That President Trump was exactly the right person at exactly the right time in exactly the right place to defend and save our Constitutional Republic, especially in regard to the catastrophe which would have ensued had Harris been installed in 2025. In the grand scheme of things, DJT is likely third on the list of America's most important Presidents. God bless the lovely bully! :-)
I remember hearing from a friend of mine sitting in my car one night as he told me in a low voice that Trump would be the most consequential president since Roosevelt, maybe even Lincoln. This was before Butler, before the election of 2024, and I thought the guy was delusional. Today I hail him as a prophet. Yes, it's Washington, Lincoln, and Trump. What a time we live it! And no one knows that better than our dear Sasha Stone.
Your friend was spot on. While the dying legacy media focuses on the minutia of things Trump does that do not matter, Trump is systematically destroying the Deep State and relegating the Demoncat party to the ash heaps of history. They will not recover and our constitutional republic will reap the benefits of his Presidency for years to come.
What a time we live in, indeed, Mr. Lewis. You sound wise enough to appreciate and enjoy it. With no offense to Vance, Rubio, etc., we will not see the likes of DJT again anytime soon.
Yes indeed, Trump is one of a kind, sui generis, unique. When he said "only I can do it" I thought he was a megalomaniac. I grew up with Trump in the NYC tabloids...he was a clown, a media creature, a narcissist, a joke, a fun guy, shameless self-promoter. What I didn't see is that all these vices would become virtues in the environment of 2016--Present. When he won the 2024 election I realized he waws RIGHT -- ONLY HE COULD DO IT. I realized his narcissism was faith in himself, this creature of the tabloids was a master of the new media, the joke, the fun guy had a genius for the troll. He was just the LEADER we needed as a battering ram against their Utopian Castle of the Soft Tyranny of Luxury Beliefs and Fantasy Delusions. Oswald Spengler calls this type of figure a "man of destiny". After he is gone we will return to a landscape of Lilliputians. Heaven help us.
A bit of narcissism? You bet but, I think, well channeled. Had he been given his proper due for all that he has done, I think President Trump would have felt less of a need to self-promote. I'm not sure of the return to a landscape of Lilliputians. To a landscape of worthy successors, more likely. Your point is well taken, however; following a Colossus will not be easy. Either way, we will find out, if we are lucky, sort of what it felt like when Washington gave his Farewell Address: humble thanks and great loss. Sir Christopher Wren's epitaph on the floor of St. Paul's Cathedral may come closest to the point, regarding the President: Si monumentum requiris circumspice (if you seek his monument, look around).
Trump is not a narcissist; he has an unusually high level of self-confidence that people read as narcissism. He is very self-effacing and has a funny sense of humor. YES... he is fussy about his hair but he admits it and laughs at himself. Narcissists can't do that!
Well, I am fairly self-effacing, have a wicked (good) sense of humor am fussy as hell -- on certain things, and can laugh at my own foibles. All that and I flirt with narcissism, too. It don't think it a bad thing, in moderation. Just another way of dealing with the world. FWIW.
Trump proved his bravery in Butler just as Washington had many times in battle. He is a worthy successor of the "indispensible man". The only other time we saw anything like it was Teddy Roosevelt, who finished a speech after being shot.
Roosevelt & Trump differ dramatically in their political philosophies, policy goals, and temperament. Roosevelt was a progressive who sought to regulate big business and protect the environment, while Trump advocates for deregulation and challenges environmental policies.
Where they are the same is that both are charismatic. Both Roosevelt and Trump built strong, loyal followings. Both used their personal charisma to connect directly with the public, bypassing established political structures.
My favorite POTUS was always Lincoln and then Grant. I have relegated Grant to fourth.
Lincoln and Mary weren't well matched as a couple, IMO. While the end months of Biden, I began paying more attention to Jill. So far, I feel like Jill is another Mary Lincoln.
People will soon see that he is the most consequential president since George Washington himself... and when they learn of his role in literally ushering in WORLD PEACE with God's help - he will be even more consequential!
All of humanity will admire Donald J. Trump by the time God is done! 🙏
Could be, though I would submit that without Mr. Lincoln saving the Union, there would no longer by a nation for Mr. Trump to be the most consequential President of. That said, the Almighty is not quite finished with Trump!
I would take Washington off of your list. Washington built a country; Trump has been trying to save our country (imo). Washington stands out above all.
Will Trump's legacy the most consequential (after Washington)? Absolutely. More books will be written about him than most POTUS.
Sasha you have a gift of taking events and crafting a perfect observational summary with words and video clips. Your beautiful essays remind me of Dustin Hoffman’s 1989 Oscar Speech for best actor in Rain Man
In his acceptance speech for Rain Man, Hoffman spoke passionately about the craft of acting, comparing it to the effort of a great violinist like Itzhak Perlman, emphasizing the difficulty of making a performance look effortless and "getting it right" to create an authentic scene.
Hoffman said:
"I was sitting in a box with [director] Barry Levinson, and there was a man sitting in front of us who was a great violinist, Itzhak Perlman. And I said to Barry, 'You know, I’m very nervous, I don’t think I’m going to win, but if I do, I’m going to say something about what it feels like to try to become another person.' Because we were talking about how Itzhak Perlman makes playing the violin look so easy, and yet we know how difficult it is.
Sasha, you have taken a difficult period in our country and captured the "Trump era".
Spot on, Paul!👍👍 While there will always be some lunatics who are haters, Trump has been awesome. If his actions in getting the Israeli hostages released don’t make one proud to be an American, nothing ever will.
Sasha, you’d been quiet for a few days so I thought to myself “she’s cooking up something and I bet it’s going to be REALLY good”. Boy was I right! Thank you!
Trump had received word during his White House Antifa round-table last week that his Israeli hostage deal had made a breakthrough. We were able to witness Donald the Great digest that news without missing a beat. His focus remained with the courageous patriots assembled before him and he stayed for another fifteen minutes before excusing himself to attend to the hostage negotiations. This is next-level cool. Courage personified, but something more than that and what that something is, you’ve captured perfectly. Thank you again dear Sasha 💚.
The Democrats are trying to undo the results of the last election and the gains that we made with the One Big Beautiful Bill by trying to force Covid-era subsidies to be extended rather than admit that the Healthcare bill was an utter failure like anything and everything else the Left does.
Their war on Healthcare costs went as well as LBJ's War on Poverty.
If the GOP caves on the Healthcare subsidies rather than giving the Christmas Eve massacre a public execution that it deserves, then all is lost.
It's said that after LBJ signed his "war on poverty" bills into law, he said "Now we'll have those blacks (he actually said the word that shall not be uttered) voting Democrat for 100 years".
Stone uses "Trump" and "truth" in the same sentence. People on the right do not object when Trump spouts lies. Any time he mentions figures, they are always off by several orders of magnitude. He apparently just pulls them out of thin air.
Today Trump was ranting, " The Republican Party is not going to pay a TRILLION and a half dollars to illegal immigrants coming into our country. Coming in for a lot of reasons, coming from prisons, from jails, from all over the place, from Venezuela, many countries. We’re not going do that. So the shut down continues. It’s a Democrat shutdown."
Democrats are NOT proposing to spend $1.5 trillion on undocumented immigrants. Undocumented people are NOT eligible for either Obamacare subsidies or federal Medicaid insurance coverage.
Hospitals are required to provide people with emergency care regardless of immigration status or ability to pay because of the "The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) passed in 1986 during the REAGAN admin. It requires hospital ERs that accept payments from Medicare to provide an appropriate medical screening examination (MSE) for anyone seeking treatment for a medical condition regardless of citizenship, legal status, or ability to pay. Do you want to see people who do not have funds die in the street outside a hospital? It happens in places 3rd world countries (see https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/17/africa/pregnant-woman-death-cameroon).
Democrats are proposing to reverse Trump-approved cuts to Medicaid and other health programs and extend the enhanced pandemic-era Obamacare subsidies that are scheduled to expire at the end of the year. The "Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget,"a fiscal watchdog group, estimated that the spending proposal the Democrats released in Sept. would add $1.5 trillion to the debt over the next DECADE.
The White House itself on contested figures has claimed that Democrats are proposing to spend about $193 billion – MUCH LESS than Trump’s “$1.5 trillion” – on health care for “illegal immigrants and other non-citizens."
Roughly 15 MILLION US citizens will lose health coverage and become uninsured by 2034 because of the Medicaid and ACA marketplace cuts in the Republican megabill, the law’s failure to extend enhanced premium tax credits for ACA marketplace coverage.
