{"id":97,"date":"2026-05-19T19:39:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T19:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/propertyrelocationusa.com\/?p=97"},"modified":"2026-05-19T19:39:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T19:39:25","slug":"the-republic-is-burning-while-these-liberal-buffoons-disgrace-themselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propertyrelocationusa.com\/?p=97","title":{"rendered":"The republic is burning \u2014 while these ‘liberal’ buffoons disgrace themselves"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Bill Maher and Sen. John Fetterman sat around joking about Donald Trump\u2019s new White House ballroom like a couple of wealthy guys at a country club joking over cocktails as the republic burns outside the window.<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018They\u2019re terrible\u2019: GOP lashes out at media for historic disapproval ahead of midterms<\/a><\/p>\n

Maher dismissed the outrage by calling the cost \u201ccouch money.\u201d Fetterman rolled his eyes and reduced the backlash to \u201cTrump Derangement Syndrome.\u201d They practically patted each other on the back for being the last two supposedly reasonable men in American politics.<\/p>\n

Calm down, peasants, they were essentially saying. It\u2019s only a $330 million gilded palace add-on for a man who already treats the presidency like his private casino.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is what elite detachment looks like in America now. Smug. Self-satisfied. Historically illiterate.<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, Bill. People are not angry because Trump likes chandeliers. They\u2019re angry because symbols matter in politics. They always have.<\/p>\n

Americans are watching a president who already wrapped himself in gold-plated excess try to build a massive gilded ballroom while millions of working people can\u2019t afford rent, healthcare, childcare, or groceries. And then they\u2019re being told by multimillionaire celebrities that noticing the symbolism somehow makes them irrational.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not \u201cTrump Derangement Syndrome,\u201d it\u2019s something called \u201ccivic awareness.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The founders of this country fought a revolution against aristocracy. Against kings and inherited power wrapped in luxury and spectacle. Thomas Jefferson warned repeatedly about the rise of an \u201cartificial aristocracy\u201d built on wealth instead of merit. Teddy Roosevelt spent years warning Americans about concentrated wealth turning democracy into oligarchy and got us the estate tax (which today\u2019s Republicans have crippled).<\/p>\n

But now we have political celebrities and media entertainers sneering at ordinary Americans for recognizing the obvious.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A golden ballroom attached to the White House isn\u2019t just a ballroom: it\u2019s a statement about power.<\/p>\n

Authoritarians throughout history have always understood and exploited the power of spectacle. Palaces. Towers. Gold. Giant halls. Arches. Statues of themselves. Grand architecture designed not to serve democracy but to glorify the ruler who built it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The point is psychological, to elevate the leader above ordinary citizens. To make power feel untouchable, royal, and permanent. And Donald Trump has spent his entire public life desperately trying to achieve exactly that aesthetic.<\/p>\n

Gold elevators. Gold furniture. Gold ceilings. Gold logos with his name stamped onto everything he touches, like a monarch branding his kingdom.<\/p>\n

So when critics recoil at the idea of a gilded Trump ballroom attached to the People\u2019s House, they\u2019re not reacting to drapes and drywall. They\u2019re reacting to what it represents: the transformation of democratic government into personal branding for a strongman billionaire.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maher dismisses $330 million as \u201ccouch money.\u201d That\u2019s easy thing to say when you\u2019re rich enough to spend more on wine tonight than many Americans spend on groceries each month. But the real issue is even bigger than the raw dollar amount: it\u2019s about moral obscenity.<\/p>\n

America has veterans sleeping under bridges. Public schools are begging parents for supplies. Seniors are rationing their insulin and blood pressure meds. Young people are crushed under student debt. Entire towns are being poisoned by corporate greed while on-the-take and in-the-pocket politicians like Fetterman shrug.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Read more Trump DHS chief thumbs nose at security request from houses of worship after shooting<\/a><\/p>\n

And in the middle of all that, the political and media elite want the public to admire a gold-plated ballroom because apparently excess itself has become a form of patriotism.<\/p>\n

This is what the post-Reagan Revolution neoliberal rot has done to our society. Morbidly rich people and their lickspittles like Fetterman now tell us that opulence is wisdom, that billionaire aesthetics are inherently admirable, and that criticism of grotesque displays of wealth is \u201cenvy by the peasants\u201d instead of concern about the survival of our democracy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The progressive critique of this sort of ostentation has never been about \u201chating success.\u201d It\u2019s always been about opposing concentrated power that masquerades as virtue.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A teacher contributes more to civilization than a real estate grifter hustling his name like a luxury perfume brand. A nurse contributes more than a billionaire tax cheat hiding profits offshore. A union worker building roads contributes more than another hedge fund parasite gaming markets from his Manhattan penthouse.<\/p>\n

