Keep Listening

It may not be an accident that the Thanksgiving holidays follow our elections, giving us a chance to think, reflect, and digest what just happened, why, and how.

Last week, while in Florida, I had the opportunity to rest, relax, and give thanks for another peaceful presidential election, which was held out as one of the most contentious and consequential in our lives. Afterward, there were no tanks on the roads, blood in the streets, or weeks-long legal or political fights over the result. Our country, while still divided, was not shattered.

Donald Trump and the Republican party clearly won this election, if not by a landslide, with a clear mandate for change. I don't pretend to understand exactly how and why it happened, so I chose to solicit differing opinions. They say that over time, we become the average of the five people closest to us, so I strived to seek the opinions of people I respected to gain a more comprehensive view of the political landscape. Here, in no particular order:

Bari Weiss of Free Press and Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal are current heroes of mine. Bari is a young, funny, gay, Jewish, flame-throwing revolutionary journalist. Peggy Noonan, Ronald Reagan’s former speech writer, is the best example of a graceful and classy WASP journalist. It was a distinct pleasure to hear Peggy's take on the election and its place in history;

While I admire Elon Musk's chutzpah in transforming Twitter to X and his efforts to elect Trump, I believe Trump’s strongest push over the finish line may have come from Joe Rogan's 3-hour interview with him. To understand why so many lifelong Democrats, like Rogan, Musk, and Silicon Valley VC Marc Andreessen, decided to switch sides, I returned to Joe’s interview with Andreessen.

Internationally, I admire Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Geert Wilders of Nederlands, and Benjamin Netanyahu, a modern-day David fighting a seven-headed Goliath. But when it comes to the current global leader I admire the most, it must be Javier Milei, the Libertarian chainsaw-wielding “Narco Capitalist” President of Argentina. You owe it to yourself to hear the Lex Fridman interview with Milei to understand why Musk is seeking Milie’s advice on how to cut $2 trillion from the US budget.

In the past century, the Communist Iron Curtain manifested in WWII and the ensuing Berlin Wall, which ultimately cost 150 million lives. Socialist attempts to build a Digital Curtain may prove just as costly unless the fight for freedom undertaken by Jimmy Lai, Elon Musk, Bari Weiss, and Javier Milei is won.

What do you think just happened in America? Who are your top five heroes? Who are you listening to?

— Sina.