My sister in law will attend a local ‘No Kings’ protest rally this weekend. She is Gen X aged. I also know some retired Boomers in my neighborhood who will also go. All white, all upper class. I don’t know what to say to these people. So I stay silent whenever politics should arise. The best I can tell is they are upset over the ICE images they see on TV. My wife is sympathetic to her sister. Telling me ‘how do you know all the ICE deportations are actually illegals? What if some are not illegals?’
That’s what I’m surrounded by here in deep blue PNW. I’m really happy with my vote for Trump and how he is working to transform our country. Really, really pleased.
Tell them we’ve had a No Kings day every year for the last 249 years. We celebrate it on the 4th of July. And if Trump were truly a king, you can bet your blue hair dye there would be no protests. So, enjoy your street theater! That’s what I would say. It’s what I told my brother anyhow, who’s also going. He didn’t take it very well.
I am in a similar situation and I used to play nice with my friends and family members who are brainwashed. No more. I'm not mean, at all. But, I am firm. And I have always tried to treat them the way Kirk treated brainwashed morons. With Grace and Truth. Grace, by itself is awesome - but it also needs Truth - and sometimes Truth hurts snowflakes.
Daniel Goleman says that while IQ will get you hired it is Emotional intelligence that will get you promoted.
Anyone who celebrates the violent death of anyone, not just Charlie Kirk, and THEN posts it on social media, shows a level of emotional immaturity that would indicate that they wouldn't be valuable as an employee to begin with
I let my Betsy Ross flag out front do that melting for me.
We have an unwritten by pretty much agreed upon rule on our street that we won't put up political signs.
"That changed last fall when 3 neighbors put Harris Walz signs up.
I asked "what about our agreement" to which they shrugged.
So I put up my Betsy Ross flag that still hangs today 11 months later.
Their Walz Harris signs....I dont' even see them tucked in the back of their garages.
Worst part for one neighbor is she donated $5000 to Harris....and drives a Tesla. Whenever she leaves the house, I see her put on this magnet on the back of her car that says something like "i had this car before the 2024 election" in order to not have it keyed by her fellow progressives.
My saving grace with my SIL and wife is that we are all practicing Christians. So, this love of Jesus Christ binds us still, and is a stronger commonality than politics. They come at the ICE situation from a biblical stance, which I get. But at same time, if we don't have borders then we don't have a functioning country.
Personally, I don't get the "biblical stance"......Christ (or rather, his parents) weren't breaking the law when they went to Egypt - travel between the two countries was legal and the Jewish custom to "entertain strangers" was in regards to "strangers within Israel and Judea", not people illegally from another country entirely.
And btw, Christ wasn't into breaking the law, in fact, he preached to go "mega-law" (the law of God's love/unconditional love): "You know the law says do not commit adultery, I say that if you look at a woman with lust in your heart (and he's not referring to a fleeting or several fleeting thoughts, he's speaking of heart-felt thoughts that are the engines of action) that you have already committed adultery"......Funny story - a person with the same "but Christ/Christianity" arguments and verses of scripture against Trump, after I sited the above preaching by Christ, said, "How ridiculous, that sounds more like what the Pharisees said, not Christ"......HA!.
For my wife its these Old and New Testament versus:
Leviticus 19:34: You must treat the foreigner living among you as native-born and love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
Matthew 25:36: I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.
Last night she got upset hearing helicopters in the area which we never heard before, and assumed they were the Feds. I live nearby a self-proclaimed 'sanctuary city'. She doesn’t trust that the detentions are being performed humanely and unhappy about families being broken up.
IMO, our government has just not enforced immigration law consistently for so long that there are parts of our fellow-citizens that see it as overly-authoritarian now that it's occurring. To me, this re-set has to happen and it's going to be divisive.
We are witnessing what is going on in the UK and other parts of Europe as a result of negating borders and being flooded with Middle Eastern, Pakistani, and African immigrants. The sentiment of taking everyone in is beautiful but when practiced in real life the lack of boundaries results in collapse of the host countries.
I remind folks that these are the laws that were passed decades before Trump. HE didn't get them passed. They are on the books and he is enforcing them. Their beloved Obama was called the "Deporter in Chief!" His deportation numbers, sadly, dwarf Trump's so far. Was she opining about helicopters during the Obama years??
Sir, are you and your wife aware the current immigration laws on the books have been since Clinton?
I have a question, if I may. You have cited Scripture. What about verses like Romans 13:1-2 and 1 Peter 2:13-14 that instruct us to submit to governing authorities and obey the laws of the land, including paying taxes? Scripture says that governmental authority comes from God, and disobeying the law is seen as disobeying God.
I don’t agree with my wife when it comes to immigration. I’m 100% for deportation of illegal aliens. I’m just sharing my wife’s perspective here in deep blue region who doesn’t fully agree with my stance. My wife regularly volunteers with Iraqi and Afghan (legal) immigrants who are trying to learn English and further assimilate. She also volunteers at a church food pantry. She is in touch with poor people on the regular. So, this colors her views.
I wouldn't say a "Biblical stance" would be to allow terrible people to roam the streets of our country, looting and pillaging as they go, with bloodied and bruised bodies in their wake. God is about justice AND love. After all, Heaven has THE most stringent border policy in the Universe. If you don't belong there, no way you're getting in. ;-)
Yeah, because there is this passage in Deuteronomy 28 that explains what will happen to a people who do not maintain a relationship with God:
The foreigners who reside among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. They will lend to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the head, but you will be the tail. . . . They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you. . . . They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine or olive oil, nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined. They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the Lord your God is giving you.
You're substantiating my theory that it is somewhat a reprise of the "Garden Of Eden," when a woman thought she knew more than God and chose not to listen to Him. When I take the time to study the crowds and "posts" arrayed against Trump and MAGA'ites like me, they are consistently "educated" white women. At seventy-nine I think I've earned the right to share my disappointment in my own gender.
......and question (although fleetingly) whether my own gender should've gotten the vote.....women overwhelmingly voted for FDR, the socialist and they were charmed by Clinton, the social engineer, along with Hillary (that's when "politically correct" started). I recently watched the townhall-type debate between Clinton and Bush Sr. and Bill was laying on the charm, big time and you could tell some of the ladies asking him questions were crushing on him.......not a great basis to decide on a president.
Casualties of cognitive warfare they’ve become reTarDS. What they “think” and say is repetition obsession / self- protection and working to keep their anxiety and aggression at bay. As does their return to the trough of media, social, entertainment etc. reinforcement of their essentially hypnotic state. Not knowing “what to say” is a good start… because they are literally in an entranced, intoxicated state. Our communication is the reality of our awareness outside the ‘bad dream’. Watch like a hawk and LISTEN and your wife will tell you everything you need to know. Love first and ask questions later. Which is to say ASK don’t tell… Socratic method. These casualties are suffering and they are largely inured to facts and radically intolerant by pain of cognitive dissonance to any contradiction to their mental structures of entrancement. Re-creational (of relationship) activities on an ongoing basis and assuring through touch and care are highly recommended. Our message to the 🧠🦠enwokened is awareness outside of the dream.
Btw I have written of my slight alternative to Ernie Boxall’s point of view “she won’t be persuaded” is fair enough. Supported may work differently. Make sure you have support and remember darkness fears the light AND NOT the other way around 🏳️💗🏳️
Things take time and we still have some here’s to our every next right move that’s pretty much all we have. Best of luck I’m 3 years in with this sort of thing with my wife and others and improvement is steady but the clock is ticking
I live the same un-reality on a small island in BC, Canada - different political characters- same shite. And they all think the same about USA issues you describe. Exhausting - I will not always be silent - to my cost! Oh well!
Sir, America is at war. We are approaching the Fort Sumpter stage where Americans will fire on Americans. The last eight years have been the Cold Civil War.
You are facing a choice, I'm afraid. Your country or your family. In the Civil War family killed family, a man shot his cousin, raped his aunt, burned his brother's home.
Your wife has made her decision and she will not be persuaded. I know. I have lost the love of my wonderful daughter.
A culture war, but it's kind of like the war on drugs or the war on crime.
Once you start calling everything a war, people recoil and stop talking to one another.
Go to a NO KINGS rally this weekend and where your Freedom hat or a Trump 2028 hat...or set up a little card table and chair with a placard that reads "Free Speech NOT Allowed. Change my Mind."
