As author, broadcaster and scholar Thom Hartmann sees it, the lines between corporate power, billionaire interests, government authority, public “knowledge,” and foreign influence have not just blurred — they’re vanishing. This is not just politics as usual; this is an emergency. When has any small group of private citizens held such sway over both domestic and foreign policy? The America we once knew — where elected officials were accountable to voters rather than billionaires — is slipping away. This erosion of democracy is largely due to five corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court ruling that political bribery equals “free speech,” allowing billionaires to flood our 2024 election with money. In truth, this long-developing alliance between American oligarchs and the Supreme Court marks a climactic corporate endgame to replace American democracy with plutocratic autocracy. Do we, the American people, still possess the power and will to challenge this oligarchic takeover? Yes, says Hartmann. This is a call to action.

This talk was delivered at the 2025 Bioneers Conference.

Thom Hartmann, a best-selling author of over 30 books in print and host of the #1 progressive talk show host in America for more than a decade, has co-written and been featured in 6 documentaries with Leonardo DiCaprio about climate change. A former psychotherapist, entrepreneur and refugee worker helping the worldwide Salem group start homes for abandoned and abused children all over the world, Thom and his wife Louise live in Portland, Oregon with a small menagerie of cats, dogs, ducks & geese.

To learn more about Thom Hartmann, visit his website.

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