guest COMMENTARY

They Can’t Stand It When We Ridicule Them

I must admit it. I must come clean. I try turning myself over to the better angels of my nature, but I don’t know if they will have any luck, because I am 100%, prime time, on board the “Let’s Go Brandon!” bandwagon.

Stop and think — ridicule is a potent weapon against one’s adversaries. Everyone hates to be laughed at; humiliation is one of the more common and universally effective ways to isolate someone or, alternatively, to persuade them to change their behavior. For some, the simple act of wearing a t-shirt with “Let’s Go Brandon!” emblazoned on it is a nonverbal act of rebellion For the Left, “Brandon” is now a Paul Bunyan- sized mountain of a man who is taking a devastating ax to their agenda and their narrative, with every t-shirt and meme ridiculing them in disastrously funny and effective ways.

Like many other commentators have observed, “Let’s Go Brandon!” has its roots in Saul Alinksy’s Rules for Radicals: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. There is no defense. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also, it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.

Among some friends and acquaintances, I have noticed a reflexive, vigorous pushback against this phrase mocking Joe Biden. They call it “immature” and say mocking the president should have no place in our politics. Really? After cleaning up the mess from spitting out my coffee, I respectfully, but firmly, remind them of what the country went through for the entirety of the Trump campaign and presidency. Their response has been “we need to do better” or “just because both sides do it doesn’t mean it’s right.”

In some cases that’s true but sometimes one’s opponents must receive an ample portion and get a taste of what they have been dishing out. Also, please pull the log out of your own eye before trying to remove the twig from mine….

If we were talking to a very good friend or to our loved ones, we might want to refrain from going full “Brandon.” Their emotional response to the ridicule could be counter-productive to a courteous, rational, and reasoned discussion. I certainly would never advocate for ruining family dinners or Thanksgiving. However, for the run-of-themill, hate-America radicals who have based their entire worldview on blind faith, feelings, and emotions, the “punch” of the justifiable ridicule might be effective. “Let’s Go Brandon!” is a brand of ridicule we haven’t seen in America for some time because it is based on objective reality; namely, the utter failures of the installed regime and their one-party control of gov- continued from page

ernment. It is different from what we witnessed during the Trump presidency because their ridicule was based on concocted lies and their wholly biased and thus inaccurate perception, completely detached from reality (e.g., Adam Schiff). We saw their ridicule for what it was — poison that destroyed everything it touched.

Recall Alec Baldwin and nearly every Saturday Night Live opening skit ridiculing Donald Trump, and all the late-night show “comics” or “hosts” whose Trump Derangement saw them incapable of restraining themselves from poking fun and ridiculing all things Trump, every single day, from the President, his wife and our First Lady, to his sons, daughters, and extended family. The nightly anti-Trump litany, diatribe of falsehoods, and gleeful “Russia! Russia! Russia!” schadenfreude was the hallmark of nearly every cable news network.

I have been reading an increasing amount of commentary about the “Let’s Go Brandon” cultural phenomenon. I think “phenomenon” is an accurate definition and description because, for many, it was difficult to explain or understand how the original, R-rated chant arose on its own, surprisingly, as if from nowhere (or from the ethereal network from which like-minded people discover there are many others “like me”). It is remarkable that the chant was not just a single event and passing fancy. Instead, “it grew legs” and quickly spread to other events across the nation. Most remarkably, those on the left and in state-controlled media took notice, so that, in either an honest attempt to cover for NASCAR fans’ behavior or to cover up the truth, “Let’s Go Brandon!” was born.

“Let’s Go Brandon!” is now a universally understood taunt against the lying, corrupt, state-controlled, establishment media, their lack of reporting the truth and what matters to most Americans, their misreporting and blatant bias, or the flat-out, boldface falsehoods they report as truth. Most Americans have had enough of the media’s malpractice and that is why we don’t listen to them anymore… about anything. “Let’s Go Brandon!” is a proud, outstretched “digital” hand gesture to the overreach of an inept, unintelligent, inexperienced, but inexplicably cocky and arrogant, mentally- diminished senior citizen who is playing house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and is playing disastrous games with America’s most trusted institutions and her citizens. Most Americans cannot believe the rapid, ninemonth decline in their country, their quality of life, their country’s international reputation and standing and, consequently, their diminished security in a frightfully dangerous world. “Let’s Go Brandon!” is a hearty, throaty roar of defiance to the cabal that holds the levers of power that installed the current occupant of the Oval Office. Remember, they have an irresistible and nearlysilent influence in every arena: the government and its alphabet soup of omnipotent bureaucracies, those who are the political activists and lobbyists who hold an inescapable grip on the dismal Potomac Swamp, the big corporations who long ago decided to go-along and get-along to get ahead of the competition (having friends in high places), and the media/social media complex that not only controls the information we receive but will also fact-check into oblivion all who dare counter their carefully crafted and wargamed narrative. I recently read a commentary in American Greatness that described “Let’s Go Brandon” as analogous to the Biblical Old Testament prophet Elijah mocking the priests of Baal. In Old Testament Israel, Baal was a Canaanite and Phoenician deity to which the ancient Israelites turned throughout their history instead of worshiping Yahweh/Jehovah. It is a brilliant analogy, and could not more clearly describe our current situation or the disastrous effects of turning away from what we know actually works for a just and prosperous society, to the “Baal” and false god of a cradle-to-grave Socialist utopia that has never, does not now, nor will ever exist.

“Let’s Go Brandon!” succinctly describes how wrong things are with the Joe Biden presidency (*). To paraphrase the Declaration, in the short ninemonth history of the present administration (*) there is a long list of injuries, injustices, abuses, and usurpations, all for its goal of establishing absolute tyranny over the citizens and the states.

“Let’s Go Brandon!” is our modern-day Tea Party. Best yet, “Let’s Go Brandon” is an intervention with our more moderate Democrat- voting relatives, friends, and neighbors, so that they may come to grips with what they have wrought on the country. They must all be carefully, gently, but truthfully, led to repentance for having given our birthrights of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness to those who seek our destruction. So then, “Let’s Go, Brandon!”

Jeff M. Lewis is a Christian, a husband and father, a Veteran, and a small business owner who resides with his family in South Texas.