Thank you, Matt L, for what is a very common sense, heart felt description of what you face regularly. This is civil war with one side going hot. While the other side is attempting to moderate the trapped animal impulses of people whose reason is corrupted and emotions are guiding every thought. In my case, it’s dividing families, friends, neighbors. There is a collective mental breakdown. Call it TDS. You cannot speak to it. You can love them—that is, will their good, act for their good. But you cannot reason with them in this delusion they’ve swallowed. The one theme I see is victimhood in the person or the people they have to live with. I have a couple of long time buddies whose wives endured some form of abuse as children. Both are victims who have never outgrown or matured beyond their victimization. Both wives are immune to logic. One buddy, while capable, refuses to engage in any discussion of this critical point in our culture. The other moderates every view toward conformity with his wife without speaking in her shrill condemning voice. He also has a bias to discredit credible information that would say anything that is good about this moment that you see and I see, millions see. Legacy media saturation is a major factor in both. It’s why I read and listen to Sasha. She was and is no longer…nothing like a conversion story to make the heart soar! She’s seeking truth as we all must do without fail until we understand the Truth! Thank you again for what you said.
Just like every time I ask someone to list the political prisoners Biden freed, there’s silence if you ask how many citizens have been deported or disappeared as they claim. There’s zero doubt in my mind that the entire media complex would be rightfully screaming from the mountain tops what had happened if it actually did.
Just describing age of person. I’m Gen X myself. The only people I know attending No Kings protests are my age or older. I’m sure there are also younger kids, but I don’t know any.
Yeah I’m Gen X and virtually all of my friends and family suffer from some level of TDS. And most of the kids of said peers seem to be following in the same shoes. The gender ideology stuff also seems rampant out here as no less than a half dozen of my friends’ kids are identifying as trans. It’s a nightmare.
Thank you, Sasha, for this amazing post. You are so right it has not been easy being a Trump supporter. I am really tired of the BS. I just had a neighbor tell me that she would never ever live in Florida because she couldn’t stand to be in a state that voted for Donald Trump. My cousin hates him with a passion along with many of my other family members. They just don’t get it. Myself I am so happy he got reelected and my anxiety about what’s going on in the world today is ameliorated by knowing he’s in the White House. I find him very comforting.
There seems to be no end to the supply of stupid people and we just have to gird our loins against the impact they might be having on the population. Hang in there!
Thanks for the encouragement. The problem is my neighbors and my family members don’t know I voted for Trump three times although they might suspect it. I feel pretty sure I would get ostracized if I came out of the Trump closet, so I don’t talk politics with them and when they say negative things about Trump, I stay silent or I say things like “oh my God,” which they could take either as a positive or negative endorsement of what they’re saying. I sometimes think about moving to a red State ( I’m in New York), but it seems like a big deal to do that. On the other hand, it’s lonely being out of sync and not able to talk to most of the people in my life. Luckily my next-door neighbor is a big Trump supporter, so I can talk to him but the rest of my neighbors were so happy when Biden won they put up blue lights in celebration.
I was in your shoes living in California. I made the move to Florida five years ago and I’ve never looked back on those occasions where I go back to visit family and friends and see the cesspool of politics that now control controls the communities. I am so so grateful to be gone.There are a couple of blue state transplants in my neighborhood and we’re all civil to each other. No one writes anyone off for their politics. Yes it was a huge decision one I’ve never regretted you’re in my prayers.
Wow, thanks so much for your prayers! Appreciate the support to get out of my current situation. I will think seriously again about moving. Why stay and be miserable, right? Admire your enthusiasm and courage!
You couldn’t be more correct. In fact, if my memory serves me, what you cited is the First Law of Human Stupidity. That is one of five in the most excellent short book called “The Basic Laws of Human Stupidty.” That law says “There are more stupid people in circulation than you can imagine.” I commend the book to you, a not stupid person! Thanks for the comment. https://a.co/d/8EFcLDg
I had a chat with my progressive sister in Winter Park FL last week and asked....do you think it's easier or harder for a conservative to live in a blue state ( i live in MN) or for a progressive to live in a red state?
Great question for your sis. I am amazed you can talk politics like that with her. I avoid talking politics with my brother—our relationship isn’t close and to maintain contact I stay off that subject . His gf hates Trump.
I am in NY—I sympathize with you! MN might be even worse than NY with the idiot gov, idiot mayor of Minneapolis, and corrupt AG Ellison. On the other hand, NY AG L. James is the pits, along with Alvin Bragg, the incredibly partisan judges etc. Really hope incompetent idiot Mamdani doesn’t win, but is Andrew Cuomo better?
Great post, Sasha! As an amateur historian I am always looking for and arguing with liberal friends about good comparisons for Trump, both his unique personality and accomplishments. Two come to mind. Andrew Jackson, who had an obnoxious, aggressive personality amplified by drinking (while Trump does not) and Teddy Roosevelt, who also was larger than life, courageous, patriotic, boisterous, highly opinionated and tried to win a second term twice (whereas Trump won his second chance). Teddy also grew up wealthy, though, like Trump, he rejected the trappings of his wealth at a time when it was popular to be “gilded”. But neither Jackson nor Roosevelt had Trump’s accomplishments. Newt Gingrich has him at 3rd or 4th in his ranking of great Presidents behind: Washington, Lincoln and FDR
Well said. Really well said. Except I wasn't exactly a fan of Lincoln or FDR, but I get it and I'm not fighting with you. You make a great point still. And Sasha is tremendous.
By the way, Irish Andy always had his noon-time whisky, "to the last of them," he'd toast to his many detractors!! A lot of bad, but Irish Andy was quite colorful and resolved. William Wallace was his hero, and though unsucesfully and captured with a knife scar for it, he fought against the British at the tender age of 13. Which kind of formed his whole hate for the British. He was the Hero of New Orleans for a reason. Side bar, yet of course.
Andrew Jackson is a very good read, whichever biographer is chosen. He was much more of a warrior than Trump, who really doesn't care for killing. Jackson embraced it. Jackson also was not born wealthy but made his wealth as did Southerners of the time, on the backs of slaves. He relentlessly built his plantations to become very wealthy, though he was not around much to manage them as he was always fighting in a war or politicking. Quite a character. Yes, his courage and strategic guile in the "Battle of New Orleans" in the War of 1812 was famous then and still today
And oh yeah, you know but the irony of his great victory forever strikes me. Information travelled slow, the war was over - the Treaty of Ghent, etc. Just saying, but it did put Jackson on the map and big.
You bet Brian. Very well said, though I may differ just a little in Jackson's mindset and the way he achieved wealth. He was of course an achieved storied Genral, Lawyer, a storied judge, land speculator, horse breeder, and Merchant too, it wasn't all about his Cotton plantantion - and he was a very complicated man in his moral compass and the rest. For instance, he adopted an Indian baby after his Army killed most of them??? Plus, back then almost everyone was a racist or worse. I'm not defending him in that respect or any, but just saying. He also hated the rigid theology of Calvinism and Masonites. Plus, his absentee Veto, that he used to great effect - the first real poplulist President.... That changed our politics forever. Endlesss more, which you likely know but He was a complicated man, yet a most colorful one in many respects. And a bad one too for sure, the Trail of tears and much else. And oh, his direct quote on that noon time whisky he always did was, "By the Almighty!" I'm with you in much, and my further thoughts for only what they are worth.
He also said, "By the Almighty!" Irish Andy, not so good in a lot, but God bless his soul. Just like with Jefferson it was a mixed bag. Those who know history get it.
I guess the main point is that any President in our history who really stands out as something special had to be brash and aggressive to cut through the politics of the time and does what they view is necessary to "save the Republic". It is funny you don't care for Lincoln (who founded the GOP), a Constitutional and philosophical conservative but also do not like FDR, Lincoln's political polar opposite who founded modern Democrat political theory (liberal socialism). Naturally, 1/2 the country will not like the person who is so strongly executing their ideology, and will even want them dead (Lincoln and Teddy's predecessor, William McKinley were executed).
Lincoln didn't save the Republic, he founded the Empire. One of the rules of empire is that you can't leave. To prevent leaving he abrogated a number of republican principles and demolished one of the main supports of the Founder's Republic. He also didn't found the Republican Party and wasn't even their first Presidential candidate (that was Fremont). He did join 2 years after the founding having been a Whig until then. The Republican Party in those days was the progressive party-as an inheritance from their Whig predecessors. Whigs championed what they called internal improvements which is what we would call corporate welfare or more charitably, infrastructure. Some of the policy initiatives of his administration were the land grants for the transcontinental railroad which can still be seen in land ownership patterns in the West and founding of the land grant universities. You didn't mention it but the policy he gets the most historical credit for-freeing the slaves-he didn't actually do. The Emancipation Proclamation specifically didn't apply to portions of the country under the control of the Union. This not only included the slave states that didn't secede but also those portions of Confederate states under occupation by the Union Army. It was strictly a war measure to disrupt the Confederate economy and deter intervention by Britain and France. See his letter to Horace Greeley for his attitude toward the war and slavery. The slaves were emancipated by the 13th Amendment after he was dead. The war did de facto free a lot of slaves, mainly due to the much despised Ben Butler coming up with the concept that slaves entering Union areas could be considered war contraband. This prevented their return to owners under the Fugitive Slave Act which was still in effect. Contrabands is what they were called including by the slaves themselves.
