The Modern Day Business Plot

13 Mar, 2025

It was an unusual thing to hear during the holiday season. It’s December 1935 and after a couple of years of hearing about the horrific changes that were happening in the at the time new German Reich and fascist Italian state, a decorated war-general, Mr. Smedley Butler, was on the news telling about something which was unheard of in American history:

I appeared before the congressional committee, the highest representation of the American people, under subpoena to tell what I knew of activity which I believe might lead to an attempt to set up a fascist dictatorship. The plan, as outlined to me, was to form an organization of veterans to use as a bluff or as a club at least, to intimidate the government and break down our governmental institutions. The upshot of the whole thing was that I was to pose to lead an organization of 500,000 men which would be able to take over the functions of government. I talked with an investigator for this committee, who came to me with a subpoena on Sunday, November 18th. He told me that they had unearthed evidence linking my name with several such veteran organizations. As it then seemed to me to be getting serious, I felt it was my duty to tell all I knew of such activities to this committee. My main interest in all this is to preserve our democratic institution. I want to retain the right to vote, and the right to speak freely, and the right to write. If we maintain these basic principles, our democracy is safe. No dictatorship can exist with suffrage, freedom of speech and print.

Butler was the most decorated US Marine in US military history and he was in front of congress saying that there was an attempt to set up a fascist dictatorship in the US. Horrific, if true. Many outlets had been cautious about the claims that Butler was proposing, with some outright mocking Butler for his self-serving accusations. But then the committee report came out:

In the last few weeks of the committee's official life it received evidence showing that certain persons had made an attempt to establish a fascist organization in this country. No evidence was presented and this committee had none to show a connection between this effort and any fascist activity of any European country. There is no question that these attempts were discussed, were planned, and might have been placed in execution when and if the financial backers deemed it expedient.

A home-grown fascist movement based mostly through US industrialists and business-owners. Today we call it “The Business Plot”, and it implicated some rather famous names of American history like Arthur Sloan of General Motors, J. P. Morgan, Irénée du Pont of DuPont Chemical, and Prescott Bush grandfather of George W. Bush. I guess overturning the will of the people for profit is just part of Bush family heritage. But here is the really crazy thing: none of the industrialists were ever prosecuted, or fined, or jailed. They were let off, scot-free.

I doubt anyone is surprised by the fact that wealthy industrialists are above the laws. We saw this after the 2008 financial crisis where none of the bankers who had crippled the American (and world) economy for the next decade faced any real consequences. It is great to be rich. If you consider the state of the world right now it is crazy to think that evidence of a fascist plot was controversial back in the 30’s. Now the saturation of money in politics and the subsequent interests of the rich are overrepresented throughout the entire government.

In the last 20-40 years there has been an unprecedented pooling of wealth among very few people. Ask any leftist and they could (hopefully) rattle off the newest horrific update to how many billionaires you need to equate 50% of global wealth. A couple of years ago it was 62 people and now 26 of the richest people on earth have more wealth than many national GDPs ¹. It isn’t a mystery that access to money and other assets grants you an enormous amount of power and the American people are unfortunately seeing the reality of what has been common practice in many dysfunctional countries all around the world. While American foreign policy has always tried to favor some semblance of American Empire, its domestic policy since Nixon, I would argue, hasn’t. What was the last great piece of people-centered legislation to pass Congress? The Inflation Reduction Act? This was a budget reconciliation bill and not passed with more than the required 50+1 in the Senate. The Affordable Care Act? Has it really been around 15 years since anything good happened in America?

It really has been. The reason is obvious to any American: Congress has been gridlocked due to filibustering and other shenanigans. It behooves certain people that a system which has three branches of government suddenly only has two functioning ones. A lot of the good and bad of the last 10-15 years are a result of an increasing juridification of the American government. Obergefell (aka. the legalization of gay marriage), and the repealing of Roe (aka. the right to abortion) immediately come to mind. Since the legislative body has been more or less non-functioning for a long time, other branches has had to pick up the slack. This is where it is increasingly important to ask the question about what parts of the government are electable. The Judicial branch is somewhat electable through Judicial Elections, but large portions, as stated in Article III of the Constitution, are executive appointments. The executive branch is elected through voting for the President – but the executive team which the President presents before congress is usually tagged along and therefore unelected². But that brings us to the gridlock in Congress. The legislative branch is the only branch which is entirely hired and fired by elections. Every two years for the House and every six for the Senate. This makes it a very dangerous branch for those who don’t believe in democracy.

