The unbearable irrelevance of Trump haters
Now that Inauguration Day is over, it is amusing to reflect upon all those entertainers who refused to perform, whether on not they were invited to contribute to the day's celebration. News flash! No one missed you – not one of you. The one thing the Trump victory is not about is celebrity endorsements. Once and for all, our Hollywood elite should realize that no one cares what they think off-screen, small or large. No one. It is actually quite likely that their uninformed and blind allegiance to Hillary Clinton hurt her electoral viability. For a country concerned about the debasement of our culture, the rich but clueless "stars" who supported HRC – Jay-Z, Chance the Rapper, Pusha T, Beyonce, Katy Perry, Q-Tip, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, etc. – most likely drove millions of people to Trump.
Performers like Jennifer Holliday, Paul Anka, Garth Brooks, Kiss, and Andrea Bocelli should be kicking themselves with regret. To perform at any one of the day's events would have been the highlight of every one of their careers. To be so afraid of one's fans and fellow performers is a sad commentary on the false life of celebrities without core beliefs of their own. Those who did perform, like Sam Moore of Sam & Dave, Lee Greenwood, Tony Orlando, Jackie Evancho, Toby Keith, the Silhouettes (amazing), The Rockettes, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and the Talladega College Marching Band are heroes all; they braved the Twitter storms, death threats, and fear of career stultification. They realized that to celebrate freedom from an increasingly dictatorial government was more important than angering some ignorant fans. These people should be celebrities, for each of them is a role model. Stand up for your knowledge and belief in what is right and true.
This 2016 election revealed many unexpected things about our nation. First and foremost is that most of us never wanted the country to be fundamentally transformed into Obama's vision of a Marxist socialist state, the kind that has devastated Venezuela most recently and every other nation where it has been tried. The left's dream of imposing equality of outcome can never be realized. The right's belief in equality of opportunity with safety nets can and will be realized. The left's innate obsession with punishing achievers and rewarding those who feel entitled to the fruits of others' labors must be terminated. Americans must again learn to be self-reliant. College students must learn to read and hear things that may offend them, ideas to which they may not previously have been exposed. Most of all, the radical left's compulsion to control how we live, where we live, what we drive, the temperature to which we heat or cool our homes, who will educate our children, must be impeded. Older Americans actually do want their country back; they want it back for their children and grandchildren.
As for those members of the House who refused to attend the inauguration, no one missed them, either. Their little paroxysm of fury at their loss has reflected very poorly on each and every one of them. As for their constituents who urged them to act so childishly, they deserve exactly what they get when they vote imprudently: poor representatives. What did their snit accomplish? Exactly nothing but the sullying of their own reputations.
No one should have to applaud our elected officials for doing what they are elected to do, but in these waning days of everything Obama, perhaps the Democrats who did honor our Constitution's peaceful transition of power are to be commended for bucking the radicals in their party who are advocating all manner of hostility to all things Trump. Sen. Schumer might think again about his movement to "resist" Trump in every way possible. Let us all hope he puts the country before his anger and pride. He should think long and hard about trying to sabotage the new president at every step of the way. Older Americans who revere the Constitution and the country they knew will likely see his obstructionism as a reason to do everything in their power to elect Trump for a second term.