The inequity of inequality: Life on a tilted playing field

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,…”
~ Preamble to the United States Declaration of Independence

A new year is upon us. Now as we turn the page to write the next chapter into the annals of American history, we do so at a moment of great political dissonance. Ahead of us lies looming governmental dysfunction, growing civil unrest and unabated planetary distress. At such a perilous time, I find myself thinking back to the brave beginnings of our noble experiment in self governance. That very first chapter of American history was written with the hope that such a government of, by and for the people would afford us the best chance of success in our just pursuit of life, liberty and happiness for all.

In particular, I’m pondering today that opening sentence of the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence, a document painstakingly wordsmithed by its primary author. His task was to craft a monumental document that would answer the call of Thomas Paine’s provocative epistle, Common Sense, to an aggrieved populace and provide the rationale for the colonists’ rebellion against the British Crown.

This proclamation of independent rule would be the key to unlock the chains of Monarchy and set the colonies free to build the road leading to that “shining city on a hill,” a Democratic Republic par excellence. But with what turn of the key would the author begin such as auspicious document? For Thomas Jefferson the answer would come in the form of a common sense, matter-of-fact assertion: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,…”

Yet how antithetical it is that those “self-evident truths” of universal equality that introduce America’s founding document were penned by the wealthy white male owner of the sprawling 5,000 acre plantation on the little hill (Monticello) outside Charlottesville, Virginia, land which he had inherited at the age of 14 from his father. By the time of his death, some of the enslaved families that worked the land and tended the buildings would have lived and labored there for four generations. Furthermore, six of them would have been sired by the Master himself as a result of his enigmatic 38 year relationship with Sally Hemmings, an enslaved woman and mistress who worked in the household.

This lead author of America’s Declaration of Independence was a classic example of the elite, wealthy colonial enslaver whose racial prejudice was on par with the norms of his day, as is revealed in his Notes on Virginia where he writes that the white race was superior to other races in both psychological and physiological ways. Looking back now through the objective lens of history, those noble, grandiloquent words of Mr. Jefferson that grace America’s founding document sound more like a “Do as I say, and not as I do” statement than an “I say what I mean, and I mean what I say” pronouncement of fact and faith.

Today the grandiose 249 year old saga of American history, that myth of American exceptionalism, and the current MAGA movement to reconstitute the ‘good old days’ of ‘us vs. them’ white privilege and nativism must be tempered by the whole truth of history. Such an objective truth tells the tale of inequality fighting to maintain its all powerful place in the hierarchy of American society.

At the crux and core of America’s inability to embody the hopes and dreams espoused at its inception is the inequity (aka injustice, unfairness) of inequality that tears apart the moral fiber of a nation whose actions fail to live up to its aspirations. President Obama called it out in December of 2013 when he declared “a dangerous and growing inequality and lack of upward mobility … is the defining challenge of our time”.

Twelve years later that challenge continues to grow. In 2024 the inequity of inequality was the ill wind that continued to fan the flames of incendiary discontent, despair and divisiveness across the nation racing toward perhaps its most consequential Presidential election since 1860.

When all-powerful purveyors of prejudice and propaganda, and when deviant denizens of deceit ensnare victims in their web of inequality and feed them from their disingenuous silos of fear, alarm, anger, enmity, tribalism, nativism and the like, we find ourselves living in the midst of the perfect storm of inequities. One of the greatest inequities to assail us in the current chaotic storm of political populism is the ascent of plutocrats and oligarchs whose riches and influence fuel the flames of America’s ever growing wealth inequality.

The chilling effect of this inequality was seen in the outcome of last November’s election. In the midst of a post-pandemic American economy and job growth that has been the envy of the rest of the world, a slim majority of Americans voted against their best economic interests because they could not see and did not feel those economic benefits come home to roost in their kitchens, living rooms and garages.

Those benefits (spoils) went primarily to the minuscule number of the super rich who play the economics game on an unequal playing field drastically tilted in their favor. The administration of the past four years, coming out of a world wide pandemic, has sought to level that playing field in favor of the masses. It has been a game of  Bidenomics vs. the old Reaganomics (bottom up economics vs. trickle down economics).

