In 1956, (NINETEEN FIFTY-SIX!) Ian Fleming wrote

[Liberal In Texas]

9. Allowing the rise of the oligarchs was also a mistake.

By not keeping the tax rate for the wealthy high enough to keep them from acquiring an amount of disproportionate power we now have countries run by them instead of The People. This includes Russia. Their oligarchs came to be billionaires through different routes than the oligarchs in the US, but the country is still now controlled by rich fascists that include Putin.

The rich are able to crank out the propaganda through hundreds of radio stations, TV on cable and terrestrial (eg: Sinclair) and on social media with Russian troll farms using high tech targeting pretending to be Americans flooding the media with their bots.

The use of large amounts of money not only buys the courts and our legislatures but can influence what we call the Main Stream Media skewing them to be favorable to the idea of strong-man government and right wing religion influence.