Yes, this is a very clickbaity title, but to be fair if Michael Bloomberg can lie and say he is a Democrat I can make a slight exaggeration. Now putting aside from the many issues that existed in New York during Bloomberg’s mayorship, the racist stop and frisk policies, the huge safety violations that lead to the Deutsche Bank fire, the transphobic and homophobic policies, and other slimy scandals that happened to Bloomberg. I have neither the time nor the stomach to go through and talk about those issues. What I do think is important is that if Bloomberg is elected it would spell the end of the American democracy. I am not mincing words, not exaggerating for the sake of getting people to read. Well maybe a little bit, but my point still stands.

You may be thinking, “We live in an age with Trump as the president, it can’t get worse than him,” but unfortunately I think that Trump is just the first step in a new political movement, one of plutocracy.

This new movement brings us back to the dark age of American democracy, one full of corrupt politicians making deals with companies in back rooms, political machines owning the government. Now wealth has always been a part of politics but to the extent at which millionaires and billionaires can use their money to rush in and make vast claims and dominate the landscape with ridiculous antics.

The 11th richest man in the world, someone worth billions of dollars has decided that he wants to represent the democratic party after the outsider, businessman Donald Trump won the election in 2016. So, here we are, in 2020 more than halfway through the Trump presidency, something that is so universally reviled by members of the democratic party, and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced his presidential campaign. He has gone on a blitz of advertising, utilizing his vast wealth to put his face everywhere he can possibly think of. Now some think that the strategy of fighting a rich man with a questionable political history with a rich man with a questionable political history might be a good solution, it really just perpetuates the systematic problems that the Trump presidency uprooted.

Bloomberg decided he was running after the democratic party has held three debates, after several candidates have dropped out, and all the while has gotten more airtime than many that were in it since the beginning. His strategies of going outside of the traditional political system are no doubt working, which is a part of the problem.

Now to most college students reading this, the idea of Bloomberg is ludicrous, but to many who don’t have access to education about political candidates, the advertisements are a huge factor in how they decide to vote. I mean the man bought a Super Bowl commercial, almost every American knows his name, especially compared to some like Yang or Klobuchar. This can take him a lot further in the race then he deserves to go, and it is not based on policies or his ability as a politician, but his money.

So yes, anything may seem like a better option then four more years of the orange menace, we can’t sacrifice everything the Democratic party stands for in the name of “electability. And no I’m not saying that Bloomberg has a chance of actually winning the nomination but then again people said the same thing about the current president. In the caucuses, now is the time to stand up and make sure that Bloomberg doesn’t win because if we don’t we will be stuck in between a rock and a hard place.