Shoot down a CEO on the street, and the hunt is on.
Choke a homeless man to death in the subway and the president-elect congratulates you on your acquittal.
By now, you know Jordan Neely's story. Homeless with a history of drug use and mental illness, he acted in a threatening manner on a subway. Another passenger, Daniel Penny, subdued him with a chokehold. I have no doubt that the people in that subway car were relieved that the threat had been extinguished, but even after the car was cleared of passengers, Penny did not release his hold. Neely died moments later.
Daniel Penny is not guilty of murder, but the life of another human being was in his hands alone, and whatever decision-making occurred at that moment informed him that Jordan Neely's right to live had ended. The approval of Trump defines the hierarchy that exists in full bloom in Trumpworld and always has.
He encourages police to rough up the people they arrest, decides which races are welcome on the floors of his businesses, thinks protesters at his rallies should be beaten, and declares the population of one country superior to that of another. These are the simplistic half-thoughts of a child, but he has deluded a gullible population into believing he's on their side. He isn't. He's on his side only.
My place in the Trump pecking order—and yours too—has been settled. I'm not a big donor, I'm not a militia member, I don't count my wealth in billions, and though I do have a corner office—it's in the corner of my basement. And yet, I'm the elitist that Trump claims is threatening his country, and so, probably, are you. His elite comprises the scientists, the political leaders, the educators, the journalists, and the historians—basically people who have made themselves experts in areas where expertise is required. In that respect, I'm just a hanger-on, an elitist sympathizer. Yet you and I, Trump claims, are the enemy. The woke. The intelligentsia. He created a fictional enemy bent on destroying America, and the gullible not only believed the character was real, but ignored the people who shared Trump's limelight: Musk, Koch, Ailes, and every billionaire in the country...or whom I like to call, the elitists.
The murder of the United Health Care CEO Brian Thompson last week in New York City is an unalloyed tragedy, and the callousness of those cheering his death and ignoring the effects on his family is an embarrassment. But contrast that death with that of the homeless victim, and we see the imbalance, the disparity of income, the unfairness of the healthcare system, and the stagnation of the middle class. This was Trump's platform, one which the MAGA voters signed up for. What were they thinking? Why didn't they listen when Trump said he would fix it? Now it's too late—the fix is in.
He will reform nothing, and his appointees will make America less lawful, less healthy, less educated, less safe, and more unequal. And the blue-collar workers—Trump's major voting bloc—will feel the pain first, becoming first-hand witnesses to the lessening of the social services that improve their lives—Social Security, Medicare, workplace safety, even something as commonplace as clean drinking water. The real elites are in charge now—and they're pulling the strings on the marionette we just elected.
And in that world, where plutocrats reign and uninformed lead, you and I are no less expendable than the homeless man on the subway.
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