The Most Deadly Sin

Before the election, the Washington Post did everything it could to downplay the threat to democracy that the election of Donald Trump would present. Now that he has implemented his entirely predictable plan to destroy our democratic system, Post articles I am reading are sounding the alarm. It is as though Paul Revere waited until the day after the British invasion to ride through town crying out, “The British came! ” Thanks, for letting us know, Paul. Post owner, Jeff Bezos has played his part in this disaster and I hope that the many more billions it will add to his coffers will give him comfort in his old age.

The power of greed is such that it has become a symbol of what this nation stands for. But greed on the part of the uber wealthy is only a small part of the greed that has led the nation to almost certain ruin. It has induced ordinary voters who should know better to place the most vile, greedy, dishonest man imaginable into the position of president. TWICE!

Case in point is an article in a recent edition of the Post that describes a woman who, thanks to Trump and Musk, lost her Ranger job with the National Forest Service (apparently Trump and Musk are unaware of the fact that our national parks generate $40 billion a year in income in addition to serving many other valuable purposes.)

After naïvely believing Trump’s assertion that he would make IVF free, being hyper-focused on her wish for this extremely expensive procedure, and believing her job would not be affected by the cuts to come, she ignored her own common sense and cast her critical vote in a swing state for Trump. Common sense should have told her that Trump not only didn’t give a rats hindquarters about IVF but, despite his claim to being “the father of IVF,” he probably didn’t even know what it was. If she had taken the time to talk to her doctor about the feasibility of free IVF, I am sure they would have disillusioned her. Moreover, had she’d bothered to learn how government works, she would have known Presidents don’t decide the costs of health care procedures.

Her tragic story will be repeated millions fold in the weeks and months to come as voters, motivated by ignorance and their own singularly focused greedy desires, become unemployed in droves. Federal layoffs are just the beginning. They will create a domino effect throughout the entire economy. Not only will these unemployed masses be unable to afford the necessities of life, let alone sophisticated medical treatment, but they will be, once again, surprised when they seek help from the social safety net that will be shredded and pulled out from under them by the same greedy bastards who decided national parks are better used for drilling oil than for the preservation of nature and the education of the public.

While I consider myself a compassionate person, I cannot muster an iota of sympathy for this woman and the millions of others like her who chose their own imagined financial gain over devotion to the basic principles on which this nation was (supposedly) founded.
Turning their backs on democracy and on less fortunate people on whose behalf social programs were enacted, they have turned their backs on themselves.

I suppose I am guilty of one of the seven deadly sins, wrath, when I imagine, with a certain amount of satisfaction that this woman may wind up, rather than protecting the nation’s glorious trees, being reduced to working 14 hour days picking their harvest. This task will no longer be the province of workers from abroad who were traditionally employed at slave wages and horrendous living conditions to pick crops. Voters have been convinced that the immigrants, who have provided vital services to us behind the scenes, are somehow a danger to the nation and should be kept out and deported. Should she be unable to secure such a position I’m sure there will be a lot of toilets that require cleaning and a host of a similar jobs to choose from. She would be relieved of her aspirations to obtain IVF since the healthcare industry will be decimated, and these procedures will no longer be available at any price except to the super rich. At any rate, when she is residing in a cardboard box, I doubt she will give much thought to bringing new lives into her brave new world.

Just prior to the 2008 election a friend of mine who was much more than comfortably well-off asked me whether I intended to vote for the Republican candidate. “Why should I do that?” I asked.

“Because it would be better for you,” he responded.

I glanced at the autographed photo of George W. and Laura Bush thanking him for his support that was displayed prominently on his mantle and considered for a moment to remind him that when the Democrats went out of office in the year 2000 there was a budgetary surplus of close to $300 billion. At that rate, the national debt would’ve been paid off by 2012. During the Clinton years, both he and I had done very well with our investments. Now, after eight years of Bush and Company, we were in the greatest recession in history since the crash of ’29 . My friend had persisted in his belief in the trickle down economics myth promulgated by Saint Ronald Reagan, and still believed in it, despite the fact that the only thing that had been trickling down on the common man during the years of Republican rule was a stream of warm yellow fluid, that the 1% were discharging from the balconies of their penthouses. Sadly, it is not only dyed in the wool Republicans who, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, believe that Republican administrations are better for the economy, but even a large proportion of Democrats.

I decided to refrain from stating these indisputable facts, asking instead, “And why would it be better for me?”

“It will be better for your finances,” he said.

To that I said, “I’m sure my finances and yours are going to be perfectly satisfactory regardless of who wins the election. What is better for me, and for you is what is better for the nation as a whole. You and I have absolutely no need for more wealth, but along with the rest of the fortunate ones, we need America to be a country that looks out for the welfare of its less fortunate. You and I will be far better off in a nation that protects its citizens from the greed of the wealthy and preserves our democratic system than we would be if we were carrying slightly thicker wallets and living in an oligarchy.”

This fellow, who graduated from Harvard with highest honors, his greed having superseded his genius IQ, looked at me with the most moronic expression one can imagine, struggling to process this simple fact, and concluded the conversation with a shrug of his shoulders.

Such is the power of greed, the most deadly of the seven deadly sins, that blinds the greedy to the folly of their own greediness.