Donald Trump is the Counterculture

A short take.

The reason the fringe artists originally planned for America’s 250th celebration backed out is that they were told it was a partisan event for Trump and MAGA and not “bipartisan,” as though the word still exists in practice. It doesn’t.

The Oscars, the Emmys, even the Super Bowl, nearly every movie released in Hollywood, almost all late-night comedy — all of it is partisan, deliberately so. The Resistance, ring any bells?

The nerve of any of them to pretend that there ever could be such a thing as bipartisan now. To recap: after Trump won in 2016, the Democrats threw an epic hissy fit. Hillary wasn’t supposed to lose.

Our country paid too high a price for having politics and culture merge, as it did under Obama. Once Trump won, American culture was forced to take a side. I remember how Nicole Kidman’s career almost came to a skidding halt when she dared to suggest we should give the newly elected president a chance.

Take it from me. I lost a substantial income when a story about me appeared in the Hollywood Reporter, calling me a “MAGA darling” and exposing that I voted for Trump. One major studio pulled its ads that day.

As I watched every studio ghost me, every publicist stop contacting me, the Jane Fonda-owned Women’s Media Center fire me, and I became toxic to people I used to call friends, I could finally feel what Trump supporters have been going through for a decade.

It was never supposed to be this way. They never had any right to claim American culture for themselves because the legacy media lied to them every day about Trump and his supporters, whipping up a dark fairy tale everyone was forced to go along with, or else.

We didn’t just live through World War II. That was a lie. Trump isn’t Hitler. That, too, is a lie. And they most certainly aren’t the “resistance.” They have always been the empire. They just couldn’t let go of power. They had so much of it. In desperately clinging to it, they have destroyed every great thing they ever built.

The Left abandoned half the country as it claimed culture for itself, turning it into a massive propaganda delivery machine, 1984-style. Nothing was spared — not movies, not music, not comedy. How can they possibly throw a concert celebrating America’s 250th without caterwauling about Trump or singing their own praises about how inclusive and diverse they are?

So, by default, Donald Trump became the counterculture. Everything revolves around him. He’s the villain. He’s the subversive. He’s the challenge to the system that the Left could no longer ignore. He’s the guy who can tell jokes now that are funnier than anything on SNL or late-night. He has taken the place of art because the Left co-opted it and turned it into predictable dogma.

The only celebration they could offer was one of their agonizing lawn signs.

Their message to the other half of the country is this: you don’t belong here unless you go along with us. You don’t belong in our movie theaters, our restaurants, or at our concerts. Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and John Oliver tell their jokes only to one half of the country. The other half is told that they will be treated like human garbage unless they learn to love Big Brother.

I remember a different America. I remember when movies, the Super Bowl, the Oscars, Johnny Carson, and even television ads were for everyone. Those who rule over our culture now do not believe it should be. A counterculture would often offend the status quo. It was thrilling and often very funny. The only place that exists now is on the Right and specifically, in Trump every time he takes the stage.

So it’s no wonder Trump offered himself up as the main act, just as he did with the Kennedy Center. If the ruling class aristocracy demands that all of America continue to treat Trump and MAGA like an unwanted contagion, then he’ll do what he’s always done - be the counterculture.

But still, there can be a celebration that isn’t about our hating each other. Matt Walsh of the Daily Wire has the better way forward.

There are so many talented people in America who might love the opportunity to play before a crowd, even if half of that crowd is hate-watching. They don’t even have to be country singers or well-known, just people who like playing music.

True, the Left will hang it around their necks like an albatross and threaten to end any career potential they might have, but if enough of them show up, they can send the message to the bitter, punitive, sanctimonious scolds that we all love our country and we are in need of a grand celebration to remember why.

America at 250 isn’t an America that needs to be handed back to the people who hate half the country. It doesn’t need to give itself over to Woke Totalitarianism. It can be a country that celebrates its survival, messy and chaotic though it may be.

The Democrats want the celebration to be a MAGA rally. That would confirm every delusion they’ve been peddling for ten years. But Trump should resist it. He should make a grand celebration for all of us who love this chaotic country, no matter who wins the election.

The Left is planning on taking back power. At best, they’ll do what Kara Swisher suggests in this video — reluctantly “let MAGA back in,” as if they get to make that call. Sorry, lady, ya don’t.

Trump will never win them over. He will never win their approval. They only want him out of the way. But he’s made history. He’s survived three assassination attempts. He’s won two elections. That is remarkable by any measure, and it’s worth celebrating. Not him specifically, but a country where something like that is still possible, where the people overcome the most powerful political and cultural machine in American history.

Love him or hate him, Trump represents much of what this country stands for. He can’t be controlled or tamed. He is unpredictable and bold. He is a survivor and a fighter. He is helping to clear the path for real art and real culture to once again flourish. What a time to be alive.

Just remember the words of the campaign:

“What will we do with this moment? How will it be remembered? Look at the opportunities before us.”

Let’s not throw it all away because a few two-bit acts backed out.

Remember this, MAGA, this is the MAGA I voted for. This is the vision I believe in. This is the party that can still be celebrated.

“The people dreamed this country, and it’s the people who will make America great again.”

Hang in there, Trump. We've got your back.