The Democratic primary race for president has taken an interesting and disturbing turn as we approach the South Carolina primary and Super Tuesday. It’s nothing new to say that money runs politics. Still, we have now reached a new level where self-funded billionaires are distorting what’s left of a faulty U.S. democratic system. A process that historically and currently deters full participation in the electoral process for people of color, women, the poor and the working class is now also directly and primarily funded by the richest individuals in the land — candidates who can use their unrestricted funds to further their unaccountability to the general voting populace and to rework their image as needed.

Democrats and others were astonished at the success of Donald Trump in 2016 through his overt appeals to white supremacist ideology and his use of his billionaire label to convince many white people that he had the business acumen to run the country and keep the “others” out. Not to be outdone, the Democratic establishment is now flirting with their billionaire of choice to be the establishment candidate to beat Trump.

Democrats are hoping that the incompetence, bluster and corruptness of Trump is enough to make some white people reconsider their vote in 2020. Although several moderate candidates are in the race, they seem to be getting eclipsed at this stage by a certain democratic socialist. In steps a new billionaire to save the day: Michael Bloomberg, who claims that he is best positioned to beat Trump based on his experience as mayor of New York and his newfound interest in racial justice and economic uplift for the Black community, a key Democratic demographic. Bloomberg has used tens of millions of dollars to paper over his mayoral record and to make payouts to surrogates, including a startling number of Black ones, to play up his newfound interest in the Black community. This includes Bloomberg singing the blues about how sorry he is now for the devastation wrought by stop-and-frisk policing during his three-term mayorship of New York.