The New Victims
How America's Powerful Became the Oppressed
On January 6th, 2021, as broken glass scattered across the Capitol floor and men in red hats declared themselves patriots, a new American mythology was taking shape amid the chaos.
America’s most powerful demographic—those who filled boardrooms, wrote the laws, and stacked their coffers—began wailing about persecution. They weaponized the language of the marginalized, sharpening centuries of real suffering into a political weapon aimed at the heart of democracy itself.
They cry oppression while wielding power. They feign outrage at the first taste of consequence.
They perfected the art of crying wolf while holding the rifle.
The Southern Strategy
After the Civil War and through Jim Crow, the South clung to white supremacy and the Democratic Party. But in the mid-20th century, as FDR, Truman, and especially Lyndon B. Johnson pushed civil rights, everything shifted.
Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, tearing down legal segregation, protecting Black voting rights, and enraging white Southern Democrats who felt betrayed.
Republicans saw opportunity. They didn’t reveal their intentions, instead they spoke in code. Nixon’s campaign mastered the art of dog whistles like “states’ rights,” “law and order,” “forced busing” cloaking the same agenda of racial exclusion and control in the language of grievance.
Over decades, the GOP reversed its stance on civil rights, race, and social issues, flipping the South and becoming the party of the aggrieved.
Power learned to masquerade as persecution.
Strategic Victimhood
By 2015, after two Obama terms failed to deliver anything meaningful to the American people, America was primed for Donald Trump—a man who understood how to turn grievance into gospel.
He was a showman, not a politician. Brash, media-savvy, fluent in rage and ready to weaponize every disappointment.
Trump didn’t need to invent new grievances. He just had to tell his overwhelmingly white, Christian base that they were under siege. He turned privilege into victimhood, convincing his followers that equality was theft, an attack on freedom, and every demand for justice was persecution of the righteous.
At rallies on land stolen from Indigenous nations, wrapped in flags sewn by immigrants, they cried about the lost wealth of a nation built with the enslaved labor of people they refuse to acknowledge as equals.
Yet they convinced themselves they’re the ones being robbed.
Accountability vs Persecution
In 2024, Trump ran for president while facing 91 criminal charges across four jurisdictions, including 34 felony convictions for falsifying business records.
A jury found him liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll and ordered him to pay $5 million. Trump University defrauded 6,000 students; he paid $25 million to settle. His charity was shuttered after he used its money to buy portraits of himself; he paid $2 million for misusing donations.
None of it mattered to his followers. He’d mastered the art of victimhood. Each indictment became a mark of martyrdom. Every attempt to hold him accountable was spun as proof of conspiracy.
Facts became fuel for the myth: the system isn’t holding Trump accountable—it’s persecuting everyone like him. You are next!
To his supporters, evidence of guilt became evidence of a plot. He was no longer just a candidate—he was their messiah under attack because he fought for them.
The more the system pressed in, the tighter they clung.
A Different Future
While many of the Silent Generation approved of Trump’s presidency, only 30% of Gen Z does.
Sixty-two percent of Gen Z see America’s racial diversity as a good thing, and seventy percent want the government to solve problems. Already, more than half of Americans under 16 are people of color. By 2045, America will be majority-minority.
The future is unrecognizable to those who built their power on exclusion. Today’s young Americans speak new languages, worship different gods, and love in ways their parents and grandparents can’t fathom.
This terrifies a Republican Party running on culture wars, tax cuts, and fiscal pretense—offering nothing but nostalgia and grievance.
The politics of victimhood are running out of road. Reality keeps breaking through. When the self-proclaimed oppressed hold all the pillars of power—the Supreme Court, Congress, and the White House—and still deliver nothing, the story falls apart.
The new generation isn’t fooled. They see diversity as strength. They know criticism isn’t cancel culture, and they believe real patriotism requires justice.
They didn’t inherit comfort. They inherited uncertainty, but they’re connected, aware, and nearly impossible to gaslight. They see through the act.
They are writing a new story—one built on freedom through collaboration, justice, and a nation where everyone has a place.
The old playbook is done. The next chapter is in the making.
A new America is possible.
Speak up. Boycott. Organize. Protest.
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Sources:
D.A. Bragg Announces 34-Count Felony Trial Conviction of Donald J. Trump
Trump is found guilty on 34 felony counts. Read the counts here
Judge finalizes $25 million Trump University settlement for students of 'sham university'
Trump Ordered To Pay $2 Million For Illegally Using Charity Funds For 2016 Campaign
Less than half of US children under 15 are white, census shows
We need no kings if we want to win for everyone.
I sincerely believe what is causing repetitive, systemic failure in our political system is the systemtemic bilaterality. Compare this to typical team sports like football or any and all others. We won’t recover from the consequences until we stop ruling America as a competitive game. We need to stop boxing and start governing like we want win-win for everyone all at once.