Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
Elon Musk is running roughshod over the federal government, seeking spending cuts at the direction of Donald Trump. Is he breaking the law? Is he violating the Constitution? How do you explain the conflicts of interest considering he holds government contracts?
These are questions that fill the media and social media as Musk has suddenly become a dominant figure in American life. Let me just say that I made up my mind about Musk long ago, and I shared my opinion with him directly on X in December 2023.
I posted the following: “What I’ve learned here on X: Elon Musk is smart. He is not wise.” I received a direct message back that was from an Elon Musk account. (Maybe it was him, but doesn’t he have better things to do than react to me?) It said, “Hello thanks for your support in my dream and career I’m happy to have you as a fan.” (It was sent without punctuation.) I responded by simply saying, “I am not a fan.”
“Ohh really” came the response, followed by “Good bye then.”
See, I was once a prolific user of Twitter, now X, but am frustrated by the disinformation, misinformation and absolute lack of joy that I find there since Musk took over the platform.
And much of what you find on X these days, as well as on Facebook and other social media sites, are essays that serve as examples of Trump Derangement Syndrome. I have friends with acute cases. They sometimes post multiple times a day, expressing shock and disgust at what the new president is doing. The posts from Trump supporters, meanwhile, indicate they are the poorest winners of all time.
The goings-on in Washington (and Indianapolis, for that matter) are alarming to me, but I can’t bring myself to comment publicly on every move I perceive as mistaken. I will say that I saw a quote from Dan Rather the other day that I agree with, and I don’t often agree with him. He said, “Now is not the time to check out. It is the time to lean in.”
So, while I’m not doing repeated social media posts, I do make political statements here and there. For example, there is a flagpole in front of my house, and below the American flag flies the Ukrainian flag. It is a statement in support of democracy. The other day, a friend said he stopped flying the American flag at his house because he was afraid it would appear like he was supporting Donald Trump. Let me say that I support any and every president, but the Ukrainian flag helps make it clear that I am not Make America Great Again. (It also helps reduce my wife’s criticism that the flagpole makes our house look like a government facility.)
That house, by the way, is insured under a policy that was recently changed. I just got a notice from my insurance company informing me that my policy has a war exclusion. That’s right, I cannot collect if my home is damaged by “war and war-like activity including undeclared or civil war … insurrection, rebellion, revolution … or action taken by a state or government … defending against any
of these.”
Trump is responsible for the only insurrection in my memory, so it appears that things he and Musk are doing really do affect me. And I was worried about the $4.99 I paid for eggs this morning.•
__________
Shella hosted WFYI’s “Indiana Week in Review” for 25 years and covered Indiana politics for WISH-TV for more than three decades. Send comments to ibjedit@ibj.com.
Click here for more Forefront columns.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.