A Horror Fit for the Season

Politics
Written By Justin Ebersole

[Warning - US Political post - numbered sources at bottom of the page]

I’m confused.

Like, legitimately. It almost seems like we’ve been living in an alternate reality where civility has suddenly ceased to exist. How did we end up here? 


I’ve asked myself that probably once per week since the last election, and honestly, off and on since October 2016. How did we end up with such a painfully split country and the cult-like worship of an incredibly flawed man?

Now, I could make this post about the malignant narcissist(1) who will say whatever he feels like in the moment, regardless of its standing in reality(2). I could go on about how this 34 time convicted felon(3) gets the blind adoration of his followers and is treated as some kind of messiah(4) despite the fact that he has broken every one of the 10 commandments(5).

I could talk about how completely unfit this person is to run a company(6), let alone a nation (7).

I could talk about how completely unfit this person is to run a company(6), let alone a nation (7). I could talk about the existential danger(8) of this cult of personality(9). I could talk about the damage being done to our institutions(10) because his sycophants(11) are allowed to bully everyone who dares question him(12).

But that’s not what I’m going to talk about today.

Instead, I’m going to talk about how we got here.

Surprise! It’s the billionaires. 

Yes, the wealthy are doing a great job propping up this would-be dictator(13).

Before I explain, I want to give a little bit of backstory. Let us remember back to 2020 and the height of COVID. Remember back to closed businesses and later, working from home for some of us that can do remote work. While you were stuck at home, business owners fumed because they were losing workers, customers, and therefore money.  So, the government rolled out a Paycheck Protection Program that was supposed to help small businesses affected by quarantines. 

It was lobbied by business that these loans should be forgiven quickly and easily instead of having to be paid back (14). Sounds reasonable, though, right? Perhaps, until you realize that most of the unforgiven loans did belong to small businesses. According to NPR, “Congress made PPP forgiveness rules increasingly lax because that's what businesses lobbied their elected representatives for”, but that didn’t exactly translate to the most vulnerable of 1 person businesses. 

The whole article is worth a read, but the gist of it is that the most vulnerable companies, the ones without a lot of employees, were the ones who ended up saddled with debt. Meanwhile, the larger companies, the ones with financial teams, mostly got theirs forgiven.

This follows a larger pattern of wealth transfer that happened during the pandemic. During just the first year, 2020, the wealth of the top 1% grew by 3.6 Trillion as millions fell into poverty around them.(15) Since then, the global top 10 richest billionaires saw their wealth double (16) by 2022, and in 2024 Forbes showed that American billionaires saw their wealth go up by 88% since the start of Covid (17).

But surely that is an aberration right? Not really. While the 1% lost money during the 2008 recession, they claimed most of the generated wealth afterwards (18). In fact, it seems to be a general theme that the inequality gap between rich and poor has skyrocketed, with the top 1% of earners gaining about 300% more income since 1989 whereas the bottom 50% have lost money(19). 

A big reason for that loss in money is that the minimum wage has not increased since July 2009 but US worker productivity has risen. If minimum wage increased with production, it would be $26 (20). I won’t even get into how much inflation has caused the dollar to be worth less, meaning that the same $7.25 buys less than ever. I’m sure you’ve all noticed this.

So this noticeably means that there is an income gap from what Americans are producing vs. what Americans are earning, which shows by just how bad the wealth inequality is in America (21). And around the world, but my specific frame of reference is the United States so that’s what I’m focusing on here.

And certainly, a big part of the political discourse right now does focus on where Americans are financially. However, this discourse usually falls short of addressing the wealth transfer that has taken place since COVID. Those days of working from home that became a reality for so many during the pandemic are being walked back by corporations (22). Why? Well, the reasons stated are many, but ultimately it boils down to firing those who won’t comply and hiring people that will. 

Or it could be that the value of corporate workspaces have plummeted since the pandemic (23). Corporations and their owners want to make good on the money they invested in the property and will do so. Even if remote work has benefits, which it does (24) (25), those are being overlooked in favor of the return to the status quo, and more profits.

Thank you for bearing with me while I laid the groundwork here. So far we have:

  • For the top 1%, wealth is growing extremely fast and they have benefited the most from global instability like the pandemic and recessions.

  • The poorest American’s buying power has decreased due to stagnant wages and inflation.

But one thing I haven’t touched on is how those same poorest Americans are struggling with other hardships placed, mostly, on AFAB Americans. I’m talking about the overturn of Roe V Wade and the subsequent banning of reproductive care throughout Conservative states. With punishments for doctors for helping with at-risk pregnancies (26), this has led to both more deaths of mothers (10) (27) and increased birth rates (28).

But wait! There’s also the, honestly, baffling decision to lower the age at which children can work, remove work permits (30), and how early they can do potentially hazardous jobs (31). All the while some of these same states are removing or reducing eligibility for school lunches for students (32).

Speaking of students, student loan forgiveness has been a big hot button issue for a while now. Presidential student loan forgiveness has been struck down over and over again because it loses loan companies money. No really. (33) If you have a student loan, the state your student loan handling company operates out of has probably sued the government to stop student loan forgiveness.

Let’s compare this to the business loans during the pandemic, the PPP loans. They were mostly forgiven to the tune of $755 Billion (34) while almost all of the student loan forgiveness programs, totalling $175 Billion (35) so far, have been blocked.

