A Virtual Church

Our de facto president

Yesterday

Time Magazine ran a cover picture of Elon Musk sitting behind the Resolute Desk, with the presidential flag and the United States flag framing him. A picture is worth a thousand words. 

The press conference in the Oval Office showed Musk standing at the right hand of Trump, fending off questions and outlining the plan of restructuring the government, while his four-year-old son, X, tells the president to “shush.” It is increasingly clear Elon Musk is running our government. 

Trump and Musk are tethered in a symbiotic relationship that benefits each of them. Trump’s campaign war chest benefits from Musk’s billions. Musk benefits as regulations are dropped, contracts are awarded, and taxes are lowered. This is a match made in heaven. 

Unelected, unvetted, unsupervised, undisciplined, and unleashed, Musk is tearing through the administrative state with a heavy hand doing harm, much of which we don’t even know yet. Rules and precedent, protocol, laws and facts be damned. It’s full speed ahead. 

Funding for research projects in universities across this nation has ceased. UNC, Duke, Wake Forest, ECU and others will be losing billions of dollars of research money. Our universities in NC are doing yeoman’s work in cancer research, Alzheimer’s, diabetes and heart disease research. All of us stand to lose in these cuts. In defending the expenditures, one commentator said, “Our universities host science.” I, for one, am thankful for that. 

US Aid to foreign countries contain starving populations that will not get food or medicines. US farmers are left holding bags of grain, unpaid while their products rot on the loading dock. The press and the arts are under siege. And the imperialist hand is renaming geography into its own image. 

Data banks are being breeched by the DOGE coup leaders. The IRS, banking and tax information is unlocked for the world to see and use. Social Security is on the chopping block, as well as Medicare, Medicaid, and the VA. 

Karl Rove reported, in the Wall Street Journal, a CBS poll indicating a 53% approval rating for Trump and evidently all that is happening in the great disruption. At Daytona, Trump got a roaring welcome by an adoring crowd. More than half of us apparently think it’s okay to tear the house down. Any dissent and resistance to what is going on is quickly chastised and shut up. 

Anne Applebaum, in The Atlantic, recently called what is happening in America “regime change.” Out with the old; in with the new. Destroying the Administrative state is the goal. The “new” will be a government model more akin to Autocracy. Such regime change has happened all over the world when charismatic personalities have persuasive skills. Even good people acquiesce to outlandish decisions that inflict pain as they push to have their way. 

We tried to tell you about Project 2025. This is the playbook of dismantling the American state and reshaping it into a government like Hungary and Russia. De facto presidents work well in those states. And in all of them real people suffer. 

Shrinking government to the bone is what is happening. Retooling the Justice Department, elimination of systems like Education, EPA, and Health Care will be handily done under the direction of Cabinet level people, acting on the President’s behalf, to carry out the dirty deeds of revenge and retaliation. Mr. Musk will cut funding and fire people at the President’s behest, without a thought of the harm being inflicted.  

That will continue until the President gets sick and tired of Musk’s silliness, immaturity, and the way Musk likes to hog the stage. 

Mr. Trump likes to keep people in tow, like he is doing with Eric Adams. Mayor Adams is not pardoned. Rather he is in a quid pro quo arrangement for helping with immigration enforcement in New York City. Border Czar Homan reminded him of that arrangement on Fox and Friends. 

Pay attention to the winners and the losers in this regime change. The progression of science, learning and the arts will be turned to regression as books are banned, labs are closed, vaccine mandates are dropped, and universities feel the pinch. It’s as if the desire is for a more ignorant, less healthy, poorer electorate begging on the palace steps for a morsal of food. History echoes loudly, “Let them eat cake.”

For those who voted to make America great again, enjoy the win. I’m glad you are happy. 

America going off the rails in a speedy, thoughtless attempt to please a king and a de facto president. The silence and complicity of Republicans in Congress, and the apparent disfunction of Democrats does not bode well for the future. 

It took 53 days to topple the democracy of Germany when Hitler was elected. I question if that is where we are headed. 

Lib Campbell is a retired Methodist pastor, retreat leader, columnist and host of the blogsite www.avirtualchurch.com. She can be contacted at libcam05@gmail.com  

 

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