Tragically, America\u2019s media culture increasingly treats wealth itself as proof of greatness. Trump didn\u2019t invent that sickness; he simply weaponized it.<\/p>\n

And what makes Maher and Fetterman\u2019s comments especially galling is the contempt buried inside them. The assumption that ordinary people are stupid. Emotional. Hysterical.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you object to a billionaire president building a gaudy palace extension while inequality explodes, you must have \u201cTDS.\u201d<\/p>\n

What an insult to history. Was it \u201cGeorge III Derangement Syndrome\u201d when Americans rejected monarchy? Was it \u201cRobber Baron Derangement Syndrome\u201d when progressives fought the Gilded Age oligarchs? Was it irrational to notice that extreme concentrations of wealth led to the Republican Great Depression and inevitably distorted democracy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because that\u2019s the real issue here, not one ballroom or building project.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s Epstein Golden Ballroom is a symptom of a much deeper crisis in American life. Politics has become theater, governing has become branding, and citizens are being trained by billionaires to think of leaders not as public servants but as celebrity rulers whose excess should inspire awe.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s poison to a republic. And people who call themselves conservatives should be disturbed by it, too.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In my dad\u2019s generation, conservatism claimed to value humility, restraint, civic virtue, and suspicion of concentrated power. Now self-described conservatives cheer for billionaire spectacle like courtiers applauding the king\u2019s newest palace wing\u2026 or his invisible clothes.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile working-class Americans are told to fight culture wars against their neighbors while the ultra-rich consolidate wealth at levels not seen since the 1920s. That isn\u2019t populism: it\u2019s aristocracy with a flag pin.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The White House was never supposed to be Versailles. The presidency was never supposed to be a throne wrapped in gold leaf and ego. A republic survives only when leaders remain citizens among citizens. The moment political power becomes inseparable from personal grandeur, democracy starts slipping into something darker.<\/p>\n

People aren\u2019t angry because Trump likes ballrooms, but because too many powerful people like Bill Maher and John Fetterman no longer remember what America is supposed to be. Americans aren\u2019t \u201cderanged\u201d when they recognize the stench of oligarchy wrapped in gold paint and sold as patriotism.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re so insulated by wealth, celebrity, and proximity to power that you can look at a billionaire turning the White House into a monument to himself and shrug like it\u2019s no big deal, then maybe you\u2019re the ones who\u2019ve lost touch with reality, not the millions of Americans who\u2019re still fighting to keep this country from sliding, like Russia has already done, into a gilded version of rightwing authoritarianism.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump is set to drop a major news bomb \u2014 because an imminent real story has him terrified<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bill Maher and Sen. John Fetterman sat around joking about Donald Trump\u2019s new White House ballroom like a couple of wealthy guys at a country club joking over cocktails as the republic burns outside the window.Maher dismissed the outrage by calling the cost \u201ccouch money.\u201d Fetterman rolled his eyes a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nThe republic is burning \u2014 while these 'liberal' buffoons disgrace themselves - Property Relocation USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/propertyrelocationusa.com\/?p=97\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The republic is burning \u2014 while these 'liberal' buffoons disgrace themselves - Property Relocation USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bill Maher and Sen. John Fetterman sat around joking about Donald Trump\u2019s new White House ballroom like a couple of wealthy guys at a country club joking over cocktails as the republic burns outside the window.Maher dismissed the outrage by calling the cost \u201ccouch money.\u201d Fetterman rolled his eyes a...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/propertyrelocationusa.com\/?p=97\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Property Relocation USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-19T19:39:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/propertyrelocationusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2285b79ee392c028bb590cc767a3bb73.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertyrelocationusa.com\\\/?p=97#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertyrelocationusa.com\\\/?p=97\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertyrelocationusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3532c0f2bf23909f000df694ed25b25b\"},\"headline\":\"The republic is burning \u2014 while these ‘liberal’ buffoons disgrace themselves\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-19T19:39:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertyrelocationusa.com\\\/?p=97\"},\"wordCount\":1191,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertyrelocationusa.com\\\/?p=97#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertyrelocationusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/2285b79ee392c028bb590cc767a3bb73.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Opinion\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/propertyrelocationusa.com\\\/?p=97#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertyrelocationusa.com\\\/?p=97\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertyrelocationusa.com\\\/?p=97\",\"name\":\"The republic is burning \u2014 while these 'liberal' buffoons disgrace themselves - 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