Watching the Super Bowl last night, I was reminded of a brilliant insight I learned a few weeks ago from a public intellectual. Well, actually, it was my barber. But whatever. I went to Sport Clips to get a haircut, and my usual girl wasn’t there. There was a 30ish-year-old white lady with an Eastern European accent. Turns out she’s Ukrainian, and moved to the states with her Mom when she was 15 years old. Her uncle was accused of being critical of the communists, and he ‘disappeared’ soon thereafter. Her mother got them out soon after that. As you might imagine, she is not a fan of Putin.

Anyway, she cuts my hair poorly, but rapidly. Which is fine with me. With a face like mine, you tend to lose interest in appearances. But I like speed. She takes maybe five minutes to cut my hair, which then looks like I cut it myself with a weed whacker. But whatever.

She never stops talking. Very rapidly, like she cuts hair. She is extremely critical of “soft, stupid Americans” who don’t understand the threat of leftism they’re faced with. She said that no one who had grown up in Ukraine would ever vote Democrat. Then she said that wasn’t true – that even there they had fools who would willingly surrender their freedom to whoever promises to take care of them. Even if they know they’re lying. She then described her view of these people with language that I will leave out of this post. She sounds angry and disgusted. Maybe that’s why my hair looks like this now. But whatever.

Anyway, what had her all riled up was the blatant cooperation of the American big government party (Democrats) with big corporations, the media, the entertainment industry, the educational establishment, social media billionaires, and the FBI and other federal bureaucracies. She said that such unified, cooperative efforts at gaining control, followed by distribution of a share of the resulting power and wealth, looked very familiar to her Ukrainian eyes.

I explained that for a typical person, who’s not all that interested in politics, all they ever see is leftism, so they start to view it as the ‘normal.’ If all you ever see favors Democrats, of course, it’s only natural to vote Democrat, right?

She was unconvinced by this argument. She corrected me. Forcefully:

“Who can view the array of such powerful forces forming an all-powerful coalition, and not feel fear? Does your blood not run cold? They build a coalition with the openly expressed goal of taking your freedoms, and whatever else they want, and they have all the powerful organizations on their side – and you then vote for them? DOES YOUR BLOOD NOT RUN COLD?”

She then proceeded to describe her view of such gullible Americans using language that I will leave out of this post. At this point, she sounded exasperated. And furious. To her, this is no joke.

That was a few weeks ago. Her manic fury has faded in my mind somewhat and my hair is starting to look a little better.

And then last night, I was watching the Super Bowl. Attempting to watch a bit of football between the endless barrage of social justice leftism from the announcers, the players, the public service announcements, the pregame show, the ads, the NFL public statements, and essentially everyone else on the TV for the entire evening.

Absolutely everyone else on TV. Biden called for unity. And they were united. Like a precision drill team, they were united. Against me. And they made that perfectly crystal clear. Over and over and over again.

And my blood ran cold.

She has a point.

Once I got to Bruce Springsteen discussing the RE-United States of America, I saw her point very clearly. This is no joke. The American left is very open about their goals, and they’re terrifying, and they will not be easily undone. Even if we have fair elections in the future, which is by no means a given.

I can see why she’s so angry.

For me, the future is uncertain and scary. For her, the past is certain and horrifying. She’s seen this before and escaped it. She does not want to see it again.

As our future gets closer to her past, her blood runs cold.