Sal Biase1 Comment

MAGA, or Die

Sal Biase1 Comment
MAGA, or Die

Democrats have yet to learn anything in the age of Donald Trump. Their political instincts abandoned them during the primary process of 2016 when they rallied behind the most obviously corrupt political figure in US history and rigged the election against blue-collar, working class champion Bernie Sanders. Political common sense has yet to return to the party. 

I am in a bit of an odd place. I don't consider myself a conservative, not yet. I don't identify with much of the greater GOP as a party, but when I look around at the current political landscape I find my allies are a hodgepodge of former liberals and uber ‘alt-righters.’ While I am uncertain of how I would brand myself politically, those in my former party have no shortage of labels to hurl at me and others who share my ideological positions. Alt-right, Nazi, Racist, Deplorable, homophobic, xenophobic, conspiracy theorists, the list goes on. I am unfazed, at this point, by the vitriolic dismissal I face when attempting to discuss how I'd like to see my government run with my brothers and sisters holding opposite views, but I am still shocked at how incredulous many are when views like mine are expressed. 

I honestly, genuinely one-hundred percent love our President Donald Trump. That is not something I am ashamed of or embarrassed by. Each day of this administration that passes, with each article in the Washington Post or the New York Times written deliberately slanted to discredit his presidency, I am reaffirmed in my steadfast support.

Why is that?

If you are a Democrat this is the question you should be asking. How can someone raised a Democrat in a blue state, who twice voted for Obama, who canvassed hard for Bernie Sanders and who only left the party in 2016 now be so strongly behind the sitting president? How many like me are there?

Forget my liberal origins for a second and let's focus on what's really important. Why do people support this president? Regardless of background there are legitimate reasons why Donald Trump has such strong and loyal base behind him. It is not a cult of personality, it is not because we are fools duped by a Hitleresqe charism. It is because of what he campaigned on and what he has already achieved. 

Bernie Sanders earned my support because he vowed to end NAFTA and the TPP. He stated clearly that the interventionist wars waged during the last two thirds of my life must end and peace needed to become the focal point of US foreign policy. He proposed a thoroughly populist middle out economic agenda that promised to aid my modest working class lifestyle as I began my pursuit of the American dream. 

While Bernie was travelling across the country growing his name recognition from near zero to win primaries against the most famous woman in US politics, the undercutting of his campaign by the Democrat party establishment became more and more painfully obvious by the day.

Prior to 2016, political corruption was something I believed existed only in the fringes of US politics. I never truly believed all those dirty things thrown at powerful people like the Bush family or the Clinton's. But when the curtain was pulled back, just enough to watch the Democratic machine CRUSH my preferred candidate, I felt like Paul on his way to Damascus. The scales fell from my eyes, the floodgates opened and I couldn't go back to the way I saw the world before. My mind, heart and soul simply wouldn't allow it.

Today the news media can't help themselves from smearing truth tellers like Julian Assange as Russian agents, but Wikileaks’ publications in 2016 exposed a large number of media members and 'journalists' who colluded with the Clinton campaign to influence the primary election process and win Hillary the nomination. It was beyond disgraceful. Their subsequent abject failure to accurately report on the Wikileak dumps and instead lie deliberately about as vulnerable a person as Assange was all it took for someone with common sense to realize it was nothing more than a corrupt beast protecting itself. None of the outed journalists corroborating with John Podesta by running stories by the campaign or rubbing elbows at fancy dinner parties were held accountable. In fact, many have since been elevated to even higher profile positions. These are the mouthpieces of the control mechanism. They are deep state megaphones controlling political narratives at the behest of the most powerful figures in America. Some might even go as far as to say they are the enemies of American democracy, i.e. traitors.

When Hillary Clinton became the Democratic nominee I decided to leave the party and that I would not vote in the 2016 election. I despised Trump because I believed him to be an obviously racist, egomaniac who was hellbent on building a wall. Yet even then, I knew he would beat Hillary Clinton because I trusted the electorate would sniff out her most obvious corruption. The woman should have been imprisoned with the way she handled classified information in her roll as Secretary of State. No way did I think the citizenry would reward her with a seat in the Oval Office.

At some point in the last few days before the election, as I was thinking of ways to justify possibly voting for Jill Stein I remembered something. The only reason my opinions of Donald Trump had formed as they had was because I viewed him through the lens of the same media establishment I despised for their coverage of Sanders’ candidacy. I decided I needed to listen to Trump and give him a fair hearing. So, that is just what I did.

In listening to the man speak I found something surprising (or not). I found that on trade, I agreed with him. And on ending the wars? I also agreed. And on taxes, and middle class economic policies and on prioritizing America over the global market place. Agree, agree, agree. I also found the more I agreed with him the more racist, sexist and xenophobic I became, at least according to some friends and online acquaintances. My positions hadn't much changed, but the perception of who I was as a person did to so many enlightened liberals I would have these conversations with. That led me to the ultimate realization: Donald Trump HAD to win and he needed MY support. So, I gave him my vote.

American Media is a propaganda machine that breeds war, suffering and bloodshed around the globe. They feel entitled to select our political candidates and set the parameters on which our discussions about American governance take place. In the 28 years of my life what has that gotten this country? Decades of wars in over half a dozen countries. A social hierarchy of victimhood that foments discord and division. Generations of young Americans stunted in their assertion to adulthood saddled by debt and unable to find gainful employment. All of these issues can be laid directly at the feet of those who we have entrusted to govern our country and at the feet of those who are supposed to hold these truths to their power. 

Hardly a mention of the many crisis’s facing the American citizen today ever grace the news desks at Fox, CNN and MSNBC. We hear about Russia, impeachment and collusion and that only reaffirms my belief that these institutions are lost. They are so blinded by their own hubris and believe so strongly in their own self-importance they cannot understand how or why they have become so distrusted by so many.

Donald Trump didn't bail out the banks in 2008, he didn't vote for the Iraq War in 2002, he didn't vote to protect student loan companies from bankruptcy, he didn't poison the water in Flint, he didn't take millions of dollars from foreign countries like China, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Russia while serving as a senator or a congressman or as the Secretary of State. In fact, he promised to stop the people who were the cause of these problems. He vowed to disrupt the system. Right now, whether you like it or not, you have to realize these are the very people Trump is at war with. The career establishment D.C. swamp things in government (elected and unelected), in media, and in the intelligence agencies who stand defiantly opposed to his presidency. 

Make no mistake, this is truly a war. It's Trump's side versus all the rest and while I don't agree with every position, I do support him on most because he is the rightful, duly elected leader of this country'. I will support him and the agenda I voted for while the eroded gears of the corrupted D.C. political machine continue to grind against him. I will never be ashamed of that support. No president in my lifetime has ever faced such opposition. I doubt any president will again. 

Today Democrats again are boasting about impeachment. Pounding their chest in proud ignorance of the causes they are up against. They offer nothing to voters. They will not better this country or its citizens way of life. They will allow people from all over the world to flood into America unabated giving away resources to undercut those who live here, already struggling to get by. They laugh as they suggest impeachment or worse, assassination. But, Proud American Patriots like me are watching closely as their president wages this very real war of public perception against a constant onslaught of propaganda and subversion from the 'left.' The ‘Left’ that is now comprised of neo-cons and pseudoliberals with mouths watering at the prospects of overturning the will of the American People. We the People, have only one thing to say to them: Bring it on. Watch what happens. God bless America. God bless our President. God help any who stand in our way. MAGA, or die.