Trump must become the colossus that Freedom needs

When Thomas Matthew Crooks fired the bullet that grazed Donald Trump's ear, he opened a window of opportunity in which the Republican candidate could show his true essence, that same ability that made him a global political icon in 2016. In the minute after the bullet grazed his flesh, he, still standing, raised his fist and rallied the fight.

It almost turns out to be a blessing in disguise that the stupid people in charge of the Secret Service sent people so small and weak to protect him, they could not subdue him or cover him. The bleeding man stood like a colossus among the crowd and chaos, and escaped death by a hair's breadth. Surviving an assassination attempt by millimeters, by seconds, has elevated the leader's status. The people respect those blessed by luck or divine grace, but revere even more those who show genuine courage in the face of adversity. An epic poem could not have imagined it better.

"From every Democratic administration the U.S. has come out more at odds."

But politics is swift, and even faster in campaigns. Trump's campaign stalled almost before the end of the Republican Convention and in the meantime the Democratic Party shook off the burden of (President?) Biden's embarrassing blunders. When Democratic ruthlessness locked Joe Biden in the back room, it got rid of a lot of problems. Not only a senile man with a disastrous career, but also his Macbethian wife and his son who has been denounced multiple times.

One should never spit in the wind, Kamala Harris' swift anointment as a candidate put her on the front page and transformed the presidential battle into muddy ground. The Republican victory could no longer be taken for granted and Kamala became America's political protagonist. No matter if they spoke well or badly of her, the newspapers only talked about her and she, invariably, smiled. The attack on Trump was erased from the front pages, the single-issue of Kamala overshadowed all that. The surreal delirium of this election is voracious, Trump and his campaign ran out of momentum and the gods can't show favor all the time.

The (not so) new Democratic campaign plan

It's true that national conventions always provide that momentum because they are the talk of the media. In part, the Vance nomination accomplished that, but it was fleeting and the Republican vice presidential nominee appears not to have prepared well for this go-round. Republicans began to change strategists and communications specialists. Almost no one had done their homework in the party, leaning as they were on Biden's unfeasibility. The Democrats now became the haughty ones, the bullies with jokes about Trump's virility and sexual endowments or about JD Vance having sex with couches. They started calling Republicans "freaks" as a taunt. The Democrats seem to have discovered the benefits of normalcy - good to know.

What is certain is that Harris delighted her supporters in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention. She gave them a show worthy of her title, a cascade of frenzied optimism and laughter, which generated that state of relief in the conviction that victory is now possible. The message from the Democrats, such as the Clintons, the Obamas, and the rest of the party leaders like the Walz and the Harrises, is that four more years of Democratic rule can heal the wounds and finish cleaning up the country. This message is not new, it is the one used by Barack Obama in his campaigns and Biden in 2020. They claim to be the cure against the division of the United States, but America is more divided than ever. Each Democratic administration has left the US more divided. The eagerness to please the woke wing and its attachment to rampant identitarianism has made things much worse.

The point is that the vice president-turned-presidential candidate delivered her carefully rehearsed acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. A sweetened mixture of a childhood full of wise teachings, common places and ambiguous or tenuous lines trying to please opposing groups. On politics and economics, her speech was certainly detached from reality, offered vague definitions and nonsense. She promised (always at once and without her smile fading) more spending and tax cuts, a cease-fire in Gaza and that Israel will be safe, creating jobs and punishing the rich. Contradictions? All of them. It doesn't matter though, she has changed her position almost every chance she gets, but that doesn't stop her from smiling either.

Her campaign plan seems to be to avoid answering any questions before the election and thus save herself from having to answer for her performance as a prosecutor who freed violent criminals, or as an official who contributed to bailing out Antifa criminals and organizations that want to defund the police, or as the border czar during the worst immigration crisis in the history of the country. The Democratic ticket should explain its pro-crime, pro-chaos, pro-Hamas, pro-child sexualization, etc. stances. But the media seems willing to spare them the bad rap, all is smiles and laughter in the marriage between corporate elites and an increasingly intrusive and sprawling U.S. government.

