2026 midterms: Another opportunity to break free of the ‘Matrix’
With less than 100 days before the 2026 midterm elections, I think it’s a good time to reflect on the many ways that Republicans and Democrats are working tirelessly to destroy liberty and protect their positions of power. The midterm elections — assuming we have them — are also a good time to remind ourselves that we have the choice to remain as slaves in the duopoly’s political Matrix or break free of it.
I’ve made it my life’s work to do all I can to expose the many ways liberty is being destroyed by the Republicans and Democrats — let’s just call them the “agents” running the matrix — and this has led many of those who used to follow my work to refuse their liberation and to attack me personally and professionally.
Some of the feedback I’ve received from people who don’t exactly agree with my conclusions — besides being accused of working for CNN or being privately funded by George Soros — is how I’m simply too negative and un-Christian, and how I should focus more on the “good things” done by faux conservatives in the Republican Party. Of course, ever since Republicans embraced Trumpism and Nationalism to blur the lines of conservatism, it has become exercise in futility to find anything “good” to praise them for.
The duopoly’s matrix is an evil and oppressive system with only one purpose: the creation of a dystopian society designed to keep us trapped inside a simulated world where the political machine is in control, and where we are relegated to being little more than a financial “energy source” used to sustain it.
To put it bluntly, I’m now a part of the resistance. My mind has been freed from the programming of the duopoly’s matrix, and I’m committed to doing all I can to free as many other minds as possible. I’m a critic of the system, not a cheerleader, because truth is more important than going along to get along within a system designed to control my life. This means I often find myself alone, but as I once wrote, “I’d rather walk the right road alone than walk the wrong road with a crowd.”
When facing the overwhelming forces of the duopoly’s matrix and their war against freed minds, I’m often reminded of a scene near the end of the movie, The Matrix Revolutions (the third installment of The Matrix trilogy) where Agent Smith appears to have defeated Neo:
Agent Smith: Why, Mr. Anderson? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you’re fighting for something? For more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Yes? No? Could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson. Vagaries of perception. The temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself, although only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now. You can’t win. It’s pointless to keep fighting. Why, Mr. Anderson? Why? Why do you persist?
Neo: Because I choose to.
“Because I choose to.” That’s it right there. Liberty or tyranny. Freedom or slavery. Surrender or revolution. To break free of the Washington Matrix, we need to choose to fight for what we believe in.
I choose to be a member of the resistance who speaks truth. And regardless of the outcome, I will continue doing all I can to be “The One” who helps break the hold the duopoly’s matrix has over us, and I will continue fighting the agents — including their friends in the faux conservative media — whenever freed minds are under assault.
Does this mean I will lose the support of some of you? Possibly, but as I make clear in Chapter 9 of my book, The New Axis of Evil: Exposing the Bipartisan War on Liberty, I use the “Matrix” movie to describe Washington’s two-party political system and our need to break free of it.
In the movie, we learn of a world created by machines that makes slaves of the human race and uses them as fuel to feed its existence. In much the same manner, Americans have become slaves to the Washington matrix and are used as fuel to feed its existence; and our political leaders serve as the agents working to destroy those wanting to escape.
Being like Neo is the only hope we have of escaping the duopoly’s matrix:
MORPHEUS: I can see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he’s expecting to wake up. Ironically, this is not far from the truth. Do you believe in fate, Neo?
NEO: No.
MORPHEUS: Why?
NEO: Because I don’t like the idea that I’m not in control of my life.
MORPHEUS: I know exactly what you mean. Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain. You feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life. There’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is. But it’s there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that brought you to me. Do you know what I’m talking about?
NEO: The Matrix?
MORPHEUS: Do you want to know what it is?
[Neo nods his assent]
MORPHEUS: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window, or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
NEO: What truth?
MORPHEUS: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, into a prison that you cannot taste or smell or touch. A prison for your mind. Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You must see it for yourself.
If you’ve seen the movie, you know that Morpheus offers Neo the choice of taking a blue pill representing the status quo or a red pill representing truth. Neo takes the read pill and frees himself from the Matrix.
MORPHEUS: This is your last chance. After this there is no turning back. You take the blue pill, the story ends; you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill; you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.
Remember, all I’m offering is the truth, nothing more.
[Neo hesitates, then takes the red pill]
MORPHEUS: Follow me.
The Matrix is a parable, but it tells a story that’s eerily reminiscent of the reality we are living in America. Like Neo, we have become subjects in the duopoly’s system that enslaves us for the benefit of Republicans and Democrats as they deprive us of our birthrights of life and liberty.
Morpheus didn’t hand Neo his deliverance on a silver platter. Instead, he offered him an invitation. Neo could choose to remain in the safety of the system or take the risk of breaking free of it to join in the war against the Matrix. Likewise, liberty won’t be handed to us on a silver platter, but we can accept the invitation to leave the safety of a system owned and operated by the duopoly for the benefit of the duopoly and choose to break free of the matrix.
In the 2026 midterms, will you choose the blue pill and remain in the bondage of the duopoly’s matrix? Or will you choose the red pill and break free of it, accepting the life of liberty we were meant live?
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties. He is the author of The New Axis of Evil: Exposing the Bipartisan War on Liberty.
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