Avengers Dissemble

Democracy in action

Perhaps my favourite of the (good) Marvel movies is Civil War. Which imagines the super heroes splitting into two factions after the US government, jealous of their unrestricted power, steps in with a law to regulate, constrain and corral them. Putting the Avengers under government control.

It does not go well.

One half of the team, led by industrialist, and one time arms dealer, Iron Man-Tony Stark, is happy to accept state oversight.

While others refuse to bend the knee, and band together under the loose leadership of Second World War hero, and patriot, Captain America. A man out of time, who knows a thing or two about fighting tyranny.

To its credit the movie is pretty nuanced, and careful not to tell its audience what to think, (imagine that!), or come down too heavily on either side.

I know many of my readers will be resistant to the allure of the MCU. But if you enjoy exciting movies, with great characters, and excellent storytelling, I urge you to give Captain America: Civil War (to give it its full title) a go.

In the dying days of the American election campaign the Avengers, or at least the actors who played them, assembled once more. This time to take on the biggest supervillain of all. Donald J Trump.

I say ‘assembled’, but Robert Downey Junior, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, Paul Bettany, Danai, and the insufferable Mark Ruffalo could only manage a cringey zoom call.

Which was already a mistake. Because suddenly billions of dollars worth of Hollywood glamour melted away, and these tragic thesps now appeared mere shadows of their movie star selves, brought low by bad lighting, web cams, and in one or two cases, a clear case of Ozempic-itis.

Also. Scarlett Johansson appears to spend the whole thing talking on a doorbell camera. I’m no tech wizard, but, yeah, that’s not how zoom calls work.

This time there was no voice of dissent. No rebel faction. No one was sticking it to The Man. Instead, our erstwhile heroes lined up, stalwart, steely, and steadfast, on the side of the Regime.  Wielding the supposedly invincible super powers of sanctimony, disdain and condescension, to extoll the non existent virtues of chimera candidate Kamala Harris.

It was lame, weird, patronising and unfunny. As awkward as accidentally walking in on your mum and dad trying to get the spark back.

But it did perfectly reflect the self righteous arrogance, conceit, and narcissism of Hollywood and the ever entitled left.

And the out of date idea that we, the voters, are blank faced Pavlovian numbskulls who respond like salivating pets whenever more enlightened ‘celebs’ deign to speak down to us.

Someone needs to tell Tinsel Town it doesn’t work anymore.

As was proved at Kamala’s Houston rally. Beyoncé the singer is still very much a star.

But Beyoncé the browbeater, is about as popular as Rachel Reeves at a farmers market.

To their credit, the actors were not completely uncritical. Don Cheadle, (no doubt Liz Cheney’s favourite, seeing as he played the character ‘War Machine’), was quick to identify what had been missing so far from Kamala’s lacklustre campaign.

No, not as you might have guessed, policies, press conferences, coherence, humility,  likability, vision, or a message. Not charisma, credibility, charm, a manifesto, programme, or any kind of plan.

What was lacking, was a catchphrase.

Yes of course. That’ll fix it. The Harris campaign was going down in flames for want of a snappy one liner.

After much hilarious, unforced, and completely natural banter, our emetic heroes settled on the winning tag line

‘Kamala Harris is down with democracy’.

Which might at first blush seem an odd choice. Since many progressives actually find democracy so traumatising that they need professional help coping with the very idea of it.

The Guardian newspaper for instance, is offering its steely nerved staff of bedwetters, free counselling to help them survive Donald Trump’s landslide victory.

And it’s easy to see why. So many liberal tears have been shed at the paper, that the streets around the Guardian building have suffered more flood damage than Valencia.

And yet ‘democracy’ is one of those words which the left has appropriated as its own. Like ‘equity’, ‘kindness’, ‘anti racism’, and ‘tolerance’.

Values which it unceasingly claims underpin its beneficent ideology. But which are in fact antithetical to every one of its actions, choices, deeds, and goals.

The progressive left is perhaps the least kind, least equitable, most partisan, most enthusiastically racist, most joyfully punitive, and most vindictively intolerant, of any political movement. Ever.