I couldn't agree more, And I'll never understand the commonly believed myth of Lincoln. Except for the true Maxim - The Victors write the History...... I could go on forever (and none of it would be friendly to Lincoln - and admitted Monarchist), but you pretty much frame my thoughts. Very well put on your part.
Yes, save the Republic or as Ben Franklin said "a Republic, if you can keep it".....can you believe that in the comments section on a Yahoo or Microsoft article, a lefty actually said that the quote was "a democracy, if you can keep it" and they got 8 thumbs up on that.....HA! The Founders hated straight "democracies" and many of them related it to mob rule. The term is no where to be found in our founding documents!
Lincoln didn't save the Republic, he founded the Empire. One of the rules of empire is that you can't leave. To prevent leaving he abrogated a number of republican principles and demolished one of the main supports of the Founder's Republic. He also didn't found the Republican Party and wasn't even their first Presidential candidate (that was Fremont). He did join 2 years after the founding having been a Whig until then. The Republican Party in those days was the progressive party-as an inheritance from their Whig predecessors. Whigs championed what they called internal improvements which is what we would call corporate welfare or more charitably, infrastructure. Some of the policy initiatives of his administration were the land grants for the transcontinental railroad which can still be seen in land ownership patterns in the West and founding of the land grant universities. You didn't mention it but the policy he gets the most historical credit for-freeing the slaves-he didn't actually do. The Emancipation Proclamation specifically didn't apply to portions of the country under the control of the Union. This not only included the slave states that didn't secede but also those portions of Confederate states under occupation by the Union Army. It was strictly a war measure to disrupt the Confederate economy and deter intervention by Britain and France. See his letter to Horace Greeley for his attitude toward the war and slavery. The slaves were emancipated by the 13th Amendment after he was dead. The war did de facto free a lot of slaves, mainly due to the much despised Ben Butler coming up with the concept that slaves entering Union areas could be considered war contraband. This prevented their return to owners under the Fugitive Slave Act which was still in effect. Contrabands is what they were called including by the slaves themselves.
I will never understand the hatred for the man, or how the Left, at least those members of it who have consciences, can live with the grotesque sinfulness of their neverending attempts to defame Trump. It may be that they have burned their consciences out.
Consider the appalling specimens of inhumanity which we all saw a month ago when Charlie Kirk was shot. Obviously, none of them has a functioning conscience.
The Right just wants to be allowed to live out our lives. But what would the Left be without its permanent campaign to make us all over into their hideous images?
I'm seventy - three, and have seen enough of life to know that it would require an idiot to say that Trump voters are impeccably virtuous, but the contemporary Left - and I am certainly not original in saying the following, though I think I had noticed it before I learned that others had, as well - occupies the world's waiting room for Cluster B cases.
"I will never understand the hatred for the man" - truly it is astounding and a pathological condition now. Yes it manifested as a surge of hate posthumously against Charlie Kirk, R.I.P. I think it also manifested in the hatred against the un-jabbed, too, but so much more concentrated. These people have really lost the plot.
It's a spiritual sickness, something which I think is true everywhere the Left turns its ugly visage. If you can circumvent the paywall ( if you can't, pay $5.00, because it will be worth it ) at The Free Press, read Niall Ferguson's important, not very long, essay about illiteracy making people more and more receptive to believing the nuttiest ideas.
Sometimes in our lives we get busy and distracted and forget to realize how lucky we are. Reading a wonderful essay like this; I am just so overwhelmed with gratitude that Kamala Harris is not our president.
Trump has far, far exceeded my expectations. In my heart and head in 2016 I knew he would be good for America, but I did have reservations. With all of the Left's, the media the institutional and Hollyweird attacks, it was difficult to hold firm to my convictions. They planted nothing but seeds of doubt and the harassment was non-stop, both of Trump and his supporters.
Trump has proven himself time and time again. He learned much in those 4 years out of office and it shows. I haven't agreed with everything Trump has done, but he has been a most pleasant surprise. God has blessed Trump and answered many prayers for the turning of America and I pray He will continue to do so.
What an amazing piece, Sasha! A tour de force that you are able to write like no other person!
"This has never been the story of the Fourth Reich and the Second Confederacy. This has always been a love story, a grassroots movement, a basket of deplorables, standing by the only guy who saw them at all, let alone the guy who would fight for the America they want."
I write from Australia, remembering back to the 2016 election and how distressed I was after seeing Hillary Clinton's speech in which she referred to Trump supporters as a "basket of deplorables". I woke up in the middle of the night agitated and I got down on my knees and I prayed, earnestly
"Please God, make many of those so called deplorables as exercised in their spirit as I am that they are not deplorables, and that they have a vote, and they must save America from the oblivion that will follow if she is elected. Because as America goes, the rest of he world will go, including us here in Australia."
I felt like God had answered my prayer the next day - although the spiritual battle is still going on.
If any of you you ever feel prompted to pray for President Trump, don't ignore the prompting - do it right away, briefly but earnestly!
And now Trump's press secretary Leavitt said of democrats, "The Democrat Party's main constituency are made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens and violent criminals," from an interview on Fox News on Oct. 16.
After Biden got elected and had a VP tie-break for the Senate, there was talk of adding two new states, getting rid of the filibuster and packing the Supreme Court. At the time, of course, government-directed censorship of social media was in full swing too.
That's how close we got to a real dictatorship.
During the long years of one-party rule by the PRI in Mexico, they called it the "perfect dictatorship" because it applied just the bare minimum of pressure on opponents to stay in power indefinitely.
Donald J. Trump stopped that from happening in the United States. Could anyone else have done so?
Living in Mexico about the time Colosio was assassinated, I could never quite believe that the entrenched party was called the oxymoron "Institutional Revolutionary Party."
Yes, and that hoary old party isn't nearly as old and sclerosed as our own Democratic party.
Exactly. At the time, Rubio, Cruz, Speaker of the House Ryan (in his $1000 suits) - yep, nobody in the GOP could've handled the stress that Trump did in his first term and yet, STILL get the ship to start turning around........He as the bitter pill we needed to save the patient.
Like keeping US Secret Service agents off a slanted roof in case anyone wanted to take a clear shot at a presidential candidate in Butler, PA last year.
It sounds a little silly, but I feel safe with Trump in the White House. After four scary, awful years of the previous inept administration, we have someone in the White House who truly loves this country. We're in good hands again.
That President Trump was exactly the right person at exactly the right time in exactly the right place to defend and save our Constitutional Republic, especially in regard to the catastrophe which would have ensued had Harris been installed in 2025. In the grand scheme of things, DJT is likely third on the list of America's most important Presidents. God bless the lovely bully! :-)
I remember hearing from a friend of mine sitting in my car one night as he told me in a low voice that Trump would be the most consequential president since Roosevelt, maybe even Lincoln. This was before Butler, before the election of 2024, and I thought the guy was delusional. Today I hail him as a prophet. Yes, it's Washington, Lincoln, and Trump. What a time we live it! And no one knows that better than our dear Sasha Stone.
Your friend was spot on. While the dying legacy media focuses on the minutia of things Trump does that do not matter, Trump is systematically destroying the Deep State and relegating the Demoncat party to the ash heaps of history. They will not recover and our constitutional republic will reap the benefits of his Presidency for years to come.
What a time we live in, indeed, Mr. Lewis. You sound wise enough to appreciate and enjoy it. With no offense to Vance, Rubio, etc., we will not see the likes of DJT again anytime soon.
Yes indeed, Trump is one of a kind, sui generis, unique. When he said "only I can do it" I thought he was a megalomaniac. I grew up with Trump in the NYC tabloids...he was a clown, a media creature, a narcissist, a joke, a fun guy, shameless self-promoter. What I didn't see is that all these vices would become virtues in the environment of 2016--Present. When he won the 2024 election I realized he waws RIGHT -- ONLY HE COULD DO IT. I realized his narcissism was faith in himself, this creature of the tabloids was a master of the new media, the joke, the fun guy had a genius for the troll. He was just the LEADER we needed as a battering ram against their Utopian Castle of the Soft Tyranny of Luxury Beliefs and Fantasy Delusions. Oswald Spengler calls this type of figure a "man of destiny". After he is gone we will return to a landscape of Lilliputians. Heaven help us.
Even more important, perhaps, is that Donald J. Trump is the only one who WOULD do it.
Well said, sir. Bravo.
Bingo.
