As IF Times

Donald Trump will go down in history as the only man to have ever won 3 national elections. As the results emerged last night, it became clear that the message he has been promoting resonated with an increasingly large swath of voters.

However, even among the media who were notionally pro Trump and certainly among many conservatives, there was still only guarded enthusiasm as everyone is residually scarred by the sudden change in voter numbers in 2020 when Trump had also apparently secured the requisite numbers for victory. The Charlie Brown, Lucy, football scenario lingered in their minds.

There is a scene in the 1983 comedy film, Yellowbeard, in which a blind beggar asks for some food from a Pirate.  The Pirate tells the blind man that he can have some chicken and proceeds to hand him a chunk of bread.  The blind beggar thanks him profusely for the ‘chicken’ and scurries away.  I’m reminded of this scene because of the masterful job of gas-lighting that the left have managed to impose over their years in power.  Regular people were made to doubt even what was clearly evident in front of them in favor of the narrative coming from the left.  Even very conservative media and many people in the general population were not ready to believe the news of a Trump victory.  They had become programmed to become cynical and fearful of optimism after years of a constant barrage of propaganda. Relentless browbeating from all fronts made people accept almost anything as truth.  It almost worked.

Donald Trump refused to be beaten.  He and a very small core population did not succumb to the narrative pushed daily from the left.  While at first marginalized and scorned, his persistence of message gathered more and more believers as it became more and more evident that the nation was collapsing badly on all fronts; economically, culturally, politically and upon the world stage.   As we all know by now, his message of optimism gathered more and more adherents during his campaign, even as there were several assassination attempts on his life. His stature as a hero, one who would literally put his life on the line for citizens, resonated with a growing number of people disenchanted with the inauthentic heroes posted by the left. He was the real guy. He wasn’t manufactured.  Rational people can sense authenticity and his support exploded across all demographics.   Perseverance in the face of adversity is as an American trait as it gets and Trump personified this. People love and identify with stories of overcoming bullies. Detractors could only point nebulously to his unlikeable personality.  Can’t please everyone.

But despite the left’s gas-lighting, their balkanization of the population into their own interest groups and the pleading of ‘celebrities’, the people could feel empathy with Trump’s message.  At the base of it all, most people just want to be left alone to pursue a life with their families. They don’t want to be told how to comport themselves, how to look after their families and to be taxed at every turn.  They didn’t want their tax dollars spent on distant wars, for questionable causes and for illegal entrants.  They reject all the ‘isms’ imposed upon them.  The problem was always that they did not have anyone to strongly champion their cause. They could see the bullying by the left in their attempts to imprison and bankrupt both Trump and his supporters and even exposed him to physical harm.  Trump’s steadfast refusal to back down struck an enormous chord with people who needed a real champion.  This message resonated with some very influential people such as Elon Musk, Robert  Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, all former Democrats who came to support Trump’s vision for America.  They recognized the dangerous path that the nation was on and they chose to support decency for the future.   Decency is not abstract.  It is not what a celebrity tells you it is.  It is comportment by oneself that is performed even when no one else is aware of it but you.  Most people know this and they see that decency in Trump.

The reality is that the US is the only place left in the world in which freedom of speech and of actions are uniquely celebrated and encouraged.  Every other nation in the world has minor to severe restrictions on what their citizens are allowed to do…including all of the notional free countries of the West. The hysterical handwringing from the left on a potential tyrannical regime clearly disregards those 3 recent tyrannical years of forced vaccinations, masking, confinement and restricted travelling enforced by police against people’s wills.

Finally, the euthanizing of P’Nut the squirrel was a clarion call for people who were enraged by bureaucratic tyranny imposed by the state at all levels.  The lack of judgement in so many facets of people’s lives demonstrated by this cruel event probably prompted even the most cynical to vote Trump.  If there’s one tyrannical edict I’d like to see mandated by the incoming administration it would be that people need to be rational and to think for themselves.  The time for groupthink is over.

