Well into President Obama's first term, I still bought into the general belief that politics was a noble profession, and our leaders wanted nothing but the best for all Americans.  Sure, Republican and Democrat politicians fought hard for their differing ideologies and constituents, but at the end of the day, they could be trusted to compromise and do what's right.

I hate to admit such naïveté, but that's what I thought.

But as Obama traveled the world criticizing and talking down the United States, I had this uneasy feeling that something wasn't right.  And as the mainstream media fervidly praised Obama for his globalist and anti-American leanings, my mental unease worsened, like a splinter in my mind.

When did we become the bad guys in the world? I wondered.

And even more troubling, when did white, Christian, heterosexual dudes like myself become the devil incarnate?  I knew that something was terribly wrong, but I couldn't explain it.  I felt as though I'd been born into bondage, born into a foul, fetid swamp where nothing is as it seems.

The cognitive dissonance I now felt followed me when I went to work, when I was with my family, when I lay awake in bed at night, and most especially when I paid my taxes.

So, cringing at the thought of what I might learn, I reluctantly took the red pill and suddenly realized just how deep the rabbit hole goes.

Those Republican leaders talking my lingo, like John Boehner, John McCain, Paul Ryan, and Mitt Romney?  Phonies, liars, and fakers.  It dawned on me that they were simply Democrats with cheaper suits and more generic haircuts.  They let the worst president in our lifetime stifle our economy; subordinate U.S. interests to the likes of China, Cuba, and Iran; and call every white American inherently racist.

The agencies tasked with protecting our country — the CIA, FBI, and State Dept.?  All chock-full of leftists with agendas, plotting and scheming to take down President Trump before and after he was elected.  They were so busy protecting Crooked Hillary and running coups against Trump that they failed to stop known terrorists in Boston, Orlando, Fort Hood, and San Bernardino.

Luckily, those intrepid stalwarts of the press would soon ferret out the truth and shout it from the rooftops, I remember thinking.

Um, no, sorry!

It became clear to me now that the mainstream media were simply propagandists for the left who lied through their bleached teeth at every opportunity.  Not only incurious about all the corruption going on in the Obama-Biden administration, the media were active partners in the Russian Collusion scam, the Ukraine impeachment gambit, and the overblown COVID-19 scare.  The U.S. press, it seems, wouldn't know the truth if it bit them in their ample posteriors.

I could not believe what I'd now learned, it made my head spin, my heart ache, and my eyes hurt — for they were not used to seeing.  Everything I thought I knew about our government and most of our leaders was wrong; I now understood that they were my enemy, and I theirs.

Could anyone save me and the country I love from the coordinated attacks launched by President Obama, the Democrat party, Hollywood, academia, the fake news media, and a disturbingly large part of the GOP?

Thankfully, the short-term answer was yes.  Morpheus...er, Donald Trump came down that golden escalator and said aloud what I, frankly, was afraid to.  He told us the truth about things, unadorned and without apology.  And when he was elected president, I realized that millions of other Americans had also taken the red pill and now knew the score.

And for four years, as every agent of the swamp threw barbs, accusations, slander (and possibly coronavirus?) at him, President Trump stood tall and made me and many others feel hopeful for our country's future.  Perhaps we could finally free ourselves from the Democrat-run Matrix.  Perhaps the long national nightmare was over.

The agents of liberalism and chaos, however, don't rest.  Their lust for power's never satisfied, their ability to pander to the weak-minded unmatched, and their Borg-like ability to coordinate as one is simply frightening.  They very much want us to forget how to be free and think for ourselves.

Behind their dark suits and aviator sunglasses, Democrats are constantly scheming new and nefarious ways to make us submit.  They want us all wearing masks and fearful of each other.  They want to decide whether you work or not, whether you may own a gun, and whether or not you can speak your mind.  Given the power to, they'd gladly take away your car, your health plan, your single-family home — heck, they even want to take away your sirloin steak!

In a few short weeks, an election will determine whether we continue following President Trump into the light or take the blue pill, go to sleep, and wake up believing every lie the Democrats and their media co-conspirators feed us.

Me, I'd prefer to stay awake.