America is stable. But we have serious problems.
I have been letting my moderate-ness show more in recent months and especially in recent weeks in pointing out the disappointments of the two presidential platforms and the relative insignificance of the occupant of the White House against the might of the powerful American economy.
This election matters.
A collective gasp was heard Oct. 25 when The Washington Post declined to publish an endorsement for President of the United States in the 2024 election. It quickly came to light that the Post's owner, billionaire Jeff Bezos, ordered the endorsement, already written endorsing Democrat Kamala Harris, pulled. That same day, Republican candidate Donald Trump met with Blue Origin executives. Blue Origin is Bezos' space company.
Bezos' yanking of the endorsement was not a move to impact the election. And it won't. Newspapers have less and less impact with each passing month, and endorsements have less and less impact since early voting took hold starting with the 2000 elections. Bezos' move was clearly for a single reason: to maintain access to nine-and-ten-figure Defense and Federal contracts for his companies during a Trump administration.
In 2019, Amazon Web Services lost a $10 billion Pentagon cloud computing contract to Microsoft. In 2021, the contract was cancelled (Of course, there had been a lawsuit in the interim, and massive lobbying efforts on the part of Amazon). But Trump's displeasure with Bezos, and The Washington Post, were well documented from his public comments.
Bezos is taking no chances in the event of a second Trump administration. And Trump is making it clear that NASA and Space Force could be on the table for Bezos by his very public meeting with Blue Origin. It's a signal of what is at the heart of every Trump policy: a transaction.
At a time when national emotions are running high, this yanking-an-endorsement-display-of-power theater provides an indelible revelation. It's an "a-ha" moment of the worst kind. America has backslid further than many of us thought possible.
But this doesn't read like the bad old Gilded Age with the Rockefellers (John D. Rockefeller was the first billionaire) and Vanderbilts and Carnegies and Morgans slurping oysters and drinking brown liquor and buying off the Senate.
Back then, America wasn't a global power. No one had nukes. And we weren't worried about who had more of our data – the NSA, China, or Mark Zuckerberg.
In the last 130 years, perhaps starting with the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, we have largely become a better country than in the robber baron era of the late 19th century. Most Americans can read. Life expectancy is much higher. Child labor is illegal. We have saved the world from totalitarianism, and in preventing that global dystopia, found ourselves growing like never before and cemented our place as a country everyone wanted to live in, with the best economy, and seemingly unlimited opportunity.
The 21st century has been, to coin a campaign phrase, weird. Tech has replaced oil and railroads in making a few men incredibly rich incredibly fast. The volume of information available to individuals, to businesses, and to governments, is astonishing.
Amidst this rapidly changing landscape, the dollars pouring into political campaigns and political lobbyists' fees to promote business and special interest agendas are endless and untraceable. Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, SpaceX, Blue Origin: they and thousands of others are all spending millions on the election and in Congress. And Donald Trump caught onto this about a decade ago as one sweet gravy train.
So what, Merritt? you might sneer. Donald Trump is just being honest about what every other politician is doing. The fact that Donald Trump can be bought isn't at issue here. The twist in the New Gilded Age is that Trump is also willing to sell his country to the highest bidder.
There is no policy. There is no stated goal for a better future. It's just transaction after transaction. What will you do for me? What do I get out of this? These are the questions that drive a Trump administration.
In his second bid for the White House, his transition team is refusing to execute the memorandum of understanding with the General Services Administration to begin coordinating office space, telephones, payroll, transportation, IT, etc. for the transition should he win the election. One of the primary motivations to blow off GSA is that this allows Trump to use unlimited private donations to fund the transition. Just another revenue stream for Trump 47 Corp!
Democracy advocates have been sounding alarm bells about Trump's autocratic tendencies. But Trump keeps veering from the script: he does not care enough about any single ideology or issue to stick to it. He doesn't want to control the means of production. He doesn't want to perform a genocide. He's an oligarch looking to extort oligarchs and doesn't see a reason to hide it.
This, dear readers, is kleptocracy. In New Mexico, we have some idea of what that looks like, given the number of elected officials we have seen go to prison for enriching themselves while in office. Heck, we are still waiting for the latest defendant, former Democratic State Representative Sheryl Williams Stapleton, to go to trial for embezzling several million dollars from Albuquerque Public Schools. Trump is ready to go to market with a $29 trillion asset. Who wants in?
During the first Trump presidency, serious advisors and patriots joined his administration to, well, help run the country – James Mattis, John Bolton, and John Kelly - to name a few. Serious policy and subject matter experts know better than to try to assist the second Trump administration. Trump is not interested in advice. He wants henchmen.
Trump is left now with extremists, profiteers and yes-men willing to contort themselves to his vision of the moment. This is the dark place where the Constitution becomes cannon fodder so that the next deal can go through.
Will America survive another Trump presidency? Yes. But I'd much rather not have to find out.
Merritt Hamilton Allen is a PR executive and former Navy officer. She appeared regularly as a panelist on NM PBS and is a frequent guest on News Radio KKOB. A Republican for 36 years, she became an independent upon reading the 2024 Republican platform. She lives amicably with her Democratic husband north of I-40 where they run one head of dog, and one of cat. She can be reached at
