America’s mental gulag system

At Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, Tucker Carlson may have delivered his most blistering and prescient attack on America's political class to date. At the end of it, you could see his liberation; Tucker made no customary salutation as he left the stage. He was as complete and exhausted a man who has ever found redemption.

His speech reminded me of this quote from The Gulag Archipelago: “We know that they are lying, they know that they are lying, they even know that we know they are lying, we also know that they know we know they are lying too, they, of course, know that we certainly know they know we know they are lying too as well, but they are still lying. In our country, the lie has become not just a moral category, but the pillar industry of this country.” This was of course Gulag escapee Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s description of the way the Soviet political class mentally dominated the proletariat. 

Make no mistake, there are mental Gulags in America. They exist in our universities, some call themselves major news outlets. Perhaps some of your loved ones are trapped inside? Having recently escaped from one, Tucker Carlson has become a Solzhenitsyn of our time. Trump's accumulation of moderates, independents and rebel thinkers to his campaign is proof that despite, or because of, four years of lies and national abuse by those who own 70% of everything, MAGA is an idea whose time has come. 

DEAN CANNON

Sandpoint