Lafayette Lee – A Masterful Wake Up Call to Up-and-Coming Millennials

Message to aspiring elites (thread)…

Maybe you’re like me, a sharp kid from the lower middle-class who left a deep-red area for a good job and elite education and is now doing better than the folks back home. Maybe you’re like me and the shock of going somewhere from nowhere had you reeling, and you had to learn the hard way that the humble values you grew up with, even your patriotism, aren’t respected in your new environment… 

Maybe you felt like an alien imposter. Maybe you slowly adopted their ways—talking and even thinking like them—hiding your light under a bushel… or worse, maybe you felt ashamed where you came from and started looking down on the folks back home. Maybe you were scared that if you truly brought your “whole self to work,” you’d strain relationships, miss out on opportunities, and risk sliding down that greasy pole… back to where you came from. 

But then Trump came along…

It doesn’t matter whether you supported him or not, but maybe you’re like me and were surprised to find that almost everyone around you suddenly despised him with a relentless intensity you couldn’t fathom. And maybe all the histrionics, resentment, and denunciations of Trump made you uncomfortable too, particularly when you saw how much the folks back home loved and admired him. 

Maybe after a while you started to get a little resentful yourself, as you watched otherwise friendly and intelligent people hurl invective at his supporters, mocking them for their backwardness and stupidity while comparing them to terrorists and fifth-columnists and questioning their humanity. 

Maybe it finally started to get under your skin as you realized that they weren’t just talking about strangers but your grandmother and the rest of the folks back home. And maybe you began to wonder what these otherwise friendly and intelligent people really thought about you. Maybe you’re like me and witnessing the uglier side of the best and the brightest helped you finally see all the lies and injustices you’d bought into as you made your painful ascent up that greasy pole. 

Maybe you’re like me and you realized that you’d adopted the hubris of a hostile caste, and by doing so you had betrayed your own values as well as the people who love you most. Maybe you finally started listening again, and through the bombast and noise, you heard truth ringing once more… 

Maybe you’re like me and it all came crashing down, and you began to notice that the red-hot hatred and suffocating fear provided a convenient smokescreen for a failed elite, whose sins were far greater than Trump’s. And maybe through all the fire-and-brimstone sermons, you finally started to see the naked face of tyranny—a lawless regime, greedy, bloodthirsty, and above all, undemocratic. Maybe you saw it lie and break every rule and violate every norm to destroy Trump, making a mockery of the constitution and the most basic principles of democratic government. Maybe you saw all the leaks, lawfare, censorship, surveillance, and election fortification as little more than old-fashioned corruption with better packaging. Maybe you came to realize that the campaign against Trump was also an assault on the folks back home and our right to self-government. 

Maybe you’re like me and now see this as a contest between liberty and tyranny and freedom and slavery… government by, with, and for the people against oligarchy. Maybe you see that it’s not really about Trump, Vance, or RFK Jr., but the future of America as a republic or a permanent bureaucracy, where our most fundamental rights and privileges have been outsourced to a special caste… 

If you’re an aspiring elite, like me, you may be hesitant to wage war against the same culture, institutions, and governing philosophy that you’ve pledged fealty to… maybe you’re afraid of ostracizing yourself, sacrificing your career, and sliding back down that greasy pole. Maybe you feel there aren’t adequate incentives… 

I’m not here to tell you what’s best for your career and personal life, but I do know that the country is at an inflection point, and whoever wins this contest will decide once and for all whether America has any hope of enduring as a republic and salvaging our right to self-government, or whether a permanent bureaucratic tyranny takes its place. 

Maybe you think it won’t touch you, but I promise that it will… and if not you, your children as well as the folks back home. Hard work, creativity, and merit are how outsiders like us win; without them, you don’t make it far on the greasy pole. But the tyranny to come is fundamentally hostile to such things. It prefers loyalty, above all, and even then it will only get you as far as the regime allows. If you’re a spiritual bureaucrat, this may appeal to you… but if you’re like me, young, hungry, innovative, and willing to live and die for something more, you will suffer tremendously under this system. 

This regime, which is so threatened by Trump, promises you quotas, castes, censors, and surveillance. It promises to punish and reward according to its own priorities; it will not honor yours. Most of all, it promises to outsource your most basic freedoms to some anointed caste or impersonal process, regardless of your hard work, creativity, or merit. If you’re already groaning under the weight of a burdensome status quo, I hope you realize the stakes. It doesn’t have to be this way. The values you came up with still matter, and they will serve you well with this boot off your neck. But you have to defect. We have already witnessed several important elite defections… Elon, Vance, RFK Jr., and many more, and it will only accelerate as we move closer to November.

Now is the time to pick a side. It’s not about Trump, and it’s not even about the folks back home, it’s about you… and I hope you’ll join us.