WILL THE REAL VICTIMS PLEASE STAND UP . . . PLEASE . . . YES, I MEAN YOU!

Abstract: Wealthy and powerful figures, particularly Donald Trump and Elon Musk, increasingly garner supporters by falsely portraying themselves as victims to gain political influence. This "Victimhood Party," driven by self-interest and supported by a base fueled by hatred and misinformation, is dismantling essential social programs, promoting discriminatory policies, and expanding presidential powers. Trump and Musk, despite their lack of relevant experience, are manipulating the levels of power, exploiting this narrative to consolidate their power and advance policies that disproportionately benefit the ultra-rich while harming marginalized communities. This more than slightly sardonic essay combining humor and advocacy is a call for resistance against this destructive force, urging you, the real victims of these policies, to stand up and challenge the false narrative of victimhood being propagated by the self-appointed elite.

Victimhood: “the condition of having been hurt, damaged, or made to suffer, especially when you want people to feel sorry for you because of this or use it as an excuse for something” (Cambridge Dictionary) The vocabulary of victimhood is barely disguised code for bigotry, hatred, fear. A moment of silence while we shed pity upon Elon Musk and Donald Trump, their army of mini-clones infesting all the government offices for which they have no qualifications or training, and all the red-hatted MAGA folk likewise, supposed victims all of woke, of the transgender, of all the black-brown-liberal-gay-queer-communist-well educated -- and probably of us short people of America as well when they get around to casting more blame and run out of their usual go-to targets.

This is how one gets seizes power nowadays, by proclaiming his victimhood, not only in America, viz the growth of extreme right wing neo-Nazi parties around the world taking a page, even a chapter from the book of King Donald I (which, by the way, he likely has never read, not being much of a reader himself). Trump who was only occasionally seen in a church for weddings, funerals and special religious events after his sudden epiphany now claims to be anointed by god to lead the folk out of the valley of despair. He has actually installed in the White House a task force to “eradicate anti-Christian bias”, which in Trump world I suppose passes for separation of church and state. That sound you hear is Thomas Jefferson turning over in his beautiful D.C. tomb. Along with professedly non-religious apartheid-era South African born Elon Musk they claim to provide moral leadership. They are tragically wrong, they are empowering the bigots, the violent, and the hateful, but of course they must know that and this is all a sham.

How does one become a leader of this victimhood cabal? Easy. It’s open to anyone with a billion dollars; it may even help, perhaps, to include in the resume a shady past, multiple busted marriages, an unbroken history of greedy selfishness, or a newly discovered impulse for slavish worship of the other rich and powerful. Do I need to name other billionaires sheepishly falling in line (B or Z?) -- and in the process incidentally destroying the Washington Post as a leading paper of record or ending any semblance of fact checking on Facebook, thus destroying any remaining semblance of credibility for either medium.

Ostensibly-president Trump and in-reality-CEO Musk, what a rude, obnoxious, no-class, yet rather pathetic pair to put in charge: the one who always manages to look out of place sloppy in the White House (button your suit jacket, Donald, if you can, or have it let out by your tailor, and learn how to tie your necktie so it doesn’t look like a long red arrow pointing to your crotch) the other in his ridiculous black baseball hat and techie tee shirt (I can’t but wonder, does he wash it or own a hundred of the same model, or heaven forbid, wear the same one over and over -- unwashed -- in the Oval Office?). While neither has any education or prior experience in government or the military -- or indeed any broad business experience outside their narrow niches -- like two super-rich spoiled children, they’re playing smash and grab, only now with very fabric of the United States. Most definitely not “stable geniuses”. The viciousness and even the frequent absurdity of their pronouncements know no bounds: one day they make an outlandish false claim, the next day they walk it back, all the while proclaiming victory -- yet it becomes evident that people are dying as a result. Some of us are getting dizzy trying to keep up.

So as a result, I’m still in a holding pattern of sorts not knowing where it all goes from here but increasingly certain it won’t end well. It’s fair at this point, however to ask, do Donald Trump and Elon Musk actually stand FOR anything?

