That is what happens when poliics is dominated by the lust to protect privilege, personal and partisan power, and unrestricted profit -- i. e., Republican politics.

A generation earlier, another Roosevelt, who also came from privilege, but as a Republican, decried the wealth gap of the robber barons. Where do today’s Republicans stand (he asks, rhetorically)?

“I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded against evasion and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate.”
— Theodore Roosevelt