Heiress Abigail Disney has been quoted as saying: “Every billionaire who can’t live on $999 million to lead their life comfortably is kind of a sociopath.”

Kind of? Who could disagree? 

Yet, multi-billionaires directly influence our American government, dumping millions into elections, pushing authoritarian concepts and suppressing voter access, with the sole agenda to personally profit. In recent decades, trillions of dollars in middle-class wealth has been absorbed by the richest 1%. Your family’s wealth and my family’s wealth, stolen. 

According to a 2025 study, chief executive officers now make on average 281 times that of their typical employee’s wages, up from 21 times employee wages in the 1960s. Wealthy elites blame current middle-class struggles on those juggling multiple jobs to feed their families and pay rent, blaming our minorities and immigrants (some skilled, some with advanced degrees), people not unlike the average Mainer.

Those chasing after multiple billions of dollars benefit from deregulation, sale of our public lands, diminishment of our health care, educational systems and social safety nets and neglect of the foundational rule of law — the principle that protects every citizen’s equal rights to justice, to have our say. 

America must not be ruled by billionaires who are desperate, insatiable for wealth and power, never acquiring enough. These are the dark elite, the sociopaths of America and the world. We must not allow those unfit, self-serving, power- and money-holics to take over our nation and corrupt our judicial system. We must recognize their tendencies for what they are.

American democracy is not for sale.

Berry Manter
Portland