Marty Levine
July 22, 2025
Typically, my articles are inspired by a headline, a news story, or a new piece of research that raises a question or concern I want to explore. Not this time.
For more than decade I have been writing away believing that we could, in fact we would, create a society in which every person was truly seen as equal. My Jewish tradition is based on the principle of b’tzelem elohim (all of us are created in god’s image), and that we could build a world that ensured each of us could live in dignity and without want, and that the obstacles of wealth, inequality and bigotry could be overcome.
I allowed myself to believe that fact and truth were what would win the day. I have written article after article pointing out the facts and waiting for them to be the needed spark to turn around our nation’s slide backward toward a time of inequality and suffering.
I have waited and waited, written and written. And, I am, in these first six months of Donald Trump’s 2nd term, now convinced I was wrong. What is needed is not more data and proof. No matter how great a case we mount and no matter how well we tell our story, it will not matter.
For years, I have been trying to make the point that the cure for poverty is money. I have been following the effectiveness of giving people cash when they need food or to pay their rent. I have a written stack of articles that present the facts about the positive effects that a guaranteed income program produces, even when the amount given is well below what I may think it should be. There was a sharp reduction in child poverty as a direct result of an emergency expansion of the earned income tax credit during the COVID pandemic. We have seen many “experimental” programs that provided monthly cash stipends to people, resulting in significant benefits, even when the monthly grant was as small as $400. We have seen over and over again that those in need spend these funds in life-enhancing ways.
Despite their proven impact, we still do not have a guaranteed national income program. Rather, they have been allowed to wither away or remain “trials” or “experimental.”
Rather than being expanded and enshrined as established planks in a quality of life floor, we have a frayed patchwork safety net of programs that is being weakened and weakened. The easily disproved lie that these benefits are being used by people who could be working has been kept alive to justify the heartlessness of those who wish to rip food, housing, and security away from the most vulnerable. It has not mattered that most people being helped by programs under attack are actually working or are unable to work. Fraud is not a major problem. The myth of the “Welfare Queen” is stronger than ever.
We have just seen stringent “work requirements” attached to food and medical programs. We are seeing Medicare and Medicaid threatened. These are programs I had thought so enshrined in our society that they were beyond challenge.
We are seeing public education destroyed.
The facts say each of these actions is wrong. They say that people will not be better off because we are allowing them to fend for themselves. The facts say that lives will be made worse.
Yet in July 2025, these changes are becoming law of the land.
The problem is not a lack of knowledge; it is not a problem that will be solved by creating a more effective educational program, a better slide deck, or a stronger social media presence. It will not be solved by finding a more charismatic spokesperson.
I now see that we are facing foes who care little for others. We are facing men and women who are not bothered by the pain and suffering that bothers me every day. Whether or not a program works is not the question they are posing because they do not see the same problems as I do. They do not see these challenges as theirs. From their perspective, we are only responsible for our own welfare. If another person struggles, it is not their concern.
How else can it be possible to cheer on the caging of men in a Florida swamp? How else would it be possible to know that tens of millions of people across the country go to bed hungry? How else would it be possible to ignore the devastation of Gaza?
The battle we are having is about the value of other people’s lives. The battle we are having is about who is responsible for other people’s fate.
Another part of my tradition seems to justify this degree of selfishness. Rabbi Hillel said, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?” But he understood that was not enough to build our world. He added, “And if I am only for myself, what am I?” He recognized that for a society to thrive, we must recognize that we share a responsibility to our neighbors, near and far.
The forces that have worked diligently for decades and brought us to this time of MAGA ascendancy only listen to Hillel’s first teaching; they are only for themselves. They believe that each of us gets what we deserve based on our morals and our hard work, individually and not collectively. They believe that if we are unhoused or hungry, it is our fault. We have not worked hard enough or prayed to the right god hard enough. And, so, our pain and struggle are the direct result of that lack of personal action and faith. They are ready to point out how I have failed (and sinned); they may even be ready to help me fix the errors of my ways, but it is the individual who must try harder, and if things don’t get better, they must try harder once more. We each get what we deserve; our struggles are our own fault.