Mitch McConnell has been the architect of this kind of gridlock in our times ³, and it is no mistake that the senator from Kentucky has some vested interests in a juridification of the American government. As someone who actively championed less strict campaign finance laws, he’s understood that the fate of elections often is determined by access to capital. Elections are supposedly equal, but we all understand that as someone who has access to cold hard cash have bigger and more opportunities to influence and disseminate political propaganda. The loosening of campaign finance laws, the increasing wealth inequality, and the juridification of the government⁴ serve a specific purpose – stability of power for capital owners.

If you can influence or even outright buy parts of the judiciary – which we have seen in the case of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas – and you can appoint someone to sway the electorate – like Donald Trump did and George Bush didn't – then the important part is to cull the body which could hold executive power to account.

The United States was during Trump 45, and during Trump 47, held up by the tenacity of several lawyers, judges and other judicial figures. While it is nice that the principles of government haven't been totally overturned into farcical fascism, it is democratically problematic that an entire nation depends on the judicial branch to basically do the job of the legislature (as mentioned earlier with Obergefeller/Roe). Lawsuits shouldn't be the primary way to effect the policies of government. That is what elected representatives are for. But it is difficult to do much when elections and the elected representatives themselves are controlled so thoroughly.

To control elections you need a pretty vast and complex network for channels of dissemination and on the ground campaigning. I won’t go into too much detail here but a perfect modern day example of how such a machine works in action, you need only look to the campaign to discredit anthropogenic climate change – which has been well documented ⁵. This was a vast and intricate machine that aimed to produce a particular outcome: doubt about climate change through disinformation. Why? Because it behooves the interests of the largest fossil fuel producing nation in the world to continue fossil fuel production. It is really that simple. Elections are then merely a result produced by how well-lubricated and stubborn the machine is toward particular issues. Are you willing to not do your duty? Are you willing to actively obstruct legislation? Are you willing to shut down the government? Good, then you have the guts needed.

While the Democrats spent way more money than Republicans in the last election, the Democrats’ machine is way less sophisticated than the Republicans machine ⁶. The Republicans has had some form of political corruption as part of its functioning since Nixon. Its had a lot of practice, and figured out ways to get out of the slump of the John McCain disaster election of 2008. They did that by organizing and funding the shit out of front-groups and bullshit-artists. It worked.

It is not needed to have a fascist takeover through violent means. Of course, its handy to violently take the government if you suddenly have an uptick in democratic fervor. But you don’t need it. If the judiciary is bought, the legislative branch is effectively on your side, and the executive branch essentially toothless, who needs the trouble? You won.

The Modern Business Plot was executed right before our eyes. And despite our best efforts, we blinked.

“What Is To Be Done?”

.dash

First claim comes from Oxfam’s Economy for the 1% and the second is from UBS Global Wealth report or here ↩
There can be very good reasons to why portions of the executive branch shouldn’t be elected such as trust in the electorate to ascertain what expertise or professional merit within a field an administrator should have.↩
For as much as he is responsible for the current predicament, and for how much I find the man morally reprehensible, I grant that he was clever to implement a large-scale effort to obstruct anything coming through Congress. It has essentially been the playbook since 2010 when Republicans won the midterms.↩
Alongside many, many other tools and techniques that toy with the fundamental understanding of American government.↩
Some resources for those interested: “Merchants of Doubt” by Naomi Oreskes and Eric M. Conway; “Kochland” by Christopher Leonard; the podcast “Drilled”; “The Greenpeace Guide to Anti-Environmental Organization” by Carl Deal; and “The Inquisition of Climate Science” by James Lawrence Powell. For those interested in really going into the weeds I suggest the DeSmog and PolluterWatch databases, alongside following publications like Documented.↩
One could discuss if it is incompetence or malicious. I'd argue that while they are incompetent, I would also say there are some that are malicious. Never attribute to malice what could be attributed to incompetence, they say.↩

#making-sense