This comment is right on the money - but for one thing. Reputation, in it's present form, is able to be bought. Just buy upvotes from whales with higher rep, and you will gain rep.
Other than that, that reputation needs to be 'degamed', the delinking of SP holdings from VP weighting is exactly what I've long advocated. Vested interests, from Stinc, top witnesses, and various whales, whom I've discussed this issue with, on and off chain, do not want to dry up their tried and true profit mechanism. This despite the fact that the perception of oligarchical concentration of wealth is killing Steemit, the goose that lays the golden egg, and thereby causing Steem to fail to appreciate, which is both the traditional, tried and true, mechanism by which investors are rewarded, and a vastly more potentially emunerative mechanism.
Further, stake weighting extends to witness votes, and because of this, witnesses are completely vulnerable to simply being bought, and thus the blockchain, and Steem itself, including SMTs, completely controlled by someone with enough cash.
These transactions needn't even be delayed by powerdown and sale of tokens, as the accounts can be transferred off chain, covertly, converting the mined stakes that represent the majority of Steem in existence into golden parachutes for the account holders, and transferring Steemit to the hands of Zuckerburg, Murdoch, or whatever wealthy cabal decides it's worth the investment.
A couple hundred million $ is lunch money in some circles, after all.
Lastly, the white paper envisioned flagging as the communities ability to counter rogue whales, and despite the fact that ten thousand minnow votes would be required to counter @transisto's flags, I reckon that some few dolphins and whales would side with a concerted initiative to stop such censorship, and this would dramatically improve the odds.
Also, I don't think such overwhelming force would be required to cause @transisto, or @berniesanders, or anyone, to back off, as a show of economic force would impact their ROI dramatically, and, since that's what they really care about, I reckon they would quite quickly change their ways.
Thanks!