A bit of narcissism? You bet but, I think, well channeled. Had he been given his proper due for all that he has done, I think President Trump would have felt less of a need to self-promote. I'm not sure of the return to a landscape of Lilliputians. To a landscape of worthy successors, more likely. Your point is well taken, however; following a Colossus will not be easy. Either way, we will find out, if we are lucky, sort of what it felt like when Washington gave his Farewell Address: humble thanks and great loss. Sir Christopher Wren's epitaph on the floor of St. Paul's Cathedral may come closest to the point, regarding the President: Si monumentum requiris circumspice (if you seek his monument, look around).
Trump is not a narcissist; he has an unusually high level of self-confidence that people read as narcissism. He is very self-effacing and has a funny sense of humor. YES... he is fussy about his hair but he admits it and laughs at himself. Narcissists can't do that!
Well, I am fairly self-effacing, have a wicked (good) sense of humor am fussy as hell -- on certain things, and can laugh at my own foibles. All that and I flirt with narcissism, too. It don't think it a bad thing, in moderation. Just another way of dealing with the world. FWIW.
I agree with you that Trump is not a narcissist. He's got a level of self-confidence that I envy.
Exactly. He's a healer, partly by way of a (actually a few) bitter pill.
Let us hope that Trump is more Washington and less Lincoln.
Trump proved his bravery in Butler just as Washington had many times in battle. He is a worthy successor of the "indispensible man". The only other time we saw anything like it was Teddy Roosevelt, who finished a speech after being shot.
Roosevelt & Trump differ dramatically in their political philosophies, policy goals, and temperament. Roosevelt was a progressive who sought to regulate big business and protect the environment, while Trump advocates for deregulation and challenges environmental policies.
Where they are the same is that both are charismatic. Both Roosevelt and Trump built strong, loyal followings. Both used their personal charisma to connect directly with the public, bypassing established political structures.
Agreed. Happily, Melania does not seem the kind to want to drag her husband off to see "Our American Cousin." Thank goodness.
She is also not mentally ill.
Touche. Mary Todd did have her problems, to be sure.
My favorite POTUS was always Lincoln and then Grant. I have relegated Grant to fourth.
Lincoln and Mary weren't well matched as a couple, IMO. While the end months of Biden, I began paying more attention to Jill. So far, I feel like Jill is another Mary Lincoln.
I think he'll be the best of both and more!
That would be an accomplishment, indeed!
He is neither Washington nor Lincoln, but definitely third.
I agree. That is magnificent company to be listed third with.
People will soon see that he is the most consequential president since George Washington himself... and when they learn of his role in literally ushering in WORLD PEACE with God's help - he will be even more consequential!
All of humanity will admire Donald J. Trump by the time God is done! 🙏
Could be, though I would submit that without Mr. Lincoln saving the Union, there would no longer by a nation for Mr. Trump to be the most consequential President of. That said, the Almighty is not quite finished with Trump!
I would take Washington off of your list. Washington built a country; Trump has been trying to save our country (imo). Washington stands out above all.
Will Trump's legacy the most consequential (after Washington)? Absolutely. More books will be written about him than most POTUS.
Sasha you have a gift of taking events and crafting a perfect observational summary with words and video clips. Your beautiful essays remind me of Dustin Hoffman’s 1989 Oscar Speech for best actor in Rain Man
In his acceptance speech for Rain Man, Hoffman spoke passionately about the craft of acting, comparing it to the effort of a great violinist like Itzhak Perlman, emphasizing the difficulty of making a performance look effortless and "getting it right" to create an authentic scene.
Hoffman said:
"I was sitting in a box with [director] Barry Levinson, and there was a man sitting in front of us who was a great violinist, Itzhak Perlman. And I said to Barry, 'You know, I’m very nervous, I don’t think I’m going to win, but if I do, I’m going to say something about what it feels like to try to become another person.' Because we were talking about how Itzhak Perlman makes playing the violin look so easy, and yet we know how difficult it is.
Sasha, you have taken a difficult period in our country and captured the "Trump era".
Thank You
Spot on, Paul!👍👍 While there will always be some lunatics who are haters, Trump has been awesome. If his actions in getting the Israeli hostages released don’t make one proud to be an American, nothing ever will.
Copy that. The lunatics will not be affected by the hostage release, I am afraid, since they are no longer grounded in everyday reality.
Trump dodged a bullet in Butler PA.
America dodged a bullet on November 5th.
Absolutely correct. Thanks for getting to the point quicker than I did!
Sasha, you’d been quiet for a few days so I thought to myself “she’s cooking up something and I bet it’s going to be REALLY good”. Boy was I right! Thank you!
Trump had received word during his White House Antifa round-table last week that his Israeli hostage deal had made a breakthrough. We were able to witness Donald the Great digest that news without missing a beat. His focus remained with the courageous patriots assembled before him and he stayed for another fifteen minutes before excusing himself to attend to the hostage negotiations. This is next-level cool. Courage personified, but something more than that and what that something is, you’ve captured perfectly. Thank you again dear Sasha 💚.
Assuming he is able to save the Republic.
The Democrats are trying to undo the results of the last election and the gains that we made with the One Big Beautiful Bill by trying to force Covid-era subsidies to be extended rather than admit that the Healthcare bill was an utter failure like anything and everything else the Left does.
Their war on Healthcare costs went as well as LBJ's War on Poverty.
If the GOP caves on the Healthcare subsidies rather than giving the Christmas Eve massacre a public execution that it deserves, then all is lost.
It's said that after LBJ signed his "war on poverty" bills into law, he said "Now we'll have those blacks (he actually said the word that shall not be uttered) voting Democrat for 100 years".
Very likely. He was racist to the core and a despicable human being.
That is a fair caveat. Thanks.
Stone uses "Trump" and "truth" in the same sentence. People on the right do not object when Trump spouts lies. Any time he mentions figures, they are always off by several orders of magnitude. He apparently just pulls them out of thin air.
Today Trump was ranting, " The Republican Party is not going to pay a TRILLION and a half dollars to illegal immigrants coming into our country. Coming in for a lot of reasons, coming from prisons, from jails, from all over the place, from Venezuela, many countries. We’re not going do that. So the shut down continues. It’s a Democrat shutdown."
Democrats are NOT proposing to spend $1.5 trillion on undocumented immigrants. Undocumented people are NOT eligible for either Obamacare subsidies or federal Medicaid insurance coverage.
Hospitals are required to provide people with emergency care regardless of immigration status or ability to pay because of the "The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) passed in 1986 during the REAGAN admin. It requires hospital ERs that accept payments from Medicare to provide an appropriate medical screening examination (MSE) for anyone seeking treatment for a medical condition regardless of citizenship, legal status, or ability to pay. Do you want to see people who do not have funds die in the street outside a hospital? It happens in places 3rd world countries (see https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/17/africa/pregnant-woman-death-cameroon).
Democrats are proposing to reverse Trump-approved cuts to Medicaid and other health programs and extend the enhanced pandemic-era Obamacare subsidies that are scheduled to expire at the end of the year. The "Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget,"a fiscal watchdog group, estimated that the spending proposal the Democrats released in Sept. would add $1.5 trillion to the debt over the next DECADE.
The White House itself on contested figures has claimed that Democrats are proposing to spend about $193 billion – MUCH LESS than Trump’s “$1.5 trillion” – on health care for “illegal immigrants and other non-citizens."
Roughly 15 MILLION US citizens will lose health coverage and become uninsured by 2034 because of the Medicaid and ACA marketplace cuts in the Republican megabill, the law’s failure to extend enhanced premium tax credits for ACA marketplace coverage.
My sister in law will attend a local ‘No Kings’ protest rally this weekend. She is Gen X aged. I also know some retired Boomers in my neighborhood who will also go. All white, all upper class. I don’t know what to say to these people. So I stay silent whenever politics should arise. The best I can tell is they are upset over the ICE images they see on TV. My wife is sympathetic to her sister. Telling me ‘how do you know all the ICE deportations are actually illegals? What if some are not illegals?’
That’s what I’m surrounded by here in deep blue PNW. I’m really happy with my vote for Trump and how he is working to transform our country. Really, really pleased.
Tell them we’ve had a No Kings day every year for the last 249 years. We celebrate it on the 4th of July. And if Trump were truly a king, you can bet your blue hair dye there would be no protests. So, enjoy your street theater! That’s what I would say. It’s what I told my brother anyhow, who’s also going. He didn’t take it very well.
I am in a similar situation and I used to play nice with my friends and family members who are brainwashed. No more. I'm not mean, at all. But, I am firm. And I have always tried to treat them the way Kirk treated brainwashed morons. With Grace and Truth. Grace, by itself is awesome - but it also needs Truth - and sometimes Truth hurts snowflakes.
Be the snowflake melter.
Daniel Goleman says that while IQ will get you hired it is Emotional intelligence that will get you promoted.
