Discovering You’re Sane

Posted on January 18, 2016 by Robert Ringer

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Over the years, I can’t tell you how many emails and letters I’ve received from readers who have said things like, “I thought maybe I was crazy until I read your book.” They always seem to be genuinely relieved to discover that someone else has similar thoughts to theirs.

This is really what the Trump revolution is all about. DT is a symbol of sanity, so much so that even people who don’t like him are going to vote for him. In fact, when you dissect it more closely, the Trump revolution really isn’t even about Trump. It’s about things like truth … and courage … and straight talk. It’s about people getting confirmation that they really aren’t insane.

Anyone with a lot of money and a high profile could have elicited the same response that DT has been getting from millions of angry Americans, but no other billionaire chose to do what he’s doing. So Trump is the one who gets — and deserves — the credit for starting a revolution. The revolution may or may not succeed against the statist government structure that has been entrenched for decades, but, make no mistake about it, it is a revolution.

People have grown weary of having to deal with the nonstop B.S., lies, and political correctness that come at them from every direction day in and day out. An it’s not just Tea Party Republicans who are angry. A recent poll by Mercury Analytics, a research company with clients that include MSNBC and Fox News, shows that 20 percent of likely Democratic voters would vote for Trump in a general election. Repeat — 20 percent of Democratic voters.

It isn’t really all that surprising, considering the fact that the president of the United States, with a straight face, looked into the camera in his final State of the Union address and assured viewers that America is in great shape. This kind of intelligence-insulting spin doesn’t go down real well with a guy who’s unemployed … or who’s lost his medical coverage … or who’s worried about someone in his family being gunned down or blown up by a homicidal maniac … or who’s concerned about the government confiscating his guns.

In my last article, I wrote about the strong desire in most people to conform. But in many people, the desire to confirm is even stronger. Confirm what? One’s own sanity! As the world continues to spin merrily out of control, sane people want reassurance that the bootlicking media is wrong and that they aren’t imagining things.

I hate to admit it, but the need to be assured that I’m not crazy still happens to me on occasion. Fortunately, it’s usually short-lived, as it was with Nikki Haley’s so-called rebuttal speech following Barack Obama’s State of the Union address.

I don’t know much about Haley, except that she was once a Tea Party favorite. But last Thursday she was establishment through and through when she went out of her way to undermine not just a Republican presidential candidate, but the leading Republican presidential candidate!

I immediately started wondering if it was just me who thought Haley’s comments were highly offensive to millions of people? Was I insane?

Fortunately, my old pal Charles Krauthammer came to the rescue. Krauthammer was quick to call Haley’s speech “the best written and best delivered answer to the State of the Union I have ever heard.” Not the worst, but the best. And I guess I’d have to agree with him if it were a Democrat who had given the speech. In fact, most Democrats praised Haley for her words.

I should add that Krauthammer can be excused for his upside-down view of the world. He deserves a lot of credit for what he’s been able to accomplish in spite of his major physical handicap. But, along with his buddy George Will and other statist Republicans, he is totally disconnected from the universe that exists outside the Beltway. That’s why his eyebrow-raising comment made me feel comfortable that I had been right all along in my assessment of Haley’s speech.

As a side note, I was once on a panel with Krauthammer and two other establishment Republicans, and at one point I made a comment about Barack Obama, grouping him together with some of the less admirable characters of the 20th century. The audience roared with laughter, but Krauthammer, as a kind of kneejerk reflex, yelled out, “I wasn’t the one who said that!” He seemed to be genuinely concerned that someone might think it was he who had spoken in irreverent terms about Obama.

It’s not that these establishment types are stupid. They most definitely are not. It’s just that their belief systems are so ingrained with inside-the Beltway talking points and arrogance that they are incapable of understanding what a majority of Americans are thinking — no matter how clearly and loudly those Americans speak their minds.

As to Haley, being the slick politician she is, she quickly walked back some of the most outrageous comments in her non-rebuttal rebuttal speech when the predictable backlash hit the airwaves and the Internet. Two of the best retorts came from Laura Ingraham, who Tweeted, “The country is lit up with a populist fever and the GOP responds by digging in, criticizing the GOP candidates dominating polls! NOT SMART.”

In another tweet, Ingraham said, “Too bad @NikkiHaley missed her opportunity to stand with working people who want borders enforced, American workers put first, government shrunk.”

I couldn’t have said it better. God bless Lauri Ingraham for declaring me legally sane.

Robert Ringer

Robert Ringer is an American icon whose unique insights into life have helped millions of readers worldwide. He is also the author of two New York Times #1 bestselling books, both of which have been listed by The New York Times among the 15 best-selling motivational books of all time.