“Thomas Jefferson on Trump’s Policies: A Tale of Southwest and Northern Virginia Under Siege”
My Fellow Americans,
I write from the shadow of Monticello, watching with dismay as the Commonwealth of Virginia—North and Southwest alike—stands beleaguered by policies as destructive as the British march upon Alexandria in my day. Trump’s recent proclamations—raising Medicaid prescription drug prices, imposing a Middle-Class Tariff Tax, and, with his anointed Elon Musk, proposing the elimination of federal jobs to fund tax cuts for billionaires—strike at the very heart of our state’s economy and its citizens’ well-being.
Southwest Virginia: Gets Attacked first by Rising Prescription Drug Costs
In the verdant hills of Southwest Virginia, already weighed down by poverty, the Executive Order that results in raising Medicaid prescription drug prices is a scourge. Here, where the highest percentage of Medicaid recipients reside, the cost of life-saving medicine will climb beyond reach. Families, already scraping to make ends meet, now face the cruel calculus of choosing between their health and their daily bread.
Layered atop this burden is the proposed tariff-induced tax, which squeezes the life out of household budgets reliant on Walmart’s imported goods. This Middle-Class Tariff Tax is but taxation cloaked in patriotism, targeting those least able to bear its weight while the wealthiest reap its rewards. This is no economic liberation—it is bondage dressed in the garb of economic control, enslaving the poor to the whims of the rich.
Northern Virginia: Besieged by Economic Raids
Meanwhile, to the North, Trump’s ally Elon Musk arrives with plans as devastating as the British ships that once loomed on the Potomac. Musk’s blueprint to eliminate federal jobs—disguised as efficiency but designed to fund tax breaks for the billionaire class—threatens Northern Virginia, where thousands depend on government employment to feed their families and sustain their communities.
Much like the British raids that sought to dismantle our young nation, this assault on federal jobs seeks to destroy a cornerstone of Virginia’s economy. The professional class, already reeling from Trump’s crusade against telework, now faces the specter of outright unemployment. These policies do not reflect governance; they reflect plunder, enriching the elites while devastating the working and middle classes.
Economic Control in the Name of “Freedom”
What we are witnessing is nothing less than a war upon Virginia’s people—North and Southwest—by economic means. Southwest Virginia is strangled with rising costs, while Northern Virginia is robbed of its livelihood, all in the name of “freedom” and “prosperity.” Yet whose freedom? Whose prosperity? Not the farmer in the holler, not the federal worker in Alexandria. These policies serve only the gilded palaces of the billionaire class, who have declared themselves above the struggles of ordinary men and women.
This is the playbook of economic control—sow division, distract the populace, and consolidate wealth among the few. It is a betrayal of the ideals for which we fought the Revolution. We stood against monarchy, against concentrated power, against the exploitation of the many for the comfort of the few. Yet here we stand again, facing policies that would make King George III blush.
Virginia Must Resist
Virginia, the birthplace of liberty, cannot and must not stand idly by. Let Southwest Virginia, in its resilience, rise against the exploitation of its poor. Let Northern Virginia, in its industrious spirit, resist the dismantling of its economy. Together, let us recall the principles of self-governance and equality that have guided this nation from its inception.
For as I once stepped forward to defend our fledgling democracy, so must we all now stand to defend the well-being of our citizens and the sanctity of our Constitution. Policies that rob the poor to enrich the wealthy, that dismantle livelihoods to serve billionaires, are not American ideals. They are the very tyranny we once cast off.
Yours in liberty and vigilance,
Thomas Jefferson