Anyone who celebrates the violent death of anyone, not just Charlie Kirk, and THEN posts it on social media, shows a level of emotional immaturity that would indicate that they wouldn't be valuable as an employee to begin with
I let my Betsy Ross flag out front do that melting for me.
We have an unwritten by pretty much agreed upon rule on our street that we won't put up political signs.
"That changed last fall when 3 neighbors put Harris Walz signs up.
I asked "what about our agreement" to which they shrugged.
So I put up my Betsy Ross flag that still hangs today 11 months later.
Their Walz Harris signs....I dont' even see them tucked in the back of their garages.
Worst part for one neighbor is she donated $5000 to Harris....and drives a Tesla. Whenever she leaves the house, I see her put on this magnet on the back of her car that says something like "i had this car before the 2024 election" in order to not have it keyed by her fellow progressives.
I believe the Germans call this schadenfreude.
My saving grace with my SIL and wife is that we are all practicing Christians. So, this love of Jesus Christ binds us still, and is a stronger commonality than politics. They come at the ICE situation from a biblical stance, which I get. But at same time, if we don't have borders then we don't have a functioning country.
Personally, I don't get the "biblical stance"......Christ (or rather, his parents) weren't breaking the law when they went to Egypt - travel between the two countries was legal and the Jewish custom to "entertain strangers" was in regards to "strangers within Israel and Judea", not people illegally from another country entirely.
And btw, Christ wasn't into breaking the law, in fact, he preached to go "mega-law" (the law of God's love/unconditional love): "You know the law says do not commit adultery, I say that if you look at a woman with lust in your heart (and he's not referring to a fleeting or several fleeting thoughts, he's speaking of heart-felt thoughts that are the engines of action) that you have already committed adultery"......Funny story - a person with the same "but Christ/Christianity" arguments and verses of scripture against Trump, after I sited the above preaching by Christ, said, "How ridiculous, that sounds more like what the Pharisees said, not Christ"......HA!.
For my wife its these Old and New Testament versus:
Leviticus 19:34: You must treat the foreigner living among you as native-born and love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
Matthew 25:36: I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.
Last night she got upset hearing helicopters in the area which we never heard before, and assumed they were the Feds. I live nearby a self-proclaimed 'sanctuary city'. She doesn’t trust that the detentions are being performed humanely and unhappy about families being broken up.
IMO, our government has just not enforced immigration law consistently for so long that there are parts of our fellow-citizens that see it as overly-authoritarian now that it's occurring. To me, this re-set has to happen and it's going to be divisive.
We are witnessing what is going on in the UK and other parts of Europe as a result of negating borders and being flooded with Middle Eastern, Pakistani, and African immigrants. The sentiment of taking everyone in is beautiful but when practiced in real life the lack of boundaries results in collapse of the host countries.
I remind folks that these are the laws that were passed decades before Trump. HE didn't get them passed. They are on the books and he is enforcing them. Their beloved Obama was called the "Deporter in Chief!" His deportation numbers, sadly, dwarf Trump's so far. Was she opining about helicopters during the Obama years??
They have been on the books as far back as Clinton.
Sir, are you and your wife aware the current immigration laws on the books have been since Clinton?
I have a question, if I may. You have cited Scripture. What about verses like Romans 13:1-2 and 1 Peter 2:13-14 that instruct us to submit to governing authorities and obey the laws of the land, including paying taxes? Scripture says that governmental authority comes from God, and disobeying the law is seen as disobeying God.
I don’t agree with my wife when it comes to immigration. I’m 100% for deportation of illegal aliens. I’m just sharing my wife’s perspective here in deep blue region who doesn’t fully agree with my stance. My wife regularly volunteers with Iraqi and Afghan (legal) immigrants who are trying to learn English and further assimilate. She also volunteers at a church food pantry. She is in touch with poor people on the regular. So, this colors her views.
I wouldn't say a "Biblical stance" would be to allow terrible people to roam the streets of our country, looting and pillaging as they go, with bloodied and bruised bodies in their wake. God is about justice AND love. After all, Heaven has THE most stringent border policy in the Universe. If you don't belong there, no way you're getting in. ;-)
Yeah, because there is this passage in Deuteronomy 28 that explains what will happen to a people who do not maintain a relationship with God:
The foreigners who reside among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. They will lend to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the head, but you will be the tail. . . . They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you. . . . They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine or olive oil, nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined. They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the Lord your God is giving you.
Salt and light. 🙌
You're substantiating my theory that it is somewhat a reprise of the "Garden Of Eden," when a woman thought she knew more than God and chose not to listen to Him. When I take the time to study the crowds and "posts" arrayed against Trump and MAGA'ites like me, they are consistently "educated" white women. At seventy-nine I think I've earned the right to share my disappointment in my own gender.
......and question (although fleetingly) whether my own gender should've gotten the vote.....women overwhelmingly voted for FDR, the socialist and they were charmed by Clinton, the social engineer, along with Hillary (that's when "politically correct" started). I recently watched the townhall-type debate between Clinton and Bush Sr. and Bill was laying on the charm, big time and you could tell some of the ladies asking him questions were crushing on him.......not a great basis to decide on a president.
I have often had the same thought, Cat C. It seems as if the majority of our gender do not use reason so much as they use emotions.
The are upset because they are brainwashed lemmings.
Casualties of cognitive warfare they’ve become reTarDS. What they “think” and say is repetition obsession / self- protection and working to keep their anxiety and aggression at bay. As does their return to the trough of media, social, entertainment etc. reinforcement of their essentially hypnotic state. Not knowing “what to say” is a good start… because they are literally in an entranced, intoxicated state. Our communication is the reality of our awareness outside the ‘bad dream’. Watch like a hawk and LISTEN and your wife will tell you everything you need to know. Love first and ask questions later. Which is to say ASK don’t tell… Socratic method. These casualties are suffering and they are largely inured to facts and radically intolerant by pain of cognitive dissonance to any contradiction to their mental structures of entrancement. Re-creational (of relationship) activities on an ongoing basis and assuring through touch and care are highly recommended. Our message to the 🧠🦠enwokened is awareness outside of the dream.
Btw I have written of my slight alternative to Ernie Boxall’s point of view “she won’t be persuaded” is fair enough. Supported may work differently. Make sure you have support and remember darkness fears the light AND NOT the other way around 🏳️💗🏳️
Things take time and we still have some here’s to our every next right move that’s pretty much all we have. Best of luck I’m 3 years in with this sort of thing with my wife and others and improvement is steady but the clock is ticking
I live the same un-reality on a small island in BC, Canada - different political characters- same shite. And they all think the same about USA issues you describe. Exhausting - I will not always be silent - to my cost! Oh well!
I have a sister in law like that too.
Worst part is she's gone loco with her TDS even after having attended a Trump rally in Asheville NC back in 2015 to see what all the buzz was about.
When I do see her on rare occasions, I remind her that she's been to twice as many Trump rallies in person than I have.
Sir, America is at war. We are approaching the Fort Sumpter stage where Americans will fire on Americans. The last eight years have been the Cold Civil War.
You are facing a choice, I'm afraid. Your country or your family. In the Civil War family killed family, a man shot his cousin, raped his aunt, burned his brother's home.
Your wife has made her decision and she will not be persuaded. I know. I have lost the love of my wonderful daughter.
The decision, is yours, Sir.
We're not at war.
A culture war, but it's kind of like the war on drugs or the war on crime.
Once you start calling everything a war, people recoil and stop talking to one another.
Go to a NO KINGS rally this weekend and where your Freedom hat or a Trump 2028 hat...or set up a little card table and chair with a placard that reads "Free Speech NOT Allowed. Change my Mind."
I thought about what sign would I carry if I were to go. Mine would say "I support LEGAL immigration". Which I do.
Thank you, Matt L, for what is a very common sense, heart felt description of what you face regularly. This is civil war with one side going hot. While the other side is attempting to moderate the trapped animal impulses of people whose reason is corrupted and emotions are guiding every thought. In my case, it’s dividing families, friends, neighbors. There is a collective mental breakdown. Call it TDS. You cannot speak to it. You can love them—that is, will their good, act for their good. But you cannot reason with them in this delusion they’ve swallowed. The one theme I see is victimhood in the person or the people they have to live with. I have a couple of long time buddies whose wives endured some form of abuse as children. Both are victims who have never outgrown or matured beyond their victimization. Both wives are immune to logic. One buddy, while capable, refuses to engage in any discussion of this critical point in our culture. The other moderates every view toward conformity with his wife without speaking in her shrill condemning voice. He also has a bias to discredit credible information that would say anything that is good about this moment that you see and I see, millions see. Legacy media saturation is a major factor in both. It’s why I read and listen to Sasha. She was and is no longer…nothing like a conversion story to make the heart soar! She’s seeking truth as we all must do without fail until we understand the Truth! Thank you again for what you said.
