Free Thinking Through the Fourth Turning with Sasha Stone
Free Thinking Through the Fourth Turning with Sasha Stone
An Ex-Democrat's Case for Trump
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An Ex-Democrat's Case for Trump

When enough is enough.

“Are you a Trump supporter now?” is the question my friends, acquaintances, and colleagues sometimes ask me. I know the answer to that question could end our relationship. So do they. Most of the time, they just don’t ask. They quietly assume that I might be, but what they don’t know can’t hurt them.

Since 2016, being labeled “Trump supporter,” has given most people the green light to cut ties, publicly humiliate, attack, and dehumanize at will. What you will rarely see on the Left is empathy. What has become all too common is unfiltered, bottomless hatred. In too many cases, physical violence, and destructive protests, all justified and encouraged by the ruling class.

2020 was the breaking point for me. I could no longer go along with it, especially after getting to know Trump supporters, and watching enough rallies to know the truth about who Trump really is.

And now, after the Colorado decision to throw Trump off the ballot, there has been a terrifying escalation in how they plan to deal with Trump and MAGA. What started as “cancel culture,” where due process was tossed in favor of trial by mob has spread to the government, infecting it like a parasitic fungus that ultimately kills its host.

From censorship to their treatment of the political protesters of January 6th, to what they’ve done to this country’s Justice Department, much of its culture, its universities, and the minds and bodies of children, it’s time to say ENOUGH.

It was already enough when the sitting President of the United States was banned from Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. It was enough when they raided Mar-a-Lago when they convicted Trump in a show trial on primetime television that idiots on the Left now seem to believe counted as a real trial.

The four indictments are ENOUGH. Two impeachments are enough. Scaring the public every day, whipping up mass hysteria just for clicks, just for engagement, just for ratings is ENOUGH. Robert DeNiro’s ongoing freak-outs are enough. Stephen Colbert’s unfunny jokes are enough. A culture that has destroyed itself over an imaginary monster they invented is enough.

And yes, removing Trump’s name from the ballot in Colorado is ENOUGH. This moment should wake up every American to the mass delusion we’ve all been forced to live with since 2016. The cure to Trump is now what it’s always been: offer the people something better.

But the power center in this country can’t do that because what people want is relief from them. Not all of them. There are some good Democrats out there, like John Fetterman, Dean Phillips, and RFK, Jr., but they are too few and too far between. The ruling oligarchy now stands in their way because that is how little they trust democracy.

Rather than listen to the voters who were frustrated with politics as usual in 2016, the Democrats insisted that some great wrong had been done to them. That their country had been invaded. How do I know this? Because I was one of them. I went along with it. I helped build the utopia that became a dystopia once it was threatened.

We formed a so-called #resistance, which now looks more like a fascist empire than any uprising against one, and we went to war on Trump’s presidency and on his supporters. We had control of the entire Monopoly board, and we abused it.

What the Democrats and Never Trumpers want now is to push Trump and MAGA back into the danger zone. They want more violence. They want riots. They want an uprising that they can then bring in the military, weaponize dissent, speech, and ideology, and have the full backing of the American public. We’re almost there now.

But don’t take the bait, MAGA. You can defeat them by being the calm, reasonable side. Make them the crazy ones. They are just waiting for any chance to exploit the law more than they already have. Don’t give them that chance.

While any Republican can take us to a much better place than any Democrat right now, Trump is still the best person for the job because he is the source of the mass delusion. If he wins in 2024, we can all get back to reality. Whether he succeeds or fails won’t matter much. What matters is releasing this country from the grips of madness.

A Class War

This Civil War has never been about Biden and Trump. It’s always been about the Obama Kingdom vs. the Trump movement. Obama represents what the Democrats are now: Wealthy elites measured not by class but by skin color, gender, and marginalized status.

As Victor Davis Hanson is always pointing out, the Obamas, along with Oprah Winfrey and other successful black icons, enjoy both the spoils of class privilege while also being seen as marginalized, versus the famed “white working class” whose towns have been hollowed out and are flooded with fentanyl but, because they’re white, are punished as having “white privilege.”

That Trump dared to go at the King with the birther lie was what began our cold Civil War. Both men have giant egos, loads of charisma, and whole movements — or tribes, if you prefer, behind them.

They represent polar opposite definitions of what America should be going forward. Neither side is perfect. But the Left has had enough time to show us all a better way. They have failed by clinging to the past, attempting to hold onto a third term for Obama, and have refused the country’s need and desire to move forward.

