21:53
  • As such, today, we face the same questions we faced in 1970.
  • 21:58
  • Will we finally recognize that we have more in common with each other than with those who seek to divide us for political and economic gain?
  • 22:05
  • Can we unite in solidarity and build a future in which prosperity is widely shared by all?
  • 22:12
  • I truly believe that we can. Just a couple of years
  • 22:18
  • after the Hard Hat Riot came another crucially important but under-recognized moment in American history.
  • 22:25
  • Nearly 40 years before Citizens United, this one action made possible the corporate takeover of American politics.
  • 22:34
  • Watch. The corporate takeover of American politics started with a man and a memo
  • The Corporate Takeover
  • 22:41
  • you've probably never heard of. In 1971, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce asked Lewis Powell, a corporate attorney who would
  • 22:48
  • go on to become a Supreme Court justice, to draft a memo on the state of the country. Powell’s memo argued that the American economic system was “under broad attack”
  • 22:58
  • from consumer, labor, and environmental groups. In reality, these groups were doing nothing more than enforcing the implicit social contract
  • 23:06
  • that had emerged at the end of the Second World War. They wanted to ensure corporations were responsive to all their stakeholders
  • 23:12
  • — workers, consumers, and the environment — not just their shareholders.
  • 23:18
  • Powell and the Chamber saw it differently. In his memo, Powell urged businesses to mobilize for political combat,
  • 23:25
  • and stressed that the critical ingredients for success were joint organizing and funding.
  • 23:31
  • The Chamber distributed the memo to leading CEOs, large businesses, and trade associations hoping to persuade them that Big Business could dominate American politics in ways not
  • 23:41
  • seen since the Gilded Age. And it worked. The Chamber’s call for a business crusade birthed a new corporate-political industry
  • 23:50
  • practically overnight. Tens of thousands of corporate lobbyists and political operatives descended on Washington
  • 23:56
  • and state capitals across the country. I should know — I saw it happen with my own eyes. I worked at the Federal Trade Commission.
  • 24:03
  • Jimmy Carter had appointed consumer advocates to battle big corporations that for years
  • 24:08
  • had been deluding or injuring consumers. Yet almost everything we initiated at the FTC was met by unexpectedly fierce
  • 24:16
  • political resistance from Congress. At one point, when we began examining advertising directed at children,
  • 24:22
  • Congress stopped funding the agency altogether. I was dumbfounded. What had happened?
  • 24:28
  • In three words, the Powell Memo. Lobbyists and their allies in Congress — and eventually the Reagan administration — worked
  • 24:36
  • to defang agencies like the FTC — and to staff them with officials who would overlook corporate misbehavior.
  • 24:43
  • Their influence led the FTC to stop seriously enforcing antitrust laws — among other things —
  • 24:49
  • allowing massive corporations to merge and concentrate their power even further.
  • 24:54
  • Washington was transformed from a sleepy government town into a glittering center of corporate
  • 25:00
  • America — replete with elegant office buildings, fancy restaurants, and five-star hotels.
  • 25:07
  • Meanwhile, Justice Lewis Powell used the Court to chip away at restrictions on corporate
  • 25:13
  • power in politics. His opinions in the 1970s and 80s laid the foundation for corporations to claim
  • 25:20
  • free speech rights in the form of financial contributions to political campaigns. Put another way — without Lewis Powell, there would probably be no Citizens United
  • 25:29
  • — the case that threw out limits on corporate campaign spending as a violation of the
  • 25:34
  • “free speech” of corporations. These actions have transformed our political system.
  • 25:40
  • Corporate money supports platoons of lawyers, often outgunning any state or federal attorneys
  • 25:45
  • who dare to stand in their way. Lobbying has become a $3.7 billion dollar industry.
  • 25:51
  • Corporations regularly outspend labor unions and public interest groups during election years.
  • 25:56
  • And too many politicians in Washington represent the interests of corporations — not their constituents.
  • 26:02
  • As a result, corporate taxes have been cut, loopholes widened, and regulations gutted.
  • 26:09
  • Corporate consolidation has also given companies unprecedented market power, allowing them
  • 26:14
  • to raise prices on everything from baby formula to gasoline. Their profits have jumped into the stratosphere — the highest in 70 years.
  • 26:24
  • But despite the success of the Powell Memo, Big Business has not yet won.
  • 26:29
  • The people are beginning to fight back.
  • 26:35
  • Both at the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department, we’re seeing a new willingness to take on corporate power.
  • 26:44
  • Across the country workers are unionizing at a faster rate than we’ve seen in decades
  • 26:49
  • — including at some of the biggest corporations in the world — and they’re winning.