Just like every time I ask someone to list the political prisoners Biden freed, there’s silence if you ask how many citizens have been deported or disappeared as they claim. There’s zero doubt in my mind that the entire media complex would be rightfully screaming from the mountain tops what had happened if it actually did.
What does Gen X have to do with anything?
Just describing age of person. I’m Gen X myself. The only people I know attending No Kings protests are my age or older. I’m sure there are also younger kids, but I don’t know any.
Yeah I’m Gen X and virtually all of my friends and family suffer from some level of TDS. And most of the kids of said peers seem to be following in the same shoes. The gender ideology stuff also seems rampant out here as no less than a half dozen of my friends’ kids are identifying as trans. It’s a nightmare.
For a quarter of a millennium now the USA has stood,
A beacon for freedom, trusting in God, defeating evil with good;
Bookmarked each end by two great men, Washington & Trump,
None of us know what the future holds, but thank God we're over the hump!
The nightmare of the past four years is fading in the past,
Obama's dreadful legacy is being undone at last,
The rotten racist policies, the lawfare and the lies,
The lawlessness, the anarchy, Marxism in disguise.
So thank the Lord for Washington, the father of our land,
Who won the war & led our fledgling nation by the hand,
And let's give thanks for Donald Trump who's winning day by day,
And all combine to shout aloud - God bless the USA!
Very fine.
ChatGPT or CoPilot?
Not undone if the GOP caves and undoes the cuts in the one big beautiful bill
Possible, but after what Charlie Kirk did with our youth, and the enduring strength of our constitution, more and more unlikely.
“We cultivated victimhood and fragility, which made us ill-equipped to deal with the rise of Donald Trump.”
Sheer genius from Sasha!
Let’s make her famous. Share her material, properly attribute it to her, make sure many others are made aware of her very important truth telling.
Thank you, Sasha, for this amazing post. You are so right it has not been easy being a Trump supporter. I am really tired of the BS. I just had a neighbor tell me that she would never ever live in Florida because she couldn’t stand to be in a state that voted for Donald Trump. My cousin hates him with a passion along with many of my other family members. They just don’t get it. Myself I am so happy he got reelected and my anxiety about what’s going on in the world today is ameliorated by knowing he’s in the White House. I find him very comforting.
There seems to be no end to the supply of stupid people and we just have to gird our loins against the impact they might be having on the population. Hang in there!
Thanks for the encouragement. The problem is my neighbors and my family members don’t know I voted for Trump three times although they might suspect it. I feel pretty sure I would get ostracized if I came out of the Trump closet, so I don’t talk politics with them and when they say negative things about Trump, I stay silent or I say things like “oh my God,” which they could take either as a positive or negative endorsement of what they’re saying. I sometimes think about moving to a red State ( I’m in New York), but it seems like a big deal to do that. On the other hand, it’s lonely being out of sync and not able to talk to most of the people in my life. Luckily my next-door neighbor is a big Trump supporter, so I can talk to him but the rest of my neighbors were so happy when Biden won they put up blue lights in celebration.
I was in your shoes living in California. I made the move to Florida five years ago and I’ve never looked back on those occasions where I go back to visit family and friends and see the cesspool of politics that now control controls the communities. I am so so grateful to be gone.There are a couple of blue state transplants in my neighborhood and we’re all civil to each other. No one writes anyone off for their politics. Yes it was a huge decision one I’ve never regretted you’re in my prayers.
Wow, thanks so much for your prayers! Appreciate the support to get out of my current situation. I will think seriously again about moving. Why stay and be miserable, right? Admire your enthusiasm and courage!
If you decide to make the move, feel free to reach out, I will gladly provide info..I did alot of homework before I came..:)
Thank you! That is very kind. I really appreciate your support and encouragement.
You couldn’t be more correct. In fact, if my memory serves me, what you cited is the First Law of Human Stupidity. That is one of five in the most excellent short book called “The Basic Laws of Human Stupidty.” That law says “There are more stupid people in circulation than you can imagine.” I commend the book to you, a not stupid person! Thanks for the comment. https://a.co/d/8EFcLDg
I had a chat with my progressive sister in Winter Park FL last week and asked....do you think it's easier or harder for a conservative to live in a blue state ( i live in MN) or for a progressive to live in a red state?
First time in my life she was left speechless.
Great question for your sis. I am amazed you can talk politics like that with her. I avoid talking politics with my brother—our relationship isn’t close and to maintain contact I stay off that subject . His gf hates Trump.
I am in NY—I sympathize with you! MN might be even worse than NY with the idiot gov, idiot mayor of Minneapolis, and corrupt AG Ellison. On the other hand, NY AG L. James is the pits, along with Alvin Bragg, the incredibly partisan judges etc. Really hope incompetent idiot Mamdani doesn’t win, but is Andrew Cuomo better?
Sasha is simply a brilliant journalist that we should treasure. I can add nothing, and rigthfully. Beautifully put.
Ditto!
Great post, Sasha! As an amateur historian I am always looking for and arguing with liberal friends about good comparisons for Trump, both his unique personality and accomplishments. Two come to mind. Andrew Jackson, who had an obnoxious, aggressive personality amplified by drinking (while Trump does not) and Teddy Roosevelt, who also was larger than life, courageous, patriotic, boisterous, highly opinionated and tried to win a second term twice (whereas Trump won his second chance). Teddy also grew up wealthy, though, like Trump, he rejected the trappings of his wealth at a time when it was popular to be “gilded”. But neither Jackson nor Roosevelt had Trump’s accomplishments. Newt Gingrich has him at 3rd or 4th in his ranking of great Presidents behind: Washington, Lincoln and FDR
Well said. Really well said. Except I wasn't exactly a fan of Lincoln or FDR, but I get it and I'm not fighting with you. You make a great point still. And Sasha is tremendous.
By the way, Irish Andy always had his noon-time whisky, "to the last of them," he'd toast to his many detractors!! A lot of bad, but Irish Andy was quite colorful and resolved. William Wallace was his hero, and though unsucesfully and captured with a knife scar for it, he fought against the British at the tender age of 13. Which kind of formed his whole hate for the British. He was the Hero of New Orleans for a reason. Side bar, yet of course.
Andrew Jackson is a very good read, whichever biographer is chosen. He was much more of a warrior than Trump, who really doesn't care for killing. Jackson embraced it. Jackson also was not born wealthy but made his wealth as did Southerners of the time, on the backs of slaves. He relentlessly built his plantations to become very wealthy, though he was not around much to manage them as he was always fighting in a war or politicking. Quite a character. Yes, his courage and strategic guile in the "Battle of New Orleans" in the War of 1812 was famous then and still today
And oh yeah, you know but the irony of his great victory forever strikes me. Information travelled slow, the war was over - the Treaty of Ghent, etc. Just saying, but it did put Jackson on the map and big.
You bet Brian. Very well said, though I may differ just a little in Jackson's mindset and the way he achieved wealth. He was of course an achieved storied Genral, Lawyer, a storied judge, land speculator, horse breeder, and Merchant too, it wasn't all about his Cotton plantantion - and he was a very complicated man in his moral compass and the rest. For instance, he adopted an Indian baby after his Army killed most of them??? Plus, back then almost everyone was a racist or worse. I'm not defending him in that respect or any, but just saying. He also hated the rigid theology of Calvinism and Masonites. Plus, his absentee Veto, that he used to great effect - the first real poplulist President.... That changed our politics forever. Endlesss more, which you likely know but He was a complicated man, yet a most colorful one in many respects. And a bad one too for sure, the Trail of tears and much else. And oh, his direct quote on that noon time whisky he always did was, "By the Almighty!" I'm with you in much, and my further thoughts for only what they are worth.
He also said, "By the Almighty!" Irish Andy, not so good in a lot, but God bless his soul. Just like with Jefferson it was a mixed bag. Those who know history get it.
I guess the main point is that any President in our history who really stands out as something special had to be brash and aggressive to cut through the politics of the time and does what they view is necessary to "save the Republic". It is funny you don't care for Lincoln (who founded the GOP), a Constitutional and philosophical conservative but also do not like FDR, Lincoln's political polar opposite who founded modern Democrat political theory (liberal socialism). Naturally, 1/2 the country will not like the person who is so strongly executing their ideology, and will even want them dead (Lincoln and Teddy's predecessor, William McKinley were executed).
