Is there a direct line from the power brokers of the late 19th century to those who now seek to control the government?

They aren’t direct descendants as evidenced by the fact that a number of them are Jewish. I would say that most of them have relatively new money by your definition. However, there are many parallels between the plutocracy running the country today and the days of the robber barons. And if the tax bill goes into effect, the gap between working people and the super rich will be even greater. We may need SmashtheState to lead a new movement for the workers and radicals!

Here we go again with the Jews (eyeroll). I expected better than that from Fluther. But I’ll bet if I say anything derogatory about Muslims I’ll get modded to hell and back.

Actually, there are a couple of groups out there that might do a better job than bringing in @SmashtheState; Justice Democrats and Brand New Congress and on a more local level Working Families Organization

@NomoreY_A I am surprised (kind of) that you took @janbb ‘s statement as being derogatory to Jews. I do not consider pointing out that there were fewer Jewish families of influence in the 19th century to be in any way insulting. I think you are reading your own fears and insecurities into it.

@NomoreY_A I’m a Jew. I didn’t mean anything anti-Semitic at all. I just meant that some of the richest people now leading politics are Jewish and they wouldn’t have been in the 19th century. It was a response to rojo’s question about a direct line. I’m sorry if it came across that way; if you like, you can flag it.

Comments like that often feed into the “Zionst plot to conteol the world and kill all the gentiles” bull shit.

No janbb i apologize i didn’t know. I just get fed up with thw right wing neo nazt bull crap I have seen rearing its head lately. Peace…

@NomoreY_A I understand.

I expect the answer is yes, but in many cases it’s not so much about lines of blood, genetics, or family names, but about ideas, organizations (e.g. banks) and associations of people. In the 19th Century, governments were already being led, controlled, blackmailed and threatened by unofficial agents of the extremely wealthy and powerful, and I expect the only contenders for power or independence would be revolutionary factions such as the USSR, Communist China, Nazi Germany, Vietnam, North Korea, or uncooperative dictators such as Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, etc.

Actually, when people talk about money from the 19th century controlling the world, they usually are talking about Jews. The conspiracy theories from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion haven’t gone away and in fact conservatives in the US and Europe are embracing anti-Semitic rhetoric almost straight from the Protocols.

Jewish Journal – Frb 2017— Trump, Bannon and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion

I thought the OP was referencing American robber barons such as the Rockefellers, Carnegies, Goulds and Vanderbilts. That’s why I answered the way I did.

You’re right about the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” being still used by Nazis and anti-semites today but I’m not sure if that relates to the OP.

Perhaps @rojo can clarify.

No, I was specifically trying to address the power structures within the US.

The Protocals are hogswallop that has been debunked time snd again. They were a concoction of pre WW 1 Secret Police in Russia to generate anti Jewish sentiment. I can’t believe people in this era still buy in to that crap.

@rojo Regarding the families named in your question, you can Google them as well as we can. Go ahead and share what you find.