Japanese meteorologist Sakuhei Fujiwhara in 1921 described a weather phenomenon in which two tropical cyclones begin to interact with each other with the potential to produce an unpredictable megacyclone.

This “Fujiwhara Effect” is an apt metaphor for how the future of our democracy is threatened by the confluence of power wielded by billionaires with the populism stoked by Donald Trump’s fanboy adoration of authoritarians. A potential hookup of these forces could devastate our political landscape.

The ultra-rich trying to control governments is nothing new. We saw it in America’s so-called “Gilded Age”—lasting from the end of the 19th century into the early 20th century—when business tycoons like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and J.P. Morgan shaped U.S. industry.

The rise of these “robber barons” gave them enormous influence over politics—often through outright bribery—in a time when “the gap between the rich and poor in America reached astronomical levels… anti-immigrant sentiment raged, leading to enactment of racist laws to restrict immigration… and voter suppression, largely aimed at Black men who had recently won the right to vote, was rampant.”

Sound familiar? As noted by former Commerce Secretary Robert Reich, “America has entered a second Gilded Age.”

The old system of backroom political bosses has become supplanted by the outsize political influence of today’s ultra-wealthy. Jamie Dimon, the current chairman of JPMorgan Chase, made headlines recently by speaking with Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley even as billionaire industrialist Charles Koch endorsed her.

Jamie Dimon.

This political power was created, in large part, by the U.S. Supreme Court gutting of campaign finance controls in the Citizens United case, which gave rise to the campaign entities known today as super PACs, “typically backed........

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