Lincoln didn't save the Republic, he founded the Empire. One of the rules of empire is that you can't leave. To prevent leaving he abrogated a number of republican principles and demolished one of the main supports of the Founder's Republic. He also didn't found the Republican Party and wasn't even their first Presidential candidate (that was Fremont). He did join 2 years after the founding having been a Whig until then. The Republican Party in those days was the progressive party-as an inheritance from their Whig predecessors. Whigs championed what they called internal improvements which is what we would call corporate welfare or more charitably, infrastructure. Some of the policy initiatives of his administration were the land grants for the transcontinental railroad which can still be seen in land ownership patterns in the West and founding of the land grant universities. You didn't mention it but the policy he gets the most historical credit for-freeing the slaves-he didn't actually do. The Emancipation Proclamation specifically didn't apply to portions of the country under the control of the Union. This not only included the slave states that didn't secede but also those portions of Confederate states under occupation by the Union Army. It was strictly a war measure to disrupt the Confederate economy and deter intervention by Britain and France. See his letter to Horace Greeley for his attitude toward the war and slavery. The slaves were emancipated by the 13th Amendment after he was dead. The war did de facto free a lot of slaves, mainly due to the much despised Ben Butler coming up with the concept that slaves entering Union areas could be considered war contraband. This prevented their return to owners under the Fugitive Slave Act which was still in effect. Contrabands is what they were called including by the slaves themselves.
I couldn't agree more, And I'll never understand the commonly believed myth of Lincoln. Except for the true Maxim - The Victors write the History...... I could go on forever (and none of it would be friendly to Lincoln - and admitted Monarchist), but you pretty much frame my thoughts. Very well put on your part.
Yes, save the Republic or as Ben Franklin said "a Republic, if you can keep it".....can you believe that in the comments section on a Yahoo or Microsoft article, a lefty actually said that the quote was "a democracy, if you can keep it" and they got 8 thumbs up on that.....HA! The Founders hated straight "democracies" and many of them related it to mob rule. The term is no where to be found in our founding documents!
Lincoln didn't save the Republic, he founded the Empire. One of the rules of empire is that you can't leave. To prevent leaving he abrogated a number of republican principles and demolished one of the main supports of the Founder's Republic. He also didn't found the Republican Party and wasn't even their first Presidential candidate (that was Fremont). He did join 2 years after the founding having been a Whig until then. The Republican Party in those days was the progressive party-as an inheritance from their Whig predecessors. Whigs championed what they called internal improvements which is what we would call corporate welfare or more charitably, infrastructure. Some of the policy initiatives of his administration were the land grants for the transcontinental railroad which can still be seen in land ownership patterns in the West and founding of the land grant universities. You didn't mention it but the policy he gets the most historical credit for-freeing the slaves-he didn't actually do. The Emancipation Proclamation specifically didn't apply to portions of the country under the control of the Union. This not only included the slave states that didn't secede but also those portions of Confederate states under occupation by the Union Army. It was strictly a war measure to disrupt the Confederate economy and deter intervention by Britain and France. See his letter to Horace Greeley for his attitude toward the war and slavery. The slaves were emancipated by the 13th Amendment after he was dead. The war did de facto free a lot of slaves, mainly due to the much despised Ben Butler coming up with the concept that slaves entering Union areas could be considered war contraband. This prevented their return to owners under the Fugitive Slave Act which was still in effect. Contrabands is what they were called including by the slaves themselves.
What was the "main support of the Founding republic" that Lincoln abolished?
States as sovereign entities.
True. Because now, federal law supersedes states laws.
I need to read Aunt Mary's book now.
I will never understand the hatred for the man, or how the Left, at least those members of it who have consciences, can live with the grotesque sinfulness of their neverending attempts to defame Trump. It may be that they have burned their consciences out.
Consider the appalling specimens of inhumanity which we all saw a month ago when Charlie Kirk was shot. Obviously, none of them has a functioning conscience.
The Right just wants to be allowed to live out our lives. But what would the Left be without its permanent campaign to make us all over into their hideous images?
I'm seventy - three, and have seen enough of life to know that it would require an idiot to say that Trump voters are impeccably virtuous, but the contemporary Left - and I am certainly not original in saying the following, though I think I had noticed it before I learned that others had, as well - occupies the world's waiting room for Cluster B cases.
"I will never understand the hatred for the man" - truly it is astounding and a pathological condition now. Yes it manifested as a surge of hate posthumously against Charlie Kirk, R.I.P. I think it also manifested in the hatred against the un-jabbed, too, but so much more concentrated. These people have really lost the plot.
It's a spiritual sickness, something which I think is true everywhere the Left turns its ugly visage. If you can circumvent the paywall ( if you can't, pay $5.00, because it will be worth it ) at The Free Press, read Niall Ferguson's important, not very long, essay about illiteracy making people more and more receptive to believing the nuttiest ideas.
The left also uses purity tests not unlike the original Puritans.
You have not only believe what they believe, you have to pass litmus tests to be truly woke.
And some people interpret that as a sign from above (Obama) to do something Obama would never ever be able to do himself.
They're overripe for someone from within to tell them no, and who has the stature to make whatever it is an appeals court case if necessary.
I canceled my sub to them, which I had since their inception, now that they are the Unfree Press
We'll see. They hired her, thereby scandalizng their reporters. She may be far more bold than you imagine.
She won’t be able to stand up to shareholders or execs
If she improves their finances she may have greater sway than you imagine.
Agree with you on all counts !
Thank you, Cindy.
Sometimes in our lives we get busy and distracted and forget to realize how lucky we are. Reading a wonderful essay like this; I am just so overwhelmed with gratitude that Kamala Harris is not our president.
Amen!
I can't even imagine how much of a disaster that would be 9 months in.
Trump has far, far exceeded my expectations. In my heart and head in 2016 I knew he would be good for America, but I did have reservations. With all of the Left's, the media the institutional and Hollyweird attacks, it was difficult to hold firm to my convictions. They planted nothing but seeds of doubt and the harassment was non-stop, both of Trump and his supporters.
Trump has proven himself time and time again. He learned much in those 4 years out of office and it shows. I haven't agreed with everything Trump has done, but he has been a most pleasant surprise. God has blessed Trump and answered many prayers for the turning of America and I pray He will continue to do so.
What an amazing piece, Sasha! A tour de force that you are able to write like no other person!
"This has never been the story of the Fourth Reich and the Second Confederacy. This has always been a love story, a grassroots movement, a basket of deplorables, standing by the only guy who saw them at all, let alone the guy who would fight for the America they want."
I write from Australia, remembering back to the 2016 election and how distressed I was after seeing Hillary Clinton's speech in which she referred to Trump supporters as a "basket of deplorables". I woke up in the middle of the night agitated and I got down on my knees and I prayed, earnestly
"Please God, make many of those so called deplorables as exercised in their spirit as I am that they are not deplorables, and that they have a vote, and they must save America from the oblivion that will follow if she is elected. Because as America goes, the rest of he world will go, including us here in Australia."
I felt like God had answered my prayer the next day - although the spiritual battle is still going on.
If any of you you ever feel prompted to pray for President Trump, don't ignore the prompting - do it right away, briefly but earnestly!
And now Trump's press secretary Leavitt said of democrats, "The Democrat Party's main constituency are made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens and violent criminals," from an interview on Fox News on Oct. 16.
I guess what goes around comes around.
Another Sasha masterpiece!
After Biden got elected and had a VP tie-break for the Senate, there was talk of adding two new states, getting rid of the filibuster and packing the Supreme Court. At the time, of course, government-directed censorship of social media was in full swing too.
That's how close we got to a real dictatorship.
During the long years of one-party rule by the PRI in Mexico, they called it the "perfect dictatorship" because it applied just the bare minimum of pressure on opponents to stay in power indefinitely.
Donald J. Trump stopped that from happening in the United States. Could anyone else have done so?
Living in Mexico about the time Colosio was assassinated, I could never quite believe that the entrenched party was called the oxymoron "Institutional Revolutionary Party."
Yes, and that hoary old party isn't nearly as old and sclerosed as our own Democratic party.
Exactly. At the time, Rubio, Cruz, Speaker of the House Ryan (in his $1000 suits) - yep, nobody in the GOP could've handled the stress that Trump did in his first term and yet, STILL get the ship to start turning around........He as the bitter pill we needed to save the patient.
Well, "bare minimum" and an execution of an opponent (maybe more than one....). At least that's the rumor.
Like keeping US Secret Service agents off a slanted roof in case anyone wanted to take a clear shot at a presidential candidate in Butler, PA last year.
It sounds a little silly, but I feel safe with Trump in the White House. After four scary, awful years of the previous inept administration, we have someone in the White House who truly loves this country. We're in good hands again.
Yes, safe. The last four years definitely didn’t give us peace or safety. I love winning every day with Trump, but mostly I love feeling safe.
Thank you Sasha!
What an excellent article!! Thank you kindly, Ma'am!