I’m losing my patience with rich old white people. And by “rich” I mean comfortable…people who are in absolutely no danger of not being able to pay their monthly bills and buy groceries. People who take vacations—without fail. And by “old” I mean people who were old enough to vote for or against Ronald Reagan at least once. People like me…and my friends..and my parents…and their friends.
We are the privileged. We can say what we want. We can protest publicly without fear. Nobody is going to deport us.
If people in this demographic haven’t publicly taken a side by this point, I really don’t want to sit around and make small talk with them anymore. Politely avoiding the big three (money, politics and religion) is so tedious. I really don’t give a shit if there’s a new Trader Joe’s opening near your house, if you haven’t done one single thing to denounce Trumpism. In fact, if you’ve never made it clear (through conversations, social media posts or other actions) that you do not support Trump, I’m just gonna assume you do. And in that case, I’m really done with you, with very few exceptions.
Other than a handful of federal judges, a couple of law firms, and Harvard University, there is really very little institutional power behind the resistance at the moment. The American people are the only thing that’s gonna stop this train.
And as a reminder, everything that we ever wanted for our children and grandchildren is at stake now—even for the rich white ones.
Public education, our great national parks, scientific research, the planet, equality, freedom, democracy, healthcare, world peace, the rule of law, economic security…we could lose it all.
If you think I’m exaggerating, please read this gift article from today’s NYT.
So, to my fellow old rich white people: be brave, do something, say something, write a blog or a Facebook post, contact your legislators, fly a diversity flag, make a sign, go to a protest (maybe your first!), confront your MAGA relatives, donate to the ACLU or another organization in the fight.
Then, maybe, I’ll be interested to hear a bit more about that new Trader Joe’s and whether or not they carry wine.

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Amen and bless their little hearts! Coming from a working class family, I already have a healthy dose of class resentment. Doesn’t take much to stir it up. 😉
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Thanks Laurie! (Kennebunkport? Nantucket? Bueller? 😉)
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Scary words: “We could lose it all.” It really is a scary time. Thanks for speaking up!
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Thanks Brian. I’ve really appreciated all your posts about civil rights history and DEI!
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I try. I wrote a piece this week about hypocrisy in Christianity that really could have been a commentary on politics too. Really kind of sad where we are.
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I’ll check it out!
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Great post! Different issues here but same circus. I was moved enough to write an article and send it off to an internet magazine yesterday having quietly seethed over Easter. I figure I’ll be dead soon, but there are three grandkids with a future to protect. My message to friends is ” get off your arses”.
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That’s it exactly! You should share your article on your blog. I’d love to read it.
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Haha. We’ll see.
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He is trying to control the flow of information (media) and ideas and free thinking (higher learning). We can’t let him win.
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