Opinion - Democrats must strike a balance between strength and empathy
The Tesla CEO exposed his contempt for compassion in an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan. The headline in the CNN digital story says it all, 'Elon Musk wants to save Western civilization from empathy.' The hit 1960s song by Jackie DeShannon, 'What the world Needs Now (is Love, Sweet Love),' is not in the rotation on Musk's Spotify playlist but 'Sympathy for the Devil' by the Rolling Stones probably gets lots of action.
President Trump's enforcer told Rogan, 'The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy, the empathy exploit.' He went on to say, 'There they're exploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response.'
Musk pointed to seniors who are recipients of Social Security in the same interview. He portrays the program as a fraudulent 'Ponzi Scheme' even though Social Security has saved millions of Americans from deprivation and despair in their twilight years.
He also took a shot at immigrants and accused them of exploiting the 'bug' in his uncaring authoritarian system. The very same people, like my great grandparents, who come to the U.S. seeking political freedom and economic opportunity for themselves and their children. The immigrants who made this a great nation built on their blood, sweat and tears.
Foolish me, I always thought that the flaws in civilization were the destructive wars that cause senseless deaths, mass famine and widespread homelessness. Little did I know. You can make a strong argument that the greed that leaves millions in abject poverty to satisfy the whims of bloodless billionaires was the real bug in our behavior. I would have never guessed that empathy is the big problem facing the modern world.
A student once asked the famous anthologist Margaret Mead what the first sign of civilization was. She replied that the first sign was a healed human femur. It was a sign that a wounded person must have received help from others. Helping someone else is where civilization starts.
Musk may not have much sympathy for seniors, immigrants or hungry kids but he does have a soft spot for cruel and callous dictators who were responsible for the murders of tens of millions of people. In his now deleted diatribe that he shared on X, he wrote 'Stalin, Mao and Hitler didn't murder. Their public sector employees did.' Musk's attitude explains his buddy Trump's loving embrace of the Russian murderous dictator, Vladimir Putin.
The Trump and Musk crusade against empathy is vividly apparent in wholesale draconian budget cuts.
There have been untold Trump unfeeling cuts in vital federal programs, but one outrageous example stands out. Last week the U.S. Department of Education eliminated funding for a program which gave schools the money to buy fresh food for students from local farmers and fishermen. It put much needed money into the hands of cash-strapped farmers and put healthy food into the stomachs of hungry kids. It was a win-win for everyone except for MAGA brutalists.
This is the worst of both worlds for struggling middle class and poor families. Working families are having an even harder time making ends meet from rising inflation, which Trump pledged to reduce on Day One of his second term. Meanwhile, their financial struggles will only get worse because of the president's call for blockbuster tariff increases and his destruction of the social safety net that protects families during tough times.
The Trump faithful love to quote scripture but they never mention Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of St. Matthew. 'Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they will be filled.'
No one will ever confuse Trump and his courtiers with the Care Bears. Democrats ooze with empathy but don't show enough spine. My party needs to strike a balance between strength and empathy because uncaring Republicans under Trump never will.
Brad Bannon is a national Democratic strategist and CEO of Bannon Communications Research which polls for Democrats, labor unions and progressive issue groups. He hosts the popular progressive podcast on power, politics and policy, Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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