Honor

It's a concept completely out of the grasp of Elon Musk and Donald Trump. That bodes ill for the rest of us.

The American government, that masterpiece of human ingenuity that implemented the concept of three co-equal branches that provide the checks and balances we used to be famous for, runs on the honor system.

What do we do when the leader of our country has no honor? And how long will his supporters stand by him when his lies wind up hurting them and their families?

The vaunted Rule of Law? Out the window. Our chief executive is, by Supreme Court decree, above the law that no man has ever been above before. One of many clues in support of this notion is the fact that he pardoned even the most violent of the January 6 insurrectionists, then turned around and went after the FBI management and agents who investigated and arrested them. Firing the top brass in both federal law enforcement and the military underscores the point.

Loyalty Trumps the Rule of Law.

Say anything; then do what you will. Promises were made to be broken—especially campaign promises. There is no longer a so-called “Third Rail” in politics. (Electric trains run on power fed through the third rail. Touch it and die.) Donald Trump is a magician, or maybe an alchemist. Because he says the rules don’t apply to him, and they don’t. We have no enforcement mechanism to hold in check a man determined to roam free of legal constraint. He’s shown us that time and again.

Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid are no longer sacrosanct. Ironically, the states that take the most from the federal government are the reddest states. Residents of MAGA capitals like Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi will suffer more greatly than any other states.

Two points here: one, Elon Musk likes to call Social Security and entitlement, but it is not. It is an investment working Americans make in their future. Second, his big argument for tearing down Social Security is that Democrats use it to bring illegal immigrants here with the quid pro quo being, we’ll pay you via Social Security to vote for Democrats. Of course he said it on Fox News, so there was no journalist to call out this obvious lie. The truth is illegal immigrants who work and pay taxes are paying into the Social Security fund, but they are not able to extract money from it.

It’s hard to take Musk seriously after he wielded a chainsaw at the big conservative convention, CPAC. He was, hysterically, in his mind I suspect, illustrating cutting the federal government to ribbons. Market analysts and pundits had a field day on March 10th when Tesla Motors lost 15% of its value in one day (and 45% YTD). That equates to a loss of market value of $800B. They’re calling it the “Tesla Chainsaw Massacre.” Who says economists aren’t funny?

The final insult, the one that told me I could bear no more, was Musk calling Senator Mark Kelly (D-Decency), a retired Navy captain and fighter pilot who flew 39 sorties in the Gulf War before becoming an astronaut, a traitor for supporting Ukraine. Senator Kelly responded, “Traitor? Elon, if you don’t understand that defending freedom is a basic tenet of what makes America great and keeps us safe, maybe you should leave it to those of us who do.” That’s an honorable response. Definitely more restrained than I would’ve been.

People who skirt the spirit of the law but live within the letter of it, are bad enough. We see it every day as they register their cars in low- or no-road-tax states, then drive them where they actually live, in states that do have road usage taxes. Now we have people—powerful ones at that—who brag about gaming the system, violating both the spirit and the letter of the law.

These rampant, thoughtless cuts are not good for us in the long run. For instance, decimating the IRS helps only the uber rich who don’t want to pay their fair share, and hurts the average citizen who will now spend the rest of their life on hold trying to get a simple question answered.

The wealthy, and politically active Koch Bros may have been conservative in the extreme, but they obeyed the law and played by the rules.

If you want to give yourself and your billionaire friends a huge tax cut, you have to find meaningful savings somewhere. We should not be surprised that they are targeting $700B from Social Security.

Retired law professor, Sheila Kennedy, made this durable observation that goes pretty far in explaining what we’re seeing: Trump and Musk are systematically destroying the government agencies that monitor or prevent the illegal activities that enrich them.

We’re about to find out if dishonorable people will honor legal rulings intended to stop them. We may not want to know the answer.

©2025 Jon Sinton