An elephant in the room is an ironical suggestion that what is really at stake is huge but somehow unnoticed. This is a good description of the out-sized role of the one percent in the actions of the GOP. To the one percent, I add the next four percent because wealth in America does not just favor the very top but those who serve them. This embraces upper management of all major institutions and the upper echelons of business, foundations and everything else. We could call them "The Five," but that's already taken.
The health bill is a misnomer
The current fiasco known as Trumpcare is a perfect example of how the elephant works.
The bill should be called the "Five Percent Empowerment Act." The precise amount that the proposed Trump legislation robs from Medicaid will be a tax cut for the 5 percent. There will be no applause, and there will be no bump in our dysfunctional, stock-based economy. The 5 per cent keeps its lips buttoned and does not live as we do. It thrives on not producing much at all.
An imaginary world
If you think we are living in a real world, think again. We are living in a world where even elephants are being decimated, where the climate is being systematically destroyed, and theology has been placed in the deluded hands of five percenters including Franklin Graham, Donald Trump, and Betsy DeVos. These are the custodians of a worldview that has little to do with reality.
The reality is about progress and making earth heavenly, as the Lord's Prayer suggests. We get there in spite of, not because of, these folk.
Health disaster
The bottom line on health is the giveaway the GOP hides behind its shopworn rhetoric. The actual results of this gift are so unspeakable that they will be largely ignored, along with the deaths of children due to gun violence and traffic accidents, and the suicides of veterans traumatized by the casual decisions of the five percent.
The dinner table conversation of the rich will be, "At least, this is not" followed by the name of the poor country de jour.
Spoiler alert
These are the people who rose up after the establishment I grew up in proved a bit too polite for what was coming. I know how rich people behave and how little they care. Save for their Arcade Fire-educated offspring who now have a menu of readily available killer drugs to keep them company. I know the ways of privilege and noblesse oblige. To escape this alive is an admirable and saving feat.
My moral: Know what Trump and company are doing and decide if you really like it.
