The Free Dictionary describes the term the truth hurts as follows: Hearing the unvarnished truth about someone, something or oneself can cause the listener to feel unhappiness or sadness. They give the following examples:
A. “Why’s Chet so angry?”
B. “I don’t know. I only told him about the shortcomings in his product. The truth hurts I guess.”
A. “Chris isn’t interested in my proposal. He said it was selfish and arrogant.”
B. “The truth hurts doesn’t it?”
These two examples, in my view, are particularly pertinent to the left side of politics. They have a flawed product that is full of shortcomings and the majority of the public are not interested in their proposals, i.e., their policies. This explains why the left has lost so many elections globally in the last few years.
One of their few successes in recent times was in the UK where Labour won in a landslide. The landslide reflected the number of seats won when the majority of the electorate decided to stay home. Most who abstained from the democratic process were Conservative voters who were not happy with their own party but were certainly not going to vote Labour. The landslide was achieved on the back of a minority turnout of voters.
This was in sharp contrast to the American election where Trump also achieved a landslide victory. This result was gained by Trump winning the popular vote, the electoral college vote, all the swing states, increasing support among black voters (particularly black men), Hispanic voters, young voters and those from the unions and the working classes. Republicans won both the House and the Senate. No one can argue that it is not a comprehensive win.
Now let’s look at what’s happened to the respective parties and their leaders since the elections. In the UK, the Labour Party is overwhelmingly disliked and hated by some. Sir Keir Starmer is frequently labelled as the worst prime minister in history. By contrast, in America, predictions are that Republicans are set to increase their numbers in the mid-term elections next year. Rasmussen Reports, the most accurate polling company in America, polls the president’s approval rating on a daily basis. As of 22 April, Trump’s approval rating was at 50 per cent, with 47 per cent disapproving.
What is causing these startling differences between the UK and the US? It’s about what the left and the right have on offer and the types of policies they serve up to the public. In the UK, Labour did not win on its policies, it won on a low voter turnout. Even if they had won on their policies, what has been enacted since is largely not what they took to the electorate.
On the basis of a ‘black hole’ created by the Chancellor, they have broken their campaign promises. They have gone on a tax and spend spree. The Chancellor, Rachel ‘from accounts’ Reeves, as she is now known, is pretty much taxing anything that moves and in doing so is punishing pensioners, farmers and small businesses. At the same time she talks about growing the economy. You can’t do the former and expect to achieve the latter.
What is Trump doing? Firstly, he is honouring his campaign promises at breakneck speed. For those following American politics, it is hard to keep up. Secondly, he is honouring his campaign pledge to put America first. This was his strong point in the election and contributed largely to his landslide victory. That this was the case is borne out by his current high approval rating, which came AFTER imposing tariffs that may well push up the price of basic commodities in America.
What does this tell you? It tells me there is more going on here than just politics. You would be hard pressed to find a more patriotic nation on the planet than America. Trump knows this and centred his campaign around it. The MAGA movement is as much a patriotic movement as it is a political movement. Trump spoke their language and they lapped it up. They were the cats and Trump was the cream.
If you watch the American news, there is very little outside of what is happening in the country. Their current affairs programmes are mainly about American politics. This is a reflection of the level of patriotism that exists in the country. They are not terribly interested in the rest of the world unless it’s something that affects them. So Trump’s ‘America First’ cry really resonated because his reasons for doing so were reasons they agreed with.
This patriotism will be tested if Trump’s tariffs indeed start to hurt consumers with rising prices, as predicted. As of now they are still in step with him and his belief that America has been treated unfairly, particularly when it comes to matters of trade and defence. They believe also that the policies of the Biden administration have benefitted the likes of Big Pharma and the military-industrial complex, rather than the population as a whole.
They like the job Elon Musk is doing in cleaning out the waste and exposing the huge amounts of fraud inherent in the swamp in Washington. They like that DEI is being stopped, that the education curriculum is being returned to teaching the basics, that free speech is paramount, as are religious freedoms, that males are not allowed in female spaces and that climate change policies are being moderated. Most of these issues are all dear to a patriotic nation.
These are the truths that hurt the Democrats. They were offering the exact opposite, a continuation of the Biden policies, and the majority didn’t want a bar of it. The Democrats, while probably not even realising it, were the major contributor to Trump’s popularity and the growth of the MAGA movement. Plus the politicisation of government agencies and the victimisation of Trump himself. These were all factors that led to their downfall.
In the UK, the Labour Party, more so since the election, are contributing to their own demise. They, unlike Trump, are completely out of step with the people. They are demonising, victimising and vilifying them at every opportunity. The Chancellor and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, between them, are destroying the country. Energy prices are rocketing and the economy is slowing: a recipe for disaster.
The left like to think they are progressive, but mostly they are a bunch of economic illiterates with no experience in business and therefore no idea of how the real world works. They preach growth on the one hand while taxing the lifeblood out of the very people who can make it happen. Their ideology is one that says you can tax your way to wealth.
The path to wealth is through increased productivity, but their ideology doesn’t allow for that to happen. They are tied to the union movement, which is something of a contradiction because they stopped representing the workers years ago, preferring to look after those in the ivory towers of academia and people in other minority groups like LGBTQI and the DEI movement.
I have used the US and the UK as examples of what we are really talking about: democracy versus tyranny. It is the defining difference between the right and the left. It wasn’t always so but it certainly is today. The left media, by and large, support this dangerous philosophy hoping to assist it, but the reality is they are having the opposite effect. In doing so they are hurting themselves financially by losing both audiences and the trust of the majority of the population.
The left parties reflect sadness and unhappiness that, in turn, they inflict on the people. They are prone to anger when things don’t go their way, which is increasingly the case. Why is this? It is because all the reasons I have given are of their own making and are responsible for their current situation. They are the truth and the truth hurts.