Trump to save the American dream

Candidate Harris renews hopes that the privileged will remain in power with an increasingly powerful state run by an incapable bureaucracy resentful of the ordinary citizen. Not surprisingly, she shows a feverish willingness to censor opponents and punish dissent. The country follows the global trend in which most people "will own nothing" and depend on the help of politicians to educate themselves, eat or have a roof over their heads. It is this trend that all the Welfare State expansion programs, from Latin America to Europe, are part of. The Democrats are willing to make this the fate of middle and lower class Americans. But this trend requires, of course, a fierce control over what is said and what is published.

If the situation of the average American continues to deteriorate and the migration drive, instead of being directed towards work and progress in the land of the free, is directed towards the search for subsidies and the protection of the State, the next Americans are going to demand socialism. To top it off, the degrowth agenda that impedes the American dream will get Americans, like Latin Americans and Europeans, to give up ambition and simply ask more and more of the paternalistic state. Kamala Harris has inaugurated her campaign with a platform that includes plans for a massive expansion of federal power, increased taxes and price controls. Nothing is by chance.

But if this whole dark picture is possible, it is partly due to the courtesy of the Trump campaign. Just as the judicial onslaught against the former president boosted his resilient figure and strength; the sullen veil of eternal resentment adds nothing to his presidential career. Trump is now the underdog in the race, he is the old man in the battle. Trump is now the one who has to design and enhance his legacy because he has no re-election, Trump is now the one who has to stop projecting the past. Donald Trump's campaign must abandon anger, reproach for what has been lost and, above all, pretend that the State is used for more control. It must drain the "swamp," not feed it or use it.

During the four nights of the Republican National Convention there were four very laudable slogans: "Make America Rich Again," "Make America Safe Again," "Make America Strong Again," and "Make America Great Again." Many countries have been rich, strong, great and safe, only one stood as the kingdom of freedom, it is amazing that Republicans would abandon that banner. Trump has to be the one to rescue the value of freedom in the American dream. It is his prerogative to defend freedom of speech, school choice, religious freedom, freedom of trade and enterprise and the rest of the freedoms that are under attack around the world.

"We still admire the traits that have historically allowed heroes to conquer adversaries."

At this very moment Britain is arresting citizens for demonstrating or writing on social media, in France the founder of Telegram was arrested for refusing to bow down to the censorship orders of the elites, in Brazil people are being persecuted for their opinions and 𝕏 is being forced out of the country, in Australia networks are being persecuted to control information and people are being imprisoned for not accepting the woke ideology, the European Union is creating Stalinist laws to control speech. The examples are becoming more and more frightening and they are not happening in dictatorships but in countries that are supposed to respect individual rights. Freedom is threatened, in a way it has not been for decades, at the heart of the world's liberal democracies.

Democrats love to talk about freedom, but that amounts to simply accepting their entire list of criteria and agenda. At the Democratic convention, everyone talked about "fighting for our freedoms," but it was all about Americans accepting capitulation to all progressive causes. Trump is the one who must fight against the imposition of future lockdowns and school closures. Trump is the one who must fight against restrictions on the flow of information, against the imposition of agendas, against price controls, against regulations and against censorship. It is time for Trump to act.

What the US needs is not anger or lamentation. These years of cultural hegemony have emphasized the values of victimhood, but the people's deep responses toward leadership have not changed and admiration and fascination before heroic narratives are still the prevalent in their hearts. We still admire the traits that have historically allowed heroes to conquer adversaries. We are captivated by displays of true courage and the drive for freedom in the face of oppression. That courage is what Trump showed and which thrilled the world the day the bullet grazed his ear. Because we saw him defiant and rallying the fight. And the most important fight Trump must fight today is for freedom. The US and the world urgently need a colossus for Freedom.