  • 26:57
  • Millions of Americans are intent on limiting corporate money in politics — and politicians
  • 27:02
  • are starting to listen. All of these tell me that
  • 27:11
  • — at the ballot box, in the workplace, and in Washington. Let’s get it done.
  • 27:17
  • We began today's history lesson with the Gilded Age and the robber barons, and how antitrust laws saved America from becoming an oligarchy.
  • 27:26
  • So what happened to antitrust enforcement in the last 50 years? I have the answer, and it's personal for me.
  • 27:34
  • Watch.
  • Robert Reich ... Robert Bork
  • 27:42
  • And I knew him! He was my professor and my boss. His name...Robert Bork
  • 27:50
  • Robert Bork was a notorious conservative who believed the only legitimate purpose of antitrust law
  • — that is anti-monopoly law — is to lower prices for consumers, no matter how big corporations get.
  • His philosophy came to dominate the federal courts and conservative economics.
  • I met him in 1971, when I took his antitrust class at Yale Law School.
  • He was a large, imposing man with a red beard and a perpetual scowl.
  • He seemed impatient and bored with me and my classmates, who included Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham,
  • as we challenged him repeatedly on his antitrust views.
  • “Do you remember what they were like in class?” “No, I remember Robert Reich, because he sat up front and talked a good deal.”
  • He's not wrong. We argued with Bork that ever-expanding corporations had too much power.
  • Not only could they undercut rivals with lower prices and suppress wages, but they were using their spoils
  • to influence our politics with campaign contributions. Wasn't this cause for greater antitrust enforcement?
  • He had a retort for everything. Undercutting rival businesses with lower prices was a good thing, he said,
  • because consumers like lower prices. Suppressing wages didn't matter because employees
  • are always free to find better jobs. He argued that courts could not possibly measure
  • political power, so why should that matter? Even in my mid-twenties, I knew this was hogwash.
  • But Bork's ideology began to spread. A few years after I took his class, he wrote a book
  • called The Antitrust Paradox, summarizing his ideas. The book heavily influenced Ronald Reagan
  • and later helped form a basic tenet of Reaganomics — the bogus theory that says government should
  • get out of the way and allow corporations to do as they please.
  • Despite our law school sparring, Bork later gave me a job in the Department of Justice
  • when he was solicitor general for Gerald Ford. Even though we didn’t agree on much,
  • I enjoyed his wry sense of humor. I respected his intellect. Hell, I even came to like him.
  • 30:03
  • Once President Reagan appointed Bork as an appeals court judge, his rulings further dismantled antitrust. And while his later
  • 30:11
  • Supreme Court nomination failed, his influence over the courts continued to grow.
  • 30:18
  • Bork's legacy is the enormous corporate power we see today, whether it's Ticketmaster and Live Nation
  • 30:25
  • consolidating control over live performances, Kroger and Albertsons dominating the grocery market,
  • 30:31
  • or just a handful of companies taking over the entire tech world.
  • 30:36
  • It's not just these high profile companies either. In most industries, a handful of companies now control
  • more of their markets than they did 20 years ago. This corporate concentration costs
  • the typical American household an
  • Companies have been able to jack up prices without losing customers to competitors because there's often no meaningful competition.
  • And huge corporations also have the power to suppress wages because workers have fewer employers
  • 31:09
  • from whom to get better jobs. And how can we forget the massive flow of money these corporate giants are funneling into politics,
  • 31:18
  • rigging our democracy in their favor? But the tide is beginning to turn under the Biden Administration.
  • 31:25
  • The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission are fighting the monopolization of America in court,
  • 31:31
  • and proposing new merger guidelines to protect consumers, workers, and society.
  • 31:37
  • It's the implementation of the view that I and my law school classmates argued for back in the 1970s —
  • 31:44
  • one that sees corporate concentration as a problem that outweighs any theoretical benefits
  • 31:51
  • Bork claimed might exist. Robert Bork would likely regard the Biden administration's
  • 31:56
  • antitrust efforts with the same disdain he had for my arguments in his class all those years ago.
  • 32:03
  • But instead of a few outspoken law students, Bork's philosophy is now being challenged
  • 32:09
  • by the full force of the federal government. The public is waking up to the outsized power
  • 32:15
  • corporations wield over our economy and democracy. It’s about time.
  • That concludes today's history lesson. Those who can't remember their history are doomed to repeat it.
  • So if you've already forgotten something you learn today, go back and watch again. And please share this video with someone you think needs a history lesson.
  • Thanks.


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