I know this is a lot, but bear with me.

The final bit of groundwork I want to lay is on the media in the USA. I’ve referenced a lot of news agencies, but the fact of the matter is, many news agencies in America are being increasingly bought by wealthy investors (36). It’s been happening for a while too (37). They are even forcing local news agencies to read scripts provided by ownership (38) to create a singular narrative. This includes recent cases where the billionaire owners veto certain opinions or articles from appearing in the paper. (39)

So wait, what gives here? What does all this have to do with the election?


Well, here are the points I’ve made so far:

  • For the top 1%, wealth is growing extremely fast and they have benefited the most from global instability like the pandemic and recessions.

  • The poorest American’s buying power has decreased due to stagnant wages and inflation.

  • Industries will move against the best interests of employees and the planet for return on investment.

  • The repeal of Roe V Wade has increased both birth rate and maternal mortality rate in states where bans are in place.

  • Many of these same states are removing protections of children, removing or restricting access to school lunches and laxing work requirements which potentially expose children to dangerous situations.

  • Businesses have had 4.3x the amount of loans forgiven than all of the student loan forgiveness programs, but PPP forgiveness has not been blocked by courts.

  • Billionaires are buying up media and news outlets, using them as mouthpieces, or potentially not reporting on things that shake the status quo too much.

Now let’s add to it. 

We have a candidate that:

  • Is a pathological liar and narcissist (1) (2)

  • Has a cult like following that will follow his every word

  • Has stated, openly, that he will take bribes (40)

  • Has promised tax cuts (41) and tariffs (42) that would overwhelmingly benefit the richest Americans more so than the bottom 90%

  • Has promised to give cabinet positions to a very prominent donor (43) (44)

  • Is easily manipulated by flattery (45)

  • Has received donations mostly from the extremely wealthy (46)

Let’s keep going. We’re almost there, I promise.

  • The extremely wealthy are pushing for more workers to make them more money (30-32) (47)

  • The wealthy, through their representatives, are pushing for Social Security to be raised (48)

Which then brings me to my point, finally:

  • The wealthy want a poor, desperate, workforce that will be shackled to corporations from the time they are a teenager until their seventies, or longer! (49)

  • They will get that with abortion bans, removing protections from the vulnerable, and making it so more of the money created by the workers stays in the hands of the business owners.

  • They are willing to wreck the economy in order to buy up the rubble, again, while the costs are low (50) . 

  • And they have a candidate they can flatter and bribe to get exactly what they want.

These titans of industry want you to be born in poverty and be reliant on your job in order to survive. They want you desperate and they want you stuck. That’s how they continue to make money. A struggling family forced to have a kid means there are more people in the Human Resource supply for these companies. The more of a resource there is, the less it costs based on supply and demand. They want a bigger supply to keep wages down so the profits can go up. Even though many (51), many (52), many (53) companies are experiencing record profits, it's still not enough. The drive for more means that workers need to be desperate, and they didn’t see that during COVID. 

The Media is Complicit

“Enough of the doom and gloom,” you may say, “this is all just conjecture! What does that have to do with the election?”

The news organizations, most of which are owned by billionaires remember, have done a terrible job talking about just how un-serious of a candidate Trump is. If you haven’t heard any of the information I’ve shared through sources so far, it’s likely because those are blips on the media radar while they actively try to pit everyday Americans against each other. They are ‘sane-washing’ Trump’s speeches (54) in order to help him seem more legitimate. They peddle his lies (55) and mislead audiences (56) to make it seem like this race is closer than it is. They ignore Trump’s mental decline (57) while vilifying Biden’s (58). Criticism is handed out to Harris for not being flawless, while Trump sways to music instead of answering questions at his rally and makes up words.(59)

This is all to keep the massively corrupt, easily bribable candidate in the running while in any sane, unbiased land, the coverage would hold every candidate to the same standard.

You could argue that this is also to prevent retaliation (60) from the supporters of the corrupt candidate, but this just ends up as appeasement (12) (61) which only cements the behavior as effective. Which honestly just shows how much the bullying mentality that Trump represents has infected American discourse in the last--God has it really been like 10 years?

So remember, through all the threats of violence and retribution, through all of the pearl-clutching, and hand waving, that your vote is secret and safe. No one can see how you voted for, only that you did vote (62). 

And also remember that the richest of the rich, the ones with more money than God, have sided with the fascist because profits matter more than rights. They want you to be miserable and poor so you’re desperate enough to work for less. You aren’t a human to them, only a resource. A resource to be used and obtained at the lowest possible cost. A vote for Trump is a vote against yourself. Even if you aren’t a minority (63), or trans (64), or a woman (65). Even as a white, cis man, a vote for Trump is a vote against yourself because you are closer to being homeless than a billionaire.

Now listen, I know Harris isn’t without flaws. My metamore, Ikenna, did a great piece on that very feeling (66) and it echoes how I feel for the most part. Especially that we can’t heal the world if we can’t heal ourselves. This election is that. We have to heal the wounds between ourselves first before we can help the world at large. Especially since the other candidate would be so much worse (67).

With just 5 days to go until the election that decides if we stay a democracy or if we slip into a full blown fascist state with an oligarchy running the show. If you haven’t already, please register to vote, as there is still time in many states.(68)

Just remember that your vote matters.


Written by Justin Ebersole.

Justin Ebersole
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