Why Are Democrats Suddenly Acting Like Cypher From ‘The Matrix’?
‘Ignorance is bliss.’
MAGA reminds me of the machines from The Matrix — relentless, seemingly unstoppable, and utterly dedicated to eradicating everything we hold dear. Within the current system, we’re not safe, because as the last election demonstrated, anyone — even former allies — could become willing agents of their will.
Donald Trump returned to power less than two weeks ago, but during that time, his administration has sought to hammer us into hopeless submission through a strategy I’ve termed “shock and awe,” based on how Trump’s people told us that they plan to hammer us into hopeless submission though a “shock and awe” strategy.
Nonetheless, Democrats seem stuck in a hopeless state of unexpected shock and awe, with no clear, coordinated response. (Senate Democrats are reportedly trying to figure out how to go viral in their communications when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is just down the hall.) Resistance appears futile, and even while Trump was issuing executive orders that are either illegal, immoral, or both, Democrats couldn’t bring themselves to uniformly reject all of Trump’s unqualified Cabinet nominees. Seven Democrats voted to confirm confessed dog murderer Kristi Noem as Trump’s secretary in charge of mass deportations.
If you feared Democratic leadership isn’t up the task of confronting Trump, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’s social media post on Sunday was hardly encouraging. It was a giant flag of surrender constructed from urine-soaked tighty-whiteys.
“Presidents come and Presidents go,” Jeffries wrote. “Through it all. God is still on the throne.”
Trump is actively depersoning Americans whose gender identity displeases him. This includes vulnerable children. Secretary of State Marco Rubio implemented anti-trans policies almost immediately after every Senate Democrat voted for his confirmation. The way things are going, Trump could try to seize God’s throne in a package deal with Greenland and Democrats would just post disappointed messages on social media.
Here’s a more relevant Bible verse for Jeffries: “Faith without works is dead.”
Democrats are pushing blue pills
Hakeem Jeffries is the worst version of Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) from The Matrix — a hokey leader who hand waves constant defeat with quasi-spiritual mumbo-jumbo. You almost understand why so many longtime, loyal Democrats are losing faith in Democratic leadership. Moms Demand Action founder and self-described “normie Democrat”
wrote in her newsletter, “Instead of speaking from a place of outrage, they’re going on Sunday cable shows and spewing consultant speak. Instead of pushing back on Trump’s reckless and dangerous orders, some are voting to pass his legislation and approve his cabinet picks. Instead of giving the 75 million voters who supported them their marching orders, they’re either ignoring us or sending emails asking for money.”I’m not ready to start collaborating with the enemy, but I can understand now why Cypher from The Matrix (Joe Pantoliano) just gave up and sunk his teeth into some delicious imaginary steak.
“You know, I know this steak doesn’t exist,” he tells Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) during their dinner date. “I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize? Ignorance is bliss.”
Already, liberals across the nation have started seeking refuge in ignorance. They are tuning out of the news, even resorting to similar bread-making coping strategies from the 2020 Covid pandemic. Someone remarked online that “self care is resistance,” and while that might seem like the marketing slogan for an expensive day spa treatment, I don’t judge these sentiments. People need leaders who inspire us to keep fighting. I don’t think they’re turning away because they don’t care about Trump’s victims, but watching MAGA brutalize fellow humans while Democrats do nothing isn’t just dispiriting. It feels almost perverse, like viewing a political snuff film.
Pantoliano makes Cypher more than just a mustache-twirling villain. When he’s explaining to Trinity (Carrie Ann-Moss) why he’s betrayed his former friends and everything he once believed, his villainous bluster drops briefly and he admits, “I’m tired, Trinity. I’m tired of this war. I’m tired of fighting, tired of this ship, being cold and eating the same goddamn goop every day.”
We’re all tired, tired of living among people who seemingly wallow in their own ignorance or cruelty, tired of feeling like we’ll have to fight our grandparents’ battles all over again but this time we might lose. “Presidents come and Presidents go” is the cynical political nihilism I used to hear from college hipsters through a cloud of pot smoke. Hearing this from the House Democratic leader makes me want to call up the machines and order my steak bloody as hell.
Although Cypher fills the role of Judas in The Matrix, his name is a hardly subtle allusion to Lucifer. However, he’s not a fallen angel. His sin isn’t pride but despair. We know Cypher cared enough at one point to join Morpheus’s crew, but he now believes Morpheus betrayed him: “He lied to us,” he tells Trinity. “He tricked us.” Cypher believes Morpheus sold them freedom that wasn’t worth the cost. Freed from the Matrix, they lack material comfort and live under constant threat from the machines. Nietzsche might’ve claimed happiness is eternal struggle, but Cypher disagrees.
Cypher was ultimately wrong about Morpheus, who believed that the enemy could be defeated and was willing to sacrifice himself to free his people from tyranny. Democrats like John Fetterman won’t even risk losing access to personal power.
Democrats seem so desperate to preserve their own pleasing lie — that America is still a normal functioning democracy — that they willingly collaborate with Trump. Perhaps that’s why Democrats regurgitate talking points aimed at a Bush-era GOP while a fascist squats in the Oval Office. Perhaps that’s why they talk about bipartisan compromises with an administration that only views compromise as capitulation. Perhaps Democrats are already chowing down on the soul-selling steak.
If Democrats have already taken the metaphorical blue pill and retreated into willful ignorance, nothing good will come from joining them. We need to seek new leaders who won’t accept Trump’s America as irresistible reality, and if we can’t find them, we might have to look within ourselves.
“It was a giant flag of surrender constructed from urine-soaked tighty-whiteys.”
“Here’s a more relevant Bible verse for Jeffries: ‘Faith without works is dead.’”
Boy howdy, Stephen, you have nailed it. Every single word you said, and I’m glad to see someone writing it all out loud. Thank you, SER.
‘Senate Democrats are reportedly trying to figure out how to go viral in their communications when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is just down the hall.’
^This. Amended to include Congressional Democrats as well. The establishment refuses to acknowledge that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the future of the party.