Let Them Eat Hate

The Gilded Age corruption returns, and so does the rage that ended it

Watching the video of the Mar-a-Lago “Great Gatsby” themed party brought to mind The Island of Dr. Moreau. Or Pleasure Island from Pinocchio, that hedonistic playground where boys indulge freely, slowly transforming into donkeys while denying what is happening to them.

But perhaps it is closer to President Snow’s gala in The Hunger Games. Botoxed faces under chandeliers. The powerful gorge themselves while preaching self-reliance, feeding from the public trough.

Tables sag with food, music, and champagne while the people of the districts starve. Guests drink potions to vomit just so they can eat more. Greed and excess are how they keep score. The suffering of others is seasoning for their banquet table.

But history keeps its own ledger. It remembers who stayed silent while others starved and who laughed at cruelty because it was not yet aimed at them.

The Golden Age they love to invoke is really a longing for the Gilded Age. It was an era not only of dazzling wealth but of rampant corruption and exploitation. Robber barons, the industrialists of their day, used their fortunes to manipulate politicians and rig public policy in their favor, often buying influence outright. Political machines like Tammany Hall thrived on bribery and graft, controlling city governments through patronage and kickbacks. Scandals like Crédit Mobilier and the Whiskey Ring exposed how deeply corruption had seeped into both business and government.

For the wealthy elite, life meant lavish banquets and ostentatious luxury while fortunes were built on the suffering and sweat of millions. It looked invincible until it wasn’t. Muckraking journalists pulled back the curtain. Workers struck. Public outrage grew. A groundswell of ordinary people forced change through antitrust laws, civil service reform, and a demand for accountability.

Like the first Gilded Age, today’s version glitters with technology and excess. The robber barons now wear hoodies and talk about disruption. Corporate power is more concentrated, its methods more polished. Influence is sold through campaign donations, think tanks, and social media echo chambers instead of smoke-filled rooms. Monopolies of data have replaced monopolies of steel and oil. Dark money moves faster than the telegraph ever did, shaping elections and policy at the speed of code.

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The Gilded Age collapsed under its own corruption and the weight of those who refused to accept a world designed to crush them. A backlash is building again. You can feel it. But ending this administration is not enough. We need a vision of what comes next. Not a return to some imagined past, but a future that repudiates this entirely. One that builds prosperity, safety, and hope for all of us, not just the people in the ballroom.