Very thorough and informative. Thanks. When combined with the oligarchy descriptions of "America's 60 Families" by Ferdinand Lundberg, it paints a picture of mammon that permeates this "Empire of Oil". (Harvey O'Connor, circa 1958). The books are dated, but when you extrapolate through the second half of the 20th century and up to now, the politics of one dollar-one vote make a lot more sense, as does the corruption of the income tax code and gerrymandering.

We have allowed aristocracies to keep us from democracy and cooperative humanity since civilization began, because "money". God was always effective as the marketing department for the town meeting. When we lost the commons, we no longer maintained God.