But at the start of 2025 the top 10% of wealthy Americans still control 60% of the nation’s wealth, while the poorer half of the country holds only 6%, according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office. The top 1% of households hold 30.3% of the total wealth, according to the Federal Reserve. While the United States is considered the richest country in the world, still 37.9 million (11.5%) of its residents live in poverty. The 2024Federal Poverty Level for a family of three is $25,820. This vast concentration of wealth among the few leads to societal unrest, increased poverty, limited access to healthcare and education for the majority, and political influence disproportionately held by the wealthy.

Under the incoming administration with deregulation and major tax breaks for the richest among us being their primary agenda, this wealth disparity can only increase. And as of the writing of this post, the President elect has already appointed 13 billionaires for top jobs in his administration, while a corrupt transition fund is ballooning with gifts from others (think Bezos , Zuckerberg et al). This is the definition of plutocracy and oligarchy, and the antithesis of the just democracy the Founding Fathers hoped, prayed and worked for.

And as we enter 2025 there is an odoriferous Musky scent permeating Mar-a-Lago as the world’s richest man ($447 billion as of 12/11/2024) now serves as the incoming President’s political and economic muse. This privileged role was purchased by donating over a quarter of a billion dollars to get Trump elected. That political investment has already increased Elon Musk’s personal wealth since the Trump victory by 77% according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. And it was this non-elected private citizen who last month under threats to withhold election donations, called upon Republican legislators to shut down the government to further advance his own wealth.

Soon on January 20 the world’s richest man will join a wealth of other billionaires as part of Trump’s elite entourage. They will be witnesses to what their money has bought as he places his hand upon a Bible that to him is a mere prop to recite once again an oath that has no meaning to him. Perhaps this time around it will be the special inauguration Day Edition Bible, that same Bible he’s been peddling for $69.99 a pop. [search for meidasnews trump bible on your favorite web browser.] But none of the chump change that bible has brought in will be needed to fund the inauguration extravaganza to follow (or the ‘Victory Party’ held just prior to inauguration day).

Public Citizen’s Craig Holman expects Trump will exceed in 2025 the $107 million he raised for his 2017 inauguration, and ABC News has reported that Trump’s current inaugural committee is on pace to raise more than $150 million. This treasure chest will be stocked by individuals and corporations playing the part of ‘Wise Men’ laying their gifts at the feet of the newly inaugurated King. And where much of that loot ultimately finds a home beyond inauguration day, only God will know for sure.

And speaking of Bibles and God (as we often do), I wish to close with some wisdom that reveals the Deity’s desire for creating that level playing field on which all people can work and play as true equals. Not that long ago at the advent of a new liturgical year, we were reintroduced to John the Baptist, that prophetic field leveler sent by God to prepare the way for his cousin, Jesus of Nazareth, whose birth, life, death and resurrection would cause a cosmic seismic shift meant to balance the scales of justice for equity and equality. That great leveling began on the auspicious day that Jesus returned to his home town with the earth shaking announcement captured in Luke chapter 4. It can be thought of as Jesus’ Preamble to his Declaration of Dependence, dependence upon God to restore through him that level playing field where all God’s children are meant to play as equals:

“When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’”

Now, consider this. If this same evangelizing, liberating, healing and jubilee proclaiming Jesus were alive in the flesh today, there is no doubt that he would be invited by his ruling Christian Nationalist zealots to sit at the right hand of the incoming POTUS as he places his hand on the Inaugural Bible and repeats, “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Then at the opulent Inaugural Baal Ball Jesus might even be invited by the new President to don a red MAGA cap and say a few words to what would undoubtedly be reported as the largest crowd he had ever addressed this side of Heaven. I can imagine Jesus rising to the occasion with a response similar to this:
You may recall from your knowledge of Scripture that time I was invited by a prominent Pharisee to a banquet at his house. While all the guests jostled for places of honor at the table, I gave this piece of advice to the host. “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Luke 14:12-14

Then he might close his brief remarks as he so often did with this word of advice: “He that has ears to hear, let him hear.”

* * *

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
~ Abraham Lincoln