Trump has never been the problem. It has always been what has happened to the Left. This was the end result of the crisis that sparked the Fourth Turning, the Wall Street bailout of $700 billion that woke the people up and birthed populism on the Left and the Right. Trump is all that remains.

For whatever reason, millions have chosen Trump to represent their interests best. That is why he is such a threat to the ruling class. He represents the biggest challenge to their authority since they amassed extraordinary wealth and power. But every American still has a say in how this country is run, no matter their “class.”

What they should not stand for is what the regime has done to Donald Trump. It sets too dangerous a precedent that threatens this country and its trusted institutions.

The question for all of us now is this: how bad will it get? Every move they make only convinces the public that Trump was right. Right when he called the media the “enemy of the people,” right when he called the government “the swamp.” And right when he says he’s being persecuted because he represents them.

Says Matt Taibbi:

That’s how badly has the Colorado move played: Trump is being portrayed as a winner in media outlets that still think the Steele dossier is real. The news moreover plays to Trump’s strengths on the stump. Not so great when losing, he’s a world-class gloater. “We talk about democracy,” he quipped this week, “but the whole world is watching the persecution of a political opponent. That’s kicking [Biden’s] ass.”

The Colorado ruling returns us to the pattern that’s held during most every period apart from J6 in the last seven years, in which Trump’s political career has served as an uncanny barometer of public attitudes toward the Beltway establishment. When they go up, he goes down, but when they go down — hoo, boy.

Now, we’ve seen what the Democrats are capable of. They have no checks on their power. No one at the New York Times is suddenly going to become brave. The candidates on offer as alternatives to Biden, like Dean Phillips or RFK, Jr., are not allowed to be successors of the Obama Kingdom. Kamala Harris will be crowned eventually. The system can win any election, no matter the candidate's weakness. We saw that in 2020 and in 2022.

The only Democrats you can trust are those speaking out against the Colorado decision because they know what I know, what you know: Trump has never been charged with or convicted of Insurrection. The reason is that they can’t afford a real trial because they would have to come clean about what really happened that day, why they left the Capitol unprotected, and how many informants were embedded in the operation. That is far too risky of a bet.

The Democrats lose either way in 2024. If Trump somehow wins, they can rebuild and find new leadership to salvage some of what they built throughout the Obama era. If they prevail, after everything we’ve seen them do, that will be the moment their empire finally and deservedly collapses. We’ll see another era where they can’t get elected to save their lives. One way or the other, this is the end of the line for them.

In choosing deception and delusion over compassion and understanding, in choosing to squander their power trying to eliminate the Trump threat, they have destroyed every great thing they ever tried to do.

The Case for Trump

I support Trump as a fellow human being, as a fellow American, and as someone who has never stopped fighting for his supporters, no matter the cost to him personally. I support someone who cares about his family and always puts them first. I support someone who cares about America and always puts her first.

So, the answer to the question, “Are you a Trump supporter now?” must be yes, though not in the traditional sense. I don’t know if he’d be a good president. He never got the chance. He was at war with a government that was attacking him like a body that rejected the heart of a pig. No offense intended to Trump or pigs.

But what I do know is that, at least with Trump, we had a balance of powers. We had a media that questioned his words and deeds. We had an entire system in place to “resist” his policies. Now we see what the opposite of that looks like, when all power is concentrated on one side and at the top. It looks a lot like fascism.

Even if I am not a typical Trump supporter, I am proud to lock arms with his supporters to rescue them, the country, the culture, and reality itself.

The case for Trump is simple, four words on a red hat: Make America Great Again.

Make America able to take a joke again. Make America understand basic biology again. Make America the land of the free and home of the brave again. Make it okay to be white, a Christian, a male, a Jew, a woman, a mother, an American again. Make Thomas Jefferson a hero again. Make movies watchable again.

Make America a country where we can still say what we think without fear of banishment, public humiliation, or the loss of our jobs. Make America tolerant again. Make reality cool again. Make it okay to reward merit. Make it okay to be friends with people you don’t agree with.

Lots of this hysteria is happening on both sides. It has to do with algorithms and their effects on our brains and our perception of reality. But only one side has shown us what they plan to do with the power they have acquired, and that should send a chill through every American.

Yes, we can survive it. No, America won’t end. But a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, must not shrink back from this pivotal challenge. This moment demands all of us to take the right side, away from deception and delusion, and back toward the truth.

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Free Thinking Through the Fourth Turning with Sasha Stone
Free Thinking Through the Fourth Turning with Sasha Stone
Essays on politics and culture from Sasha Stone's Substack. A former Democrat and Leftist who escaped the bubble to get to know the other side of the country and to take a more critical look at the left. Sashastone.substack.com