Corruption and Circuses, but No Bread
Many promises were made during the 2024 campaign. Prices would come down on day one. Gas would be cheap. “Drill, drill, drill” would solve everything. Tariffs would make us rich. DOGE would cut trillions. America would make so much money that everyone would get a check. And, of course, there would be no new wars.
It was convincing enough to lock in 77 million votes and win the presidency. But there has been no economic boom. Inflation is worse, the job market has stalled, deficits are higher, wages are falling behind prices, unemployment is up, more people are uninsured, and there is a new war.
Through all of it, the public has been handed spectacle after spectacle. They’ve given us the circuses, but forgot the bread.
The White House lawn has been transformed from nature’s vibrant green into a monstrosity of steel, all so men can beat each other into submission in front of the President for his birthday. It is a cheap imitation of Rome’s brutal Colosseum.
This follows last year’s military parade for the President’s birthday. It was intended to be in the grand style of dictators abroad, but instead left people talking about a slow, squeaky tank and soldiers carrying drones down the street.
Since taking power, this administration has wanted to show that tough, manly men are back in charge. They will do what they want. They will apologize to no one.
That obsession with dominance has produced bizarre moments, such as the Secretary of Defense, who insists on being called the Secretary of War, delivering a strange rhyming declaration about “maximum lethality, not tepid legality,” as if the military’s problem was too much law and not enough bloodlust.
That kind of language creates a government that celebrates extrajudicial killings of supposed smugglers on the ocean. It becomes a threat to destroy civilian targets and end an entire civilization if demands are not met. It turns the military into a solution in search of problems.
That military was given an order to raid another country and abduct its leader back to the US, not in an effort to end a corrupt regime, but merely to shift the corruption to doing the bidding of the American President.
The same president who gives out favors in exchange for shiny baubles, pardons criminals as long as they support him, and threatens everyone who opposes him with baseless lawsuits.
We have a leader with authoritarian dreams, where no one can disagree with him without punishment. He wants banners of his face draping government buildings and statues erected in his honor. He stuck his name on the memorial for a different, better president. He wants his face on money and has his cabinet hold a roundtable of insincere praise to protect his fragile ego at every meeting.
While Americans are struggling to afford healthcare, the administration plans a giant arch. Instead of livable wages, statues are gilded in gold. In place of a balanced budget, demolition begins to make room for a $1 billion ballroom.
One man’s vanity projects have become the government’s top priorities.
What this administration has forgotten is that political corruption needs the bread to go along with the circuses. If people are struggling to put food on the table, pay their bills, and find a job, then they do not care how many spectacles you throw at them. None of it will be enough to distract them from their hardships. It will only highlight the extravagant opulence of a government completely out of touch with the public.
This is the administration’s “let them eat cake” moment: a president dismissing affordability as a hoax while families are watching groceries, gas, healthcare, and housing put them deeper into debt.
The good news is that, unlike France or America in the 1700s, we do not need a revolution to fix this. We need to vote.
Vote for people who care more about grocery bills than gold statues. Vote for people who believe in affordable healthcare rather than military pageantry. Vote for people who understand that public office is not a stage for sycophancy, but a job serving the public.
That is how we create a better America.