Did You Win Elon's Million Dollars, Peasant?

How I understand this election loss differently than the last one.

What really got me is the popular vote. It doesn’t add up. We made such progress reaching women with really close-to-home, personal issues and messaging. Our candidate pummeled the opponent in debate performance, energy, capability, and likability. We had a massive ground game, we had the best endorsements, we had ads. Where did we go wrong?

Then I came across the pictures of these shameless Elon Musk “lottery” winners, holding giant million dollar checks. They stood outside modest homes with their non-controversial families and wore grins that said “God is Great.” I imagine them jumping in their trucks next to go celebrate with a Hobby Lobby shopping spree.

Comments under the winning pictures talk about these million dollar winners, Elon, and Donald saving America. Fighting for democracy. Someone said, “this is great! Another family blessed!”

Blessed.

Masses of desperate people seem to feel that ultra wealthy men are blessing the righteous right everyman. They’re misidentifying self-interested spending as selfless generosity. Elon is just the latest example. My very republican grandma who lives deep in the Bible belt assured me that Donald is not selfish or corrupt, in fact, according to her news sources, he gives away his presidential salary to charity.

A. No.

B. Even if that were true, he would be receiving a tax break for it and would clearly be using it for publicity.

C. He was president and in a position to create programs and infrastructure that would help alleviate whatever cause he was donating too. But he didn’t do that sort of thing. He focused on deregulating business, implementing costly tax breaks for the ultra wealthy, and undoing problematic environmental and human rights protections that got in the way of industry growth. In short, he created more of the “needy” that he purportedly so generously gave to.

Whether they owned plantations or factories or corporations or tech, the elite class has made fortunes from the exploitation of the working class. They’ve stolen fortunes.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want leftovers or crumbs from CEOs and heirs. I don’t want their trickle down change, or the charity they benevolently bestow from their gobs of money. I don’t feel grateful for the arbitrary number they scrawled on a check to a foundation, rounding up or down to a convenient number for their tax filings, not knowing the value of a thousand dollars they add or subtract on a whim.

Elon Musk. Timothy Mellon. Linda McMahon. Jeff Bezos. Donald Trump.

These are just a few of the outspoken billionaires who invest in and represent the Republican party and their platform. Billionaires. Reaching out and winning the votes of working class Americans, using their worst racist and misogynistic impulses against them.

Billionaires. Speaking out about the inflated cost of bread.

Billionaires. Speaking out about the lack of opportunity for business owners trying to get a foot in the global market.

Billionaires. Speaking out about a lack of jobs.

Assholes. Speaking out… Oops. Sociopaths… Oops. Billionaires speaking out about the problems they create.

They promise their peasantry a piece of the good life. They say they know how to get it for them. They got it for themselves, and they’re so wise, generous, and interested in the well being of others, that anyone who supports them will benefit. They tangle in identity politics like issues of gender, women’s rights, gun rights, etc. to distract from the wealth inequality situation that they enable and propagate. Then they sell themselves as benevolent royalty.

Not for long. The uber wealthy may be feeling quite safe right now, clinking glasses at Mar a Lago and laying out on their yachts jotting notes for how to promote their business interests in Donald’s administration.

I don’t think they’re going to get too comfortable.

Why? Well, because we won’t let them.

• We’re going to call out their every move and contradiction.

• We’re going to support the insurgent insiders, the anti-Trumpers who have a key to the good ol’ boys club and want to use it to break some glasses.

• We’re going to listen to experts who know the faults of our current economic setup, and we’re going to spread their message to our own networks, in our own language.

• We’re going to use our unique knowledge and talents to kick the uber wealthy off of their pedestal and replace them with more worthy and deserving heroes.

Somehow, the MAGA elite squeezed out an illusion that their interests are in lock step with the common man. The threads that hold it together are frail, but many. They’re going to break.

We have power, and we are going to use it.

We have the power to paint a truer picture of how extreme wealth is viewed. We can fasten greed, detachment, and narcissism to its holders. We can tie great responsibility to great wealth. We can lift up the Robin Hoods, those who fight against imbalanced incomes and opportunities.

It takes a deliberate shift, but we can do it together.

Lucky for us, we have literal common ground that brings us together. In Parks People, we use our grassroots and our communities to call out injustice, showcase inequities, and make change one relationship at a time. Let’s get going.

With love and hope for the future,

Stephanie