And I know what you’re thinking. But at least Adolf’s lot didn’t dye their hair blue, shove in a nose ring, and then, as they destroyed yet another opponent’s career, life, and livelihood, proclaim through self indulgent tears of rage and indignation, that they were in fact, the good guys.

Aided by the legacy media, the ‘democracy’ label has unaccountably, unfathomably and unjustifiably stuck to the progressives.

The Daily Telegraph, which for my American readers, is a nominally right of centre, but increasingly wishy washy and woke newspaper, wrote,

‘In another possible boost for Ms Harris, voters think the state of democracy is the most important issue at this election’.

It just doesn’t add up.  It’s like saying

‘Voters have put child safety at the top of their agenda, which is why they are flocking to join the transatlantic coalition of Huw Edwards, Jeffrey Epstein and P Diddy.’

On what level can unburdened has-been Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party, the Biden Administration, and the progressive elites, claim to be champions of ‘democracy’?

These are the people who attempted to neuter their political opponents with endless criminal accusations and lawfare. In an effort to remove them from the democratic ballot, by chucking them in prison.

The party, which under the direction of Hillary Clinton, conspired to bring down an elected president by confecting the fantastical ‘Russian collusion’ hoax. Baselessly smearing him as a Kremlin stooge.

Doesn’t sound very ‘democratic’.

This is the party which even enacted a coup on its own president. Then sidestepped a primary election, so it could simply swap him out with its own preferred candidate.

How did they do it? No one knows. Because it all happened behind closed doors. Far away from the eyes of meddling, bothersome, little voters.

Popes have been chosen with more transparency than Kamala Harris.

This wasn’t the first time of course. With the Democratic Party allegedly conspiring to ‘rig’ the primary process and anoint Hillary Clinton as its chosen candidate, over Bernie Sanders, in 2016.

This is the movement whose top people, (Hillary again obvs) are actively and openly working to repeal the First Amendment, and remove our free speech rights.

As Elon Musk says, ‘Without free speech there is no democracy.’ Exactly. That’s why they want to shut him down. So they can shut us up.

This is the party which made it unlawful for local authorities to ask for voter ID.  Essentially making attempts to prevent vote rigging and election interference, actually illegal.

It’s interesting, though perhaps entirely coincidental, that the only states where Harris triumphed in 2024 were the ones where voter ID was not mandatory.

Yes that’s it. It was coincidence.

This is the democracy loving regime which sued the state of Virginia to keep illegal immigrants, who had no right to vote in this election, from being removed from electoral rolls.

Declared that postal votes which arrived after the polls closed, and bore no post mark, must be counted anyway.

And spent at least a year if not two or three, lying to voters, pretending against all obvious evidence, that a cognitively impaired president, was ‘as sharp as a tack.’

The administration which harassed a former presidential candidate, an America congresswoman and a member of the National Guard, by secretly putting her on a terrorist watch list. All because she stood in opposition to how the Military Industrial Complex swaps blood for profit, in America’s Forever Wars.

Encouraged violence against their rival, depicting him as a Fascist, a Nazi, and an existential ‘danger to our nation and the world’, (Yup! You guessed it. Hillary again) who should be placed ’in the bullseye’.

And then professed shock and surprise when politically motivated nut jobs tried to shoot him dead. Twice.

So these are the guys who are ‘down with democracy’?

OK Avengers. Go it.

It was actually Trump. Thanos to these fading, crumbling, prima donnas, who assembled his own, real life coalition of heroes.

There’s futurist Elon Musk.

Unlike Robert Downey Junior he’s not playing Tony Stark.

He is Tony Stark.

A private individual who can do everything NASA can do, but cheaper, quicker and more efficiently. He’s built his own internet, the world’s most valuable car company, and a machine for plucking sky scraper sized rockets clean out of the air.

When I wrote a piece about him here👇, some people responded by telling me that I was wrong. Informing me that Musk, the world’s richest man, is in fact both a terrible businessman. And a moron.

RFK, like the Hulk, is at heart, a gentle giant.

While the progressives spray soup on priceless artworks, block ambulances, and smash windows in the name of the environment, RFK has spent a lifetime as a lawyer and activist actually working hard to preserve, husband, and nurture it.