They go as far as to believe that when government or charity steps in, we are contributing to the individual’s moral failing. We are worsening the problem; our help is just making things worse by rewarding people for not trying hard enough. That’s why a guaranteed income is fought against so fiercely.
The flip side of this is a belief that if someone is successful, it is because of what they have done and it is unrelated to any help that might have come from others. Their economic success proves that they are smarter and more righteous than those who have less money. Their wealth is a reward.
It does not matter how they obtained their wealth or how many people were hurt or exploited in the process because their wealth proves their merit. It does not matter if their wealth has allowed them to manipulate the rules in their favor.
Poor people, those who struggle to get by, are poor and struggling because they are failures and to be scorned. The person who steals a loaf of bread to feed their family is a criminal to be punished harshly. The person who steals millions of dollars is a crafty businessman to be admired.
In this moment, it is depressing to see how evenly divided the nation has become. It seems that as many of us see only the first part of Rabbi Hillel’s teaching as their guidepost and fail to see that there is one more step, and that involves caring for the other. We need to see that helping others is in our self-interest.
One half sees government as the voice of the people, as an important ally in building an equitable society; the other half sees government as the enemy of their personal welfare.
Another fact that may be true but does not matter. A significant segment of those who would benefit from a society built on the principle of collective responsibility have drunk the MAGA Kool-Aid. They think that it is in their interest to stop worrying about the fate of others. They think that the efforts to build a safety net of services have left them out, that they have been pushed aside to help others who have not worked like they have worked.
They support a society that will hurt them. They are working against their own self-interest.
The recently passed “Big, Beautiful Bill” betrays them. Here’s how Sidney Blumenthal recently described it for the Guardian:
Donald Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill”, which will eviscerate the living standards, healthcare and aspirations of his white, working-class base, conclusively draws the curtain down on his Maga populist conceit, the most elaborate charade in recent American political history.
The price will be staggering: $1tn in cuts to Medicaid; throwing 17 million people off health coverage closing rural hospitals and women’s health clinics; battering food assistance for families, children and veterans; the virtual destruction of US solar and wind energy manufacturing; limiting access to financial aid for college; and, according to the Yale Budget Lab, adding $3tn to the national debt over the next decade, inexorably leading to raised interest rates, which will depress the housing market. These are the harsh, brutal and undeniable realities of Trumpism in the glare of day as opposed to his carnival act about how he will never touch such benefits.
The votes to pass the bill in both the Senate and the House came only from those who represented these people. The facts of how they would be hurt were there to be seen and yet they voted for the bill.
It is unclear if this will make a difference to those who have been convinced that they are being victimized by those who just will not take care of themselves.
If facts and truth are not the answer, then what is?
That is the hard question when we control none of the levers of governmental power, and even the Supreme Court seems against us, making defending hard-won gains even harder.
If we believe that this democracy can work, then we must make it work. We cannot give up on its challenged electoral system. We must bring our voters to the ballot box every time there is an election.
If we believe in our shared responsibility for each other, those of us who have benefited from the system must demonstrate in every way we can that we are willing to make the sacrifices that will be necessary to win this struggle.
We must be ready to pay the higher taxes we may face to build the safety net that will support us all. And we must be loud about that willingness; loud across the dinner table; loud at work; loud at the country club; loud in the halls of congress, state houses, and city halls.
We must be ready to oppose NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) wherever it is encountered. When zoning changes are proposed to allow more affordable housing to be built, we can’t be upset because it may mean construction next door to you.
Wherever we face the forces of individualism, we must shout the words of Ben Franklin, “We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.” We must be ready to join with people we with whom we have disagreements in the common purpose of saving our nation.
We must be ready to do uncomfortable things and take risks. Boycotts, general strikes, and acts of civil disobedience are going to be needed.
We need to be ready to step forward and not see the work as someone else’s responsibility.
And we need to see this as a time of urgency.
Rabbi Hillel had one more imperative: “If not now, when?”
An ancient teaching that is so true in this moment.
