Liberals (really, the “Progressive Left”) cannot be satisfied unless government — their preferred instrument of exerting power — is in a position of complete supremacy over private business, i.e., the free economy. But the prospect of a new Trump administration next month threatens to reverse the Left’s gains of the past several decades, so their new buzzword is “oligarchy,” suggesting a handful of super-rich villains are on the verge of taking over.

Never mind that Donald Trump won re-election in November thanks to the votes of 77,301,997 Americans, extremely few of whom are billionaires (or even millionaires). Watching MSNBC the past few days, you’d have heard a cacophony of journalists insisting that democracy was already being supplanted by “oligarchy” as successful businessmen like Elon Musk are on the ascent.

“This is basically the new Gilded Age that we are living in,” MSNBC legal analyst Melissa Murray fretted on Friday’s Alex Wagner Tonight. “It’s not a surprise that the administrative state is under assault. It’s a real problem for these oligarchs and corporations,” she added.