As the fog of battle from the 2024 presidential race is lifting, it is becoming clearer that this election was not so much a referendum on Trump vs. Biden or Harris as it was a referendum on reality vs. absurdity. It was a chance for Americans to signal that they had reached their breaking point and simply could not tolerate any more lies. It was their chance to publicly reject the many mendacities they have been asked to swallow as “truth” over the last eight years or so.
Despite Herculean efforts by the Democrats along with their governmental agency and media allies, the mask was pulled off of simply too many of the falsehoods, making a number of things clear:
- No, national security interests were not the reason Hillary Clinton took a hammer and BleachBit to her subpoenaed hard drives and phones.
- No, Trump was not a Russian asset — and yes, the Democratic party conspired with the media, big tech, and governmental agencies, to perpetrate that false narrative.
- No, Joe Biden was not withholding a billion dollars of U.S. aid from Ukraine because a particular public prosecutor there represented some existential threat to either Ukraine or the United States.
- No, Hunter Biden’s “vast experience” in energy and finance did not warrant being paid tens of millions of dollars from foreign entities.
- No, Hunter Biden’s laptop was not Russian disinformation.
- No, the COVID virus did not mutate from a pangolin in some Chinese wet market, and most likely was leaked from a Wuhan lab; and Dr. Fauci’s claim that the U.S. was not funding Gain of Function research wasn’t true either.
- No, the COVID “vaccine” will not stop you from getting the virus; no, masks and six feet of distancing will not have a significant impact on the spread of the virus; and no, not everyone should receive the vaccine – in fact, large swaths of the population should avoid it altogether.
- No, objecting to COVID policies at a school board meeting should not make you a “domestic terrorist.”
- No, men cannot menstruate, give birth, or change sexes because they say so or by removing their genitals; and men participating in women’s sports is neither fair nor inclusive.
- No, surgically removing genitalia from minors is neither “gender affirming” nor “care;” it is butchery and malpractice.
- No, DEI policies and practices are not fair or helpful, do not have anything to do with diversity, equity, or inclusion, and actually have the opposite impact of what supporters contend.
- No, defunding the police is not a good idea.
- No, Jussie Smollett was not attacked by a group of MAGA hat-wearing white supremacists.
- No, Nick Sandman the teen from Covington Catholic High School did not engage in a racist attack on a Native American man.
- No, the ANTIFA and Black Lives Matter unrest of 2020 was not comprised of merely “mostly peaceful protests;” they included riots that killed 19, injured hundreds, attacked and burned government buildings, and destroyed billions of dollars of property.
- No, you weren’t crazy to question the results of the 2020 presidential election or how Democrats coordinated with government agencies, the legacy media, and big tech to sway the outcome.
- No, the January 6 protests and riots were not an insurrection, officer Sicknick was not bludgeoned to death with a fire extinguisher, Ashley Babbit did not deserve to be killed, and Ray Epps was clearly more than a mere private citizen.
- No, President Trump did not call the white supremacists and Neo-Nazis of Charlottesville “very fine people.”
- No, the southern border is not secure, and the fact that the number of illegal immigrants may have “slowed” for a given month or two is irrelevant as compared to the 12.8 million who were already here by October 2023, and the 2.6 million “increase” since January of 2021.
- No, anthropogenic climate change is not the existential threat claimed, and not nearly as dangerous as the ramifications of the actions proposed and taken to supposedly counter it.
- No, inflation was not “transient” or under control, slowing an increase isn’t the same as an actual decrease, and the cost of living has soared 22% under Biden.
- No, crime is not going down – and the false report claiming violent crime fell by 1.7% under Biden needed to be corrected to show a 4.9% increase.
- No, Joe Biden is not “sharp as a tack” and in control.
- No, when a full-term baby is delivered and then left to die on a delivery table it is not called abortion or reproductive rights.
- No, only one political party is a threat to democracy, using the media, governmental agencies, and lawfare to censure, punish, attack, and imprison their political enemies specifically because they are political enemies, and it is not Trump or the Republicans.
Criticizing mistakes with hindsight is easy work of course, but the aforementioned lies and so many more were not mere mistakes. They were usually premeditated and intentional lies – created and perpetuated for the explicit purpose of deception – deception to the benefit of the deceiver – and usually to the disadvantage of the American public and the opposing party.
By November of this year, with the exposure of all of these lies and more, the bulk of the American public had surpassed their limit. Not only were they tired of having the truth hidden from them, but they were tired of being told that they were an enemy of freedom, the country and constitution, and decency if they were unwilling to believe and act in accordance with the lies. In this regard, the 2024 election had boiled down to a battle of truth vs. lies – and Americans had become exhausted with the steady and predictable stream of the latter – and from the same, predictable and discredited sources.
As one last validation that they had chosen correctly, Joe Biden extended the middle finger to America yet again, violating his vow that he would not pardon his son – a vow he didn’t break until after the election of course. Further, the usual suspects are now pushing the newest lie, that this is perfectly acceptable given the “retribution-focused Trump administration.”
Ever had one of those dreams after which you wake up and chuckle at the stupidity of your thinking in the dream – E.g., Why did I think that having a cup of coffee was a top priority when the house was on fire?” That’s where many Americans are now, asking themselves how they could have believed so many of the clear and obvious lies put in front of them – often for a period of years.
Some Americans and plenty of the media knew all of these were lies from the outset, but surely a large portion of both were shocked when each fabrication was eventually revealed. Perhaps now the public can look with clear eyes at a number of similar situations including those in the present and future.
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Dr. Greg Salsbury is former president of Western Colorado University, author of the 2006 award winning book “But What If I Live?” which predicted the 2008 meltdown, and the follow up book “Retirementology – Rethinking the American Dream in a New Economy,” which topped Amazon’s “personal finance” category.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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