-- We know both favor ending foreign aid programs, abruptly shutting down government health, food, democratization, and public education programs domestically and internationally no matter how many suffer or die.

-- Both aim to cut off Medicaid benefits to the poor, end food programs for children, terminate foreign aid to the most downtrodden people in the world, fire thousands of federal employees indiscriminately whether they’re doing an outstanding job or not, while Trump wants to annex Gaza and Greenland . . . and Canada.

-- We know Musk hates unions and so does Trump who appointed anti-union officials to the NLRB, supported ‘right-to-work’ laws and wants to fire any civil servant who disagrees with his politics

-- Both dislike public transport, Musk because one has to be among “random strangers, one of whom might be a serial killer.” Trump is trying to undercut New York’s congestion pricing plan designed to raise large sums for public transportation and reduce the number of cars on the city’s clogged streets and brags of his regal authority to do so.

-- Both Musk and Trump hate all diversity programs. Both have a history of racial discrimination, Trump in his real estate ventures and Musk paying out millions of dollars to Black workers subjected to racial harassment at Tesla. Trump by executive order has offered “refugee status” in the U.S. to rich white South Africans because he says they are downtrodden; remember Elon was born in apartheid-era South Africa and still has S.A. citizenship.

-- Both have incredibly parsimonious records as far as charitable giving, Musk’s so-called charitable foundation is continually in violation of the IRS rules for minimum annual donations from approved charitable funds, and those donations it does make are usually barely disguised investments to advance the interests of Musk’s SpaceX venture, like food or housing for people adjacent to SpaceX who just might be or become employees. Donald Trump, on the other hand, goes one better: he had a fake charitable fund until 2019 when the New York Attorney general showed it was guilty of persistent misuse of funds for personal and political purposes; Trump paid $2 million as part of a settlement and admitted to the misuse plus accepting restrictions on future involvement in charitable organizations.

-- Musk is an avowed “pronatalist”: “Population collapse due to low birthrates is a much bigger risk to civilisation than global warming,” he said. And he has done his bit, fathering a dozen children with whom he has varying relationships, mostly strained and tumultuous, although he brought one into the Oval Office to show what a good daddy he is — until baby Musk had to be banished for picking his nose and rubbing his gooey hand on the Resolute Desk until then used by the famously germaphobe president — after that it was bye bye kid. Of course the world’s population continues to expand, and there are plenty of people available, but neither Trump nor Musk would be happy to solve the alleged American population shortage with perfectly capable immigrants who might be a shade darker in color.

All this to reverse the imagined victimization of the richest people in the world who are growing richer by the minute as these astonishing proposals spill forth.

I still keep trying to ken what Musk/Trump are FOR as opposed to tearing down. We do know they want vast expansion of presidential powers, tariffs, lower taxes for the ultra-rich, increased fossil fuel production, and deporting fifteen million residents, more than half of whom are believed to be gainfully employed and tax-paying. And, to dispel any thought that he isn’t focused on the big picture, Trump found time to appoint himself chair of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and terminate people from the board because they didn’t “share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture” and had “featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth – THIS WILL STOP”. Have I missed anything significant they are espousing?

Thus the platform of the Victimhood Party under the leadership of two of the richest men in the world. While their popular support seems to slip, what surprises me is how durable it seems with Republican voter registration on the rise. People abound who delight in hurling hatred at liberals and even what we used to call moderate Republicans. The letters to editor columns print their screeds; Tucker Carlson makes millions preaching their vile anger; ex-con Steve Bannon is in full voice. It seems the Victim Party is bent on tearing things down and is hard pressed to build anything constructive with, sadly, the Democratic Party dithers.

Of course the rest of us are the real victims; the doors of the Victimhood Party are not open to us, yet the Victimhood Party may rule for generations. Please someone prove me wrong. Please stand up!

Arne Werchick, after fifty years as a litigation attorney with emphasis on medical-legal issues, pro tem judge, law writer and lecturer, former Presiding Arbitrator of the State Bar of California, and past president of the California Trial Lawyers Association, moved to Hawaii and lives with his wife Ruth and their rescue dog Topaz. He can be contacted at liberalmind@werchick.com.