Adeyemi Oshunrinade
November 7, 2024
In our quest for victory, we often encounter a host of beliefs, narratives, and so-called truths that promise to guide us towards our goals. The question is, what happens when what we believe to be true are indeed lies? There are instances when we allow false beliefs to shape our political decisions, drive our relationships with others, and dictate our self-worth. Unfortunately, when we move in such direction, we set ourselves up for deceit by aspiring leaders who exploit our weaknesses for political gain.
When we believe in lies about others or the world around us, our knowledge and understanding become clouded, our choices misguided, and our capacity to decide on the right leadership that fits our needs gets disrupted. If anything we learned from the election of Donald Trump, it is how far lies and misinformation can become embedded in the minds of people such that they become accepted as truths. His campaign statements and targeted words reflect false perspectives that, overtime become ingrained in the minds of his cult of followers until they become ultimate reality that shapes their behavior and political decisions. Rather than challenge the false information, his supporters reinforce the lies for example, when Trump said the 2020 election was stolen, they believed him and continue to spread the lie knowing it was false.
Kamala Harris ran a good campaign but Trump won because he sold misinformation to the American people, they believed it and accepted it as the right information. They chose to ignore all moral guardrails to elect Trump despite the convictions, the felonies, his status as an adjudicated sexual assaulter, and his disrespect for what the United States stands for as a model for democracy. With the election of Trump, we now have a new version of American leadership – a far-right political structure made possible by falsehoods. The use of gender bias, race bias, and a distorted view of the economy, all played into how Trump won. He painted the Biden economy bad, while it is true the United States is the fastest growing economy since Covid. He lied about immigration and convinced his supporters to see it as a Biden problem; they believed him despite killing a bipartisan bill intended for solution. Those supporters are willing to discard the U.S. constitution and vote for a self-proclaimed dictator with no policy agenda to run the country.
Since the announcement of the election results, those who bought the lies see themselves as victors, while in reality they are brainwashed victims of deceitful political ideology. In the real sense, politics teaches us and create the liturgy: to see enemies everywhere; it reinforces the belief that your opinions are the ultimate truth; it turns people into binary thinkers, the idea of “us versus them;” it tempts you to place your hope in the leader; and trains the victim to argue than listen. All these qualities have been applied by Trump supporters since his campaign started. Social media platforms are now flooded by his followers declaring victory, while some are reining insults calling those that did not agree with their choice of candidate “sore losers.”
With Trump now destined to be next president, those who did not support his candidacy can sit back and observe how he provides the “best economy” he promised. Americans are now waiting to see his foreign policy agenda and how he intends to manage the crisis in Ukraine and Gaza among others. The idea that the man who created only chaos during his first term would return to run the country better remains to be seen. The hope is that Europe is ready to defend and protect the territories of Ukraine without U.S. leadership.
A divisive, corrupt, and transactional character; Trump as President will not be a unifier. He will not see the need to heal the division in the country and as a master of chaos, he is coming to blow things apart. He will cozy up with Putin, Kim Jong un, Vicktor Orban and the likes. The hope is that the system is prepared to deal with his authoritarian impulses and disregard for the rule of law. For those followers waiting for the Messiah in Trump, you can keep doing so. It is going to be one chaos after another in the next Trump administration.
Winning in life demands mental clarity and the ability to recognize the truth when presented to us. Lies sap both of these, distorting our vision and blurring out our desire for truth. When we believe in truths that align with our political ideology, we empower ourselves to move forward with confidence and demand clarity of policies from aspirants of leadership positions. Ultimately, embracing truth over lies becomes the most essential step to winning-not only in our personal pursuit but also in the search for a President that will better represent the affairs of our nation. It is unclear if the declared winner of the election is that person. While Trump may have won the election, those who voted for him are not winners; you cannot win when you believe in lies.
Adeyemi Oshunrinade is the author of “Medical Malpractice in Health Law.” He also wrote “Wills Law and Contests,” “Constitutional Law-First Amendment” and other publications available at Harvard books Barnes & Noble and Amazon. Follow on Twitter @san0670.
Categories: Current Affair, Opinion, Politics, U.S. Economy and Policies
Gettysburg Institute Post 
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