I was traveling last week and came across live footage of what looked like a war zone.
Unable to look away, I quickly learned that this was what remained of the East Wing of
the White House, formerly known as the People’s House.
By the time I reached my destination and checked back in, all I saw on an aerial view
was a pile of rubble where just the day before a graceful structure had stood. The
comfortable symmetry of the building was destroyed.
It was hard to escape the realization that the era when our presidents embraced the
American ideal of a government of the people, by the people, and for the people is
officially over. I keep reminding myself that just a couple of weeks ago, citizens in New
Hampshire and across the country marched in protest. Our president is not a king.
Not long before our march, the president had unveiled a plan to build an addition to the
People’s House. This has continued to morph and balloon into an embarrassing
monument to further stroke his fragile ego. The garish, gilded makeover he had already
inflicted on the rest of the White House was apparently only a teaser feeding his
insatiable appetite for the trappings of royal power.
With no input from the people who elected him, and essentially zero congressional
oversight, or even review by some sort of planning or historical preservation board, he is
building a $300 million, 90,000 square foot ballroom in place of the East Wing. A
ballroom that dwarfs the People’s House. The perfect place for the unconscionably
lavish entertainment of 999 of his most extraordinarily wealthy, beholden supporters.
While all this is unfolding before our eyes, his plans go forward to capitalize on the
government shutdown. He has not lifted a ringed finger to stop it. He has fabricated an
enemy out of his duly elected opposition. Do a web search of federal agencies, and
every site leads with a statement blaming the Democratic Party for the fact that there is
no one there to answer questions or provide needed assistance.
He continues to slash the federal workforce we all rely on, and allows the Speaker of
the House and the Majority Leader of the Senate to blame the Democrats and send our
representatives home on a paid vacation now lasting more than a month. Essential
federal workers must work without pay, but our essential representatives are paid and
instructed to shirk their responsibility to pass legislation for the good of the people.
And if the shutdown continues past the first of November, he is forbidding the release of
funds that would enable payments for food for the poorest Americans. He blames this
as well on the Democrats. The SNAP Program, better known as food stamps, will dry up
with a snap of his fingers. The wealthiest president of the wealthiest nation on Earth
does not lose sleep over whether 41 million Americans have to go to bed hungry. He
must be thinking that if they have no bread they can simply eat cake.
When are we going to wake up to the fact that this man has the interests of no one but
himself at heart? He prides himself on having the Midas Touch. He has touched the
White House, and everything in it has turned to faux gold. He will have his awful
ballroom, and will fill its gilt halls with sycophants.
Somehow he misses the point that the mythical King Midas, who was so successful in
turning his world into gold, touched his daughter, the only one he cared about besides
himself, and she became a lifeless block of gold at his hand forever. Is that where our
democracy is headed? I’m afraid. We all should be.
Millie LaFontaine is a retired neurologist who lives in Concord.