Ms. Vivian Jenna Wilson…and America

I’m not normally a big reader of TeenVogue, but the most recent issue contains an article of real importance to us all, Vivian Jenna Wilson on Being Elon Musk’s Estranged Daughter, Protecting Trans Youth and Taking on the Right Online, by Ella Yurman with Photography by Andy Jackson. In it, Ms. Wilson comes across as an intelligent, thoughtful, assertive, and attractive young person of whom any normal dad would be proud. 

Except, of course, she is Elon Musk’s daughter, and Voorsitter (look it up) Musk is anything but a normal father. He has famously rejected her and says that she was “killed by the woke mind virus.”

One wonders how dreadfully hard it was (and is) to be his child. But there's a larger issue here, of course. Her Dad is now everyone’s Dad. That is, he is President or Co-President or CEO or Voorsitter or whatever for the whole country. Meaning that his attitudes and activities impact us all.

Which makes this article and interview with Ms. Wilson particularly important. It gives some insight into who Elon is and what he might do.

And, alas, unlike his daughter, we cannot fly to Japan to escape him.

Voorsitter Musk

Elon Musk is now either running the American government or trying very hard to do so. He seems to be calling the shots at the White House while his nominal boss heads out for another round of golf. 

But the question is, what do we call him? Co-President Musk? Prime Minister Musk? Grand High Poobah Musk? It’s a puzzle.

I, however, have a suggestion. Let’s call him Voorsitter Musk. That’s Afrikaans for “Chairman.” It’s from the Dutch voorzitter, which means the same thing.

I think Voorsitter would make a great title for our fearless leader. For one thing, Elon Musk is not of Afrikkans-descent, but he is of South African origin, and so there is a nice continuity there. And, besides, he just looks like a Voorsitter, don’t you think?

Oh, and if you added an “h” in just the right place…

Well, you get the point.

~mjt

His Majesty Musk, First Shogun

Speaking of the Trump/Musk relationship, the power of the latter seems enormously more real than the power of the former. It does feel like a Monarch/Prime Minister relationship. Or, as I’ve said before, if you want to use a chess metaphor, then a stationary king and an all-powerful Queen.

Actually, I suppose we’ve been working toward that…at least with GOP presidents…for quite some time. Reagan, by the end of his term, was largely a symbolic figure, wheeled out to make pronouncements, and then wheeled back in to resume his nap. Real governing was done by the powers behind the throne. Similarly, George W. Bush was more a head of state than a head of government, and genuine power devolved to Dick Cheney. Now, with the second Trump Administration, we’ve gone all the way to golfer-in-chief (Trump) and a national Corporate CEO (Musk).

But I wonder how comfortable Trump should be with that. Yes, it gives him lots of time to work on his birdie, but the position of do-nothing-king is not a long term profession.

One will recall that shoguns and majordomos and others have the interesting habit of deposing and replacing their kings.

And sometimes removing a royal head in the process. 

Again, Steve Bannon

Steve Bannon is, of course, no fan of Elon Musk, whom he understandably despises for taking the role he’d planned for himself, that is, all-powerful head-of-government to Trump’s largely symbolic position as head-of-state. Or, if you prefer a chess metaphor, magisterial Queen to his impotent King. 

Perhaps, then, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Bannon has equally little love for the tech company CEOs and other powerful men who make up Trump’s government. In a recent CNN interview, Bannon said that Musk and other tech “oligarchs” will abandon Trump and the MAGA movement as soon as they can profitably do so. 

It is intriguing that I disagree with Mr. Bannon on so very many things…but, now and then, I found myself admiring his political sagacity, for in this he is undoubtedly correct. The oligarchs will turn on MAGA at the first available opportunity. They are not even wolves in sheep’s clothing. They are simply wolves counting on the sheep to somehow pretend that they are shepherds.