Revelers at Trump’s “Gatsby” gala at his Mar-a-Lago estate
“Wait…why are over 40 million people on SNAP? It’s not the 1930s. We’re not in a depression. I have a hard time believing that many people actually need food assistance in America.”
Glenn Beck, commenting about food benefits amid the government shutdown
Nothing says classy like helping a disabled person navigating a grocery store aisle. Nothing says trashy like one of the wealthiest people in the country throwing a lavish party while others are struggling to pay for food.
That’s the message inherent in Donald Trump’s recent Halloween bash at his Mar-a-Lago estate. In the richest nation on Earth, the president of the United States is wallowing in his own ego and greed, as literally millions of average citizens wonder how they’re going to pay their bills and provide for their families.
As of this writing, the ongoing government shutdown has become the longest in U.S. history. The chaos hasn’t affected me personally yet, but I remain leery and concerned. The last shutdown in 2018 did impact the government agency for which my company does a great deal of contract work. The present mess, though, is already upset the livelihoods of millions of people who have been furloughed from their jobs and others – such as air traffic controllers – who have been forced to work without pay.
The latter is an obscene contradiction in that members of Congress are still getting paid. Yes, the political elite are receiving their salaries, while doing no work. Some federal employees are working, but not receiving their pay. Please tell me I’m not the only one realizes how screwed up this is.
Trump’s “Gatsby” festival is not just a true indication of the President’s own arrogance and disrespect for humanity, but the growing economic disparities in the U.S. This is a nation that boasts that someone like Jeff Bezos can grow a business from a garage operation into multi-billion dollar conglomerate; yet allows a foreign-born oligarch like Elon Musk to dictate how the U.S. government should function.
Glenn Beck’s comment regarding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food benefits, is yet another hallmark of how disconnected the self-appointed elite – left or right – is with reality. Conservative extremists like Beck are quick to condemn those who reach out for public assistance, but ignore the systems that create those needs. Meanwhile radical liberals denounce corporations and business leaders, but don’t seem to understand personal responsibility is more than a Republican catchphrase.
I had to go on food and energy assistance a few years ago. The COVID-19 pandemic wiped out what money I’d earned over nearly a decade of freelance and contract work. I’d been on unemployment insurance before, but I knew I’d paid into that. Help to buy food and pay my energy bills was a different creature. I’m gainfully employed now, with full health benefits and a retirement plan. I’m making a good living and satisfied with how my life is going.
But I understand completely how upset millions of Americans are with none of those things. As the current morass continues, I wonder how this is happening. How is the wealthiest country on Earth mired in such a serious financial crisis? How is it that so many people – literally millions – are struggling just to live? While Trump and his family and their minions party like the world is theirs and only theirs.
If this is such an affluent nation, absolutely no one should have to rely upon food, housing and energy assistance! Not everyone needs to earn a six- or seven-figure salary or live in a multi-room mansion in a gated community. Indeed, able-bodied and able-minded people should be accountable for their own actions. But why do some people have to decide whether to pay the light bill or buy food?
Shortly after the turn of the century I joined a Dallas-area Toastmasters group. I had met one of the co-founders, and he convinced me at least to visit. I did and instantly felt a connection to this group of intellectuals who, like me, had something important to say. Sadly, I became disillusioned with the group and left in the spring of 2004. But, before I found a position with an engineering company in November 2002, that cofounder and I engaged in a rather tense discussion about economics and self-reliance. Even though I definitely don’t consider myself conservative, that man insisted I belonged on the Republican side of things. He was a devoted acolyte of Ronald Reagan and strongly supported then-President George W. Bush. He was a small business owner, Jewish and openly queer. He shocked me one time, however, when he said he didn’t really care what his fellow conservatives thought about either his ethnicity or his sexuality. He was more concerned about the overall welfare of society.
A few months before I found that full-time job, he remarked that I “only represent a small percentage” of people across the country – in a sense mocking my lack of full employment. Later he had commented that business owners should be allowed to discriminate against people strictly on the basis of race or gender; that anyone on the wrong end of that bigotry can just find another place to give their business.
“Yeah,” I responded, “just like Hitler did.”
Ever see someone’s face overwhelmed with that proverbial deer-in-the-headlights expression? His consternation was obvious enough for the blind to see.
But that, in essence, is the problem with our political leaders. Remember they’re still earning their salaries – while doing no work. When does the madness end? And where’s the justice?
Chief Writing Wolf 