As we’re now in the thick of election season in North America, including regionally in Canada, an old joke comes to mind which classically described the difference between Canadians and Americans.

It seems that someone was having a tour of a restaurant and in the kitchen he noticed two large pots of boiling water; one with a lid and the other without.  When asked, the restauranteur revealed that the pots contained lobsters.  When asked why one had a lid and not the other, the owner conveyed that the one with a lid contained American lobsters and the one without were the Canadian kind.  He explained that the Canadian ones didn’t need a lid because if one tried to climb out, the other ones would pull him back in.

This little anecdote was quite true for a long time, but really, it hasn’t aged very well.  With the passage of time, the stark difference in mindset reflected by that old anecdote has lost its edge.  When you look at the platforms and values propagated by the dominant political factions on both sides of the border, one side clearly favors the collective over the individual.  This may not be so surprising in Canada, but for this mindset to take root in the United States is astounding.

The very foundation of the US nation was premised upon the rights and liberties of the individual over the collective.  In fact, it was started by some brave individuals who decided that living under the arbitrary decrees of a detached monarch in England wasn’t for them.  So, they started the tradition of doing their own thing, which became a hallmark of being an American.  From this beginning, the greatest free civilization in history was born. To this day, this notion of freedom and independence is enshrined in the minds of most Americans and of course, in their constitution. This is true even in the minds of those who only think about the characteristics of Americans.  This legacy is quite different in Canada since it continued to be tied to the old empire for over a century after declaring itself a nation, thus Canadians don’t have that same reputation.

We can observe clearly that the fine edge of freedom and individualism has been blunted over successive generations in the U.S.  As we all know, rights and freedoms once considered sacrosanct have slowly but surely been chipped away by all kinds of interest groups so that now, rights and freedoms still exist….but only if you follow specific rules.  So the illusion exists, but not the reality.  It reminds me of accountants and dentists who ride Harley Davidsons in full outlaw gear.  They’re individual….in a me too kind of way.  These rough-hewn images are cultivated in popular films which depict the heroic struggle of individuals versus a societal machine.

It is only in American culture that this brand of rugged individualism is glorified and celebrated.  It is rare to find this kind of theme in the majority of foreign films ( at least in my experience ).  In America, not only is the protagonist in films a hero, he is often an anti-hero by imposing his strength of will and character upon an oppressive antagonist.  Oddly, even in despotic nations, films with this theme sell very well.  I seem to recall that Kim Jong Un is a big Rambo fan.

But the reality of the American experience has deviated substantially from the original plan.  The mythical rugged individual is fading into distant memory and nowadays, is often demonized.  For those that do any construction work, we know that measurements over long distances can be greatly impacted by only a small variance at the outset. Being off by only a few degrees over 3 feet can mean 3 inches over 20.

This is the case today.  Half of the dominant political parties actively push the notion of the collective versus the individual and they no longer feel the need to obscure their message.  Their platforms clearly state that the interests of the state supersede any individual initiative.  They require  citizens to conform to an ideal which only they are allowed to define.  This may sound familiar to those born 350 years ago.  Seemingly minor curbs on freedoms and activities have morphed into outright curtailment of all kinds of heretofore free movements, which extends even into the realm of thought. The allegorical piece of wood we’ve been cutting has deviated to become an 180 degree cut.

As bizarre as it appears, Marxist and leftist ideologies, anathema to the very core of the American experience, is widely embraced by a frighteningly large segment of the population.  While this may not be surprising in most other nations since few have the history that the Americans have of fighting an actual war of independence, to have this mindset creeping into mainstream American consciousness is shocking.  What’s particularly frightening is that, unlike those plucky individuals who gave the English king the finger and started their own country over 350 years ago, there aren’t too many places to go today to do the same thing.

And of course, the worst part of it may be that films that depict subjects conforming to the state dictates and edicts probably won’t do well at the box office.