How much does it cost to buy control of the North Carolina State Legislature? Probably not as much as you think.

You can ask Art Pope, the CEO of Raleigh-based Variety Wholesalers. Last year, he and his family invested $240,000 in legislative races all over the state. Their favored candidates won enough races to win control of the State Legislature for the Republicans. It’s the first time that the Party has controlled both statehouses in North Carolina in more than 100 years.

Pope is one of a new breed of Oligarchs who choose to circumvent the democratic process and dictate public outcomes through sheer power, money, and will.

According to the Institute for Southern Studies (see their report at http://bit.ly/dn4VpZ), Pope and other family members in 2010 personally contributed $240,000 to Republican candidates in 22 highly-targeted races. Three “independent” political groups – Americans for Prosperity, Civitas Action, and Real Jobs NC – poured another $2,000,000 into the same races. ISS reports that all three are closely tied and significantly funded by either Art Pope personally, his family, the family business, or the family foundation.

Eighteen of these races were won by Republicans, and that tipped the balance of control in the legislature. Most Carolina political observers agree that it would never have happened without Art Pope’s money.

Though Pope is a conservative Republican, the Oligarch movement spans the ideological spectrum. It includes such stars as Grover “No New Taxes” Norquist in politics, and Bill Gates in Charter School education.

Norquist is the “Doctor No” of the Tax Movement. His national influence has been building for years, thanks to his campaign to get Republican candidates to sign his “no new taxes” pledge. That communal pledge was the number one reason why the Congressional Budget Super-committee struck out on a deal to reduce the country’s debt by some 4 trillion dollars.

The committee’s most prominent proposals included a mix of large spending cuts, the elimination of tax loopholes, and modest increases in taxes on the wealthiest Americans. Polls show that a significant majority of Americans favor these tax changes. Plans with tax increases as well as spending reductions had wide support among economists and budget experts, and broad bi-partisan support outside Congress.

None of that mattered. Even though most economists think it is insane public policy to prohibit all tax increases under all circumstances, Norquist’s “No-Tax-Increases-Ever” policy prevailed. The net effect is to continue the Washington stalemate and further diminish the reputation of the government.

Norquist, in the meantime, just keeps smiling. Though never elected to anything, he nevertheless wields enough power to impose his own vision of taxation on three hundred million of his fellow Americans.

The Other End of the Spectrum
At the other end of the Oligarch spectrum is Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft. A recent New York Times article called Gates one of the “Policy-Making Billionaires” who have shifted their focus from donating to charities to “pouring billions” into advocacy.

According to the Times story, the Gates Foundation has been investing heavily in support for more charter schools. As one example, charter school supporters lobbied for changes to the “Race to the Top” education program. As a result, states that participate can no longer limit the expansion of charter schools.

Whether you oppose or favor charter schools in not the issue here. This kind of big money influence takes decision-making power out of the hands of parents and the local school community. It transfers that power to people with deep pockets and a particular policy axe to grind.

Charter School fans of course welcome the Gates help. But others see it as an undemocratic intrusion. Education scholar Diane Ravitch criticizes the charter advocates as a “billionaire boys’ club.”  She warns that they exert enormous influence over education policy with little accountability.

The same Times article quotes Richard L. Brodsky, a former New York State lawmaker: “It’s sort of influence-peddling writ large. The notion that the society is better served by the super-rich exercising their charitable instincts is in the end anti-democratic.”

Government of the Few
The Oligarchs rightly recognize that government is sinking into a partisan swamp of stalemate and inaction. That breeds unrest among the voters, and distrust of government at every level.

There is a dangerous vacuum building between what we expect from government and what it delivers. These oligarchs and others like them are poised to step into the breech and create change that the political system can’t or won’t produce.

Thanks to the new oligarchs, we are moving backward toward government of the few rather than forward to better government by and for the many.