He wants to make America Healthy Again, attacking Big Pharma, and processed foods, while focusing on children’s health. Which is OK when the guy from CBBC’s Operation Ouch! does it, but is somehow kooky and weird when it comes from RFK.

Sure his supposed positions on some vaccines (no, not you covid vaccine), if true, would seem more than a little Looney Tunes. At least to me.

A friend of mine told me last night that ‘if RFK becomes America’s health chief he will ban all vaccines, and a million people will die.’

Which did worry me for a moment. Until I realised that even if my pal was right. That would still be a significantly lower body count, than that racked up by the last guy.

Right Dr Fauci?

Another concern.  His uncle got shot, his dad got shot, and Trump got shot. I’m not overly superstitious. But I do worry RFK might be turning into something of a jinx.

Then there’s the National Guard’s Tulsi Gabbard. Tulsi is, smart as a fox, hard as nails, and hot as buttons.

Sorry. I know that might sound a tiny bit sexist. But I just find women in uniform sexy. Especially if they are easy on the eye, like Tulsi Gabbard. Or Admiral Rachel Levine.

Gabbard was the subject of the harassment campaign I mentioned earlier. She’s no terrorist. She’s a patriot, and an ex congresswoman. Someone who has consistently stood up against the warmongers in both Democrat, and Republican, parties.

Tulsi is this group’s lynchpin. You might assume she’s their Black Widow. But not really. With her military record, integrity, and strong moral underpinning, she is more like Captain America.

Gabbard actually stood as Democratic presidential candidate in the 2020 primaries. Memorably wiping the floor with Kamala Harris in one debate.

If the party had picked her instead of Harris, then perhaps the Democrats would right now be celebrating America’s first non-white, female president, after all.

We haven’t got time to talk about JD Vance, Vivek Ramaswamy, Joe Rogan, Megyn Kelly, and the rest.

So let’s finish our line up with TrumpWorld’s very own Rocket Raccoon. Peanut the Squirrel.

The adorable cowboy hat wearing pet which the Biden Administration somehow found the resources to track down, hunt, and euthanise. While at the same time failing to stop, or even acknowledge, the heavily armed Venezuelan crime gangs taking over apartment complexes in Colorado.

That really is a Peanut intolerance.

These are real people. (Except Peanut. Obvs.) Flawed certainly, but talented, dedicated, driven individuals who have spent their lives fighting against the odds, the powers that be, and vested interests, to make the world a better place.

And it’s worth noting that Trump, arguably the most flawed of all, has not assembled a coalition of puppets, a confederacy of yes men, an obsequious team of nodding donkeys.

RFK and Gabbard, have both stood against Trump at one point or another. While Musk, the most independent of thinkers, has until recently, described himself as politically non aligned.

Can you imagine Kamala Harris ever being so generous with her one time rivals? It’s doubtful. From what we hear, even her supposed friends cannot abide her.

No one knows what the next four years will bring.

It could be the disaster as the leftist pearl clutchers, catastrophisers, and bed wetters keep warning.

It could turn out to be a triumph. Morning in America.

It could land somewhere in between.

But one thing’s for sure. After the lawfare, the persecution, the lies, misinformation, slurs, vilification, vitriol, and the assassination attempts, Trump, and his ever growing coalition of heroes, misfits, geniuses, oddballs and outcasts, more than deserve their chance.

Because despite what Hollywood’s fake Avengers might tell us, that’s what democracy actually means.

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I expect that you are bored of reading about the US election by now. But it’s currently the only game in town. So I thought it would be odd if I didn’t join in.

I didn’t want to write another ‘Why Trump Won’ piece. There have been a myriad of great articles under that title from proper commentators.

So I thought I’d try something else, and pull together two or three things I’d noticed over the course of the campaign into one, hopefully coherent piece.

I hope you think it’s been worth the effort.

As ever please subscribe. It’s free, unless you don’t want it to be.

A ‘like’ also helps.

And here’s the Buy Me A Coffee button if you’d prefer to offer a quick hit instead. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your continued support.

I’ll see you in the comments.

All balanced opinions are welcome. But any all caps denunciations of Trump will be ignored. And let’s be gracious about Harris where we can.

To all my American readers. Whoever you voted for, thanks for a such an exciting ride, the very best to you and yours.

God bless America.

LSO