There is a scene towards the end of the 2001 comedy film Zoolander, when the antagonist, played wonderfully by Will Ferrell, cries out: “’Blue Steel’? ‘Ferrari’? ‘Le Tigre’? They’re the same face! Doesn’t anyone notice this? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!”
The moment was so noteworthy that it has become a central meme in the online community.
This week saw the 2018 Midterms in the US. 2016 successfully shifted the paradigm in politics and its cultural impact in ways no one could predict. While living in New York during the 2014 Midterms, I barely noticed when President Obama lost 13 seats - adding to the 77 he lost in one of his biggest defeats as president in 2010.
And yet, the world was watching as The Democrats reclaimed the House of Representatives after an eight-year hiatus.
It is an interesting development and symbolises a new tone and direction as we gear up for 2020 - and President Trump ruthlessly campaigns for another presidential term.
I remember when George Clooney told me there was never going to be a President Trump. Tom Hanks told me that he “will be President right about the time when spaceships come down filled with dinosaurs in red capes.”
I thought I was taking crazy pills.
Ann Coulter predicted this shift in American culture when she first believed that then-candidate Donald Trump would be the presumptive Republican nominee. Her audience thought she was taking crazy pills. 2015 were simpler times.
On January 20, 2017, when all was said and done at 12:00pm, a woman screamed into the sky at the horror that America had elected the former host of NBC’s The Apprentice as their 45th president.
I thought she was taking crazy pills.
The 2016 election was particularly contentious and I remember how the media went head-on with Trump. They lost and he won. We all looked forward to a break from show business. Since then, their rhetoric has increased and they have told us:
A President Trump would crash the economy
A President Trump would lead us to war with North Korea
A President Trump was, in fact, a Russian puppet.
All his supporters are racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, and white supremacists.
2017 and 2018, right until the end of the midterms, showed us the opposite. The resilient new president reset the world’s stage with his bombastic and outrageous tenure as the new leader of the free world. Yes, he was different, and yes so were the results.
By the 2018 midterms came around he:
Has overseen the strongest US economy with 4.2% economic growth
Reduced unemployment to its lowest numbers in 49 years
Moved the US embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv
Obliterated ISIS
Signed the biggest tax cut in history
Cut six regulations for every new one
And more.
Even his most ardent enemies from within the party must admit that they couldn’t have asked for a better conservative president. At least on paper.
So when I scroll through Twitter and read about how Trump is destroying America and becoming ‘literally Hitler’ through his executive actions, I feel like I’ve been taking crazy pills. When I see that people have just voted for a party that wants open borders and socialism - I feel like I’ve taken crazy pills.
Has the world gone mad?
I failed to see a single Democrat argument over the Midterms other than ‘Orange Man Bad!’ I cannot truthfully say I know a single policy proposed by the Democrats other than to make everything free with everyone else’s money.
Young people cheered for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her bizarre economic theories - she’s now the youngest woman ever elected to Congress - and young girls swooned for Beto O'Rourke when he air-guitared on stage. With O’Rourke, Abrams, and Gillum all failing to get elected, it begs the question of who the future of that party is and who will take on Trump in 2020.
Over the campaign, they threw former President Obama on stage in the last few days, while two-time loser Hillary was nowhere to be seen. Not a single candidate endorsed by Obama or the Hollywood elite won their campaign. Every candidate who voted against Brett Kavanaugh is packing their bags.
Meanwhile, Trump is Trump. He stops illegal aliens from invading a country and his opponents will call him the enemy.
Refugees try to sue the president for breaking international law by not letting them into the United States.
His opponents are determined to open the borders to thousands of people. Then they want to impeach the president even though there has not been a single piece of evidence to suggest he is an illegitimate president. These are the people that just got their majority in the House of Representatives.
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.
The Democrats are celebrating their victory unaware that they now need to stand for something other than opposing Trump. That will come in the form of an impeachment of the president and an investigation into his tax returns and business ties. These will be blocked by his strengthened Senate.
We have around seven months until Democrats - and some Republicans, I imagine - announce their run to combat Trump in 2020. And so it goes. It is time for the Democrats to start actually cooperating in Congress, and it’s time for Trump to strap in for the fight of his presidency.
Do you want some pills?.