The Heroes, Villains, and The Other Guys of the Political Arena.

What makes a hero, a villain, or just 'the other guys' in today’s political arena?

Welcome to the first newsletter of this year! Holy cow, it is now 2025…. Which is still crazy to say! As we step into this new moment, I’ve been chewing on an idea that I just can’t shake off—so what better way to start the year than to dive in and build a conversation around it?

I try to approach everything as a student, because that’s really how I make sense of the world, and recently I’ve become a student of the political space on YouTube. If you watch my show you know that I produce content surrounding some of the most talked about moments in the political arena every single day. In that process, I’ve uncovered a dangerous truth that has changed the way I experience politics on YouTube.

So today, we’re diving into the Heroes, Villains, and The Other Guys of Politics on YouTube. How this dynamic shapes culture, our future, and the ideas that make waves.

Trump: The Hero and Villain of Our Time

Something that broke my brain recently was discovering that people on the left actually love President Trump more than people on the right. Here’s what I mean, on YouTube, creators on both the left and right are locked into the same conversation about one figure—Donald Trump. But there’s a difference:

• On the right, Trump is the hero. Creators build him up, celebrate him, and make him the central figure of their narratives.

• On the left, Trump is the villain. Every video, critique, and narrative revolves around taking him down. Explaining why he’s “dangerous” or a “threat”.

The shocking part? While the right has a clear hero in Trump, the left has no equivalent. There’s a villain, without a hero. It’s like watching an Avengers movie where Thanos is wreaking havoc, but the Avengers never show up. It’s dysfunctional, and honestly, it’s one of the clearest reasons why the Democrats struggled in this election cycle. Even previous “heroes” like Barack Obama couldn’t save them.

Who Are The Villains? Specifically…

Villains are so fascinating to me. Because at the core, if heroes inspire us to dream, villains remind us of the battles we face. So in politics, you can argue they’re essential. They shape narratives, define stakes, and most importantly in today’s conversation they give people a clear target to rally against. As I write this I’m even reminded that in the Garden of Eden, it wasn’t long until the serpent was introduced. But here’s the problem today, depending on where you’re standing you’ll see completely different villains.

• On the right, the villains aren’t usually people—they’re systems and ideologies. Big government, big pharma, high taxes, cancel culture, and “woke” policies that take center stage.

• On the left, the villain isn’t an idea—it is a clear person, President Trump.

So let me go even deeper here. On the right, sometimes Kamala Harris or President Biden are going to be cast as the “stand in” of these issues, but they’re really just placeholders. The real battle on the right is against the “machine and ideas”. And there’s a real genius to this approach, and it’s the fact that it’s adaptable. Systems and ideologies don’t change overnight, so the people on the right can continue running the same story time and again without frustrating people.

This is a much different reality than on the left, because Trump is the complete centerpiece of liberal outrage. He’s not simply the stand in, he’s the “face” for everything they hate. Divisiveness, chaos, authoritarianism, etc. You name it, if it’s bad the left will convince you it’s President Trump’s fault. The left’s messaging, for the most part, boils down to “Defeat Trump and save democracy.” You can see this clearly when you compare two political media channels side by side. Here’s my question though, if your entire narrative is wrapped around one person, what happens when he’s no longer there? This is the danger of a singular villain:

Villain Overload: If your entire narrative relies on a single person, where do you go next? What happens in 2028? What’s the future of the Democratic Party when you lose the one singular rallying point?

No Hero to Counterbalance: You can’t just have a villain, people need a hero. The left has invested so much time in tearing Trump apart that they have failed to elevate anyone else as part of the conversation. If the democrats have no hero, they will have no future.

The irony, and the real tragedy, is that this breeds even more divisiveness that the left “supposedly” hates.

What Happened to All the Heroes on the Left?

Google Trends Interest Over Time For 12/14/2024-1/14/2025

Why isn’t there a hero on the left? This is the question so many people are asking. In one of my last videos we see Peter Doocy asking Karine Jean-Pierre this same question in the form of, “Who’s the leader of the Democratic Party?” Her answer was deflective. If you were to ask me that same question do you want to know what I would say? Division. Division is the leader of the Democratic Party. In a world where the right is celebrating unity like no other with coalitions between President Trump and future HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the left only knows division.

• Joe Biden isn’t the hero because he’s polarizing, even among Democrats. His age, policies, and actions spark endless debate.

• Kamala Harris had potential, but whatever flame she carried has faded. Her campaign didn’t inspire, and her billion-dollar spending spree just proved that she doesn’t have what it takes to handle the world’s largest economy.

And I want to be clear for a second, without a unified hero to rally around, the left remains fractured. Meanwhile, the right doesn’t just have Trump—they have a clear focus on uplifting other voices as part of this journey. That’s why we see people like Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gaining mainstream traction.

I also think there’s something profoundly deep here too. And it’s the question behind the initial question of “What Happened to All The Heroes of the Left?” and it is, “Why has the left struggled to inspire unity and hope?” If you were to ask me, I would tell you that this is the result of the left pouring so much attention, resources, and energy towards building a villain, at the sacrifice of building a hero.

The Other Guys

As someone who’s been inspired by RFK Jr., when I was building this conversation I was wondering where he fits in here. And then it hit me, hard. RFK Jr is part of a select group of special people, and for lack of a better term, I’m going to refer to them as, “The Other Guys”. The best way I could explain it is actually by showing this clip from the end of The Other Guys, a movie about desk-bound detectives who work the day to day.

“Let’s be honest, we all wanna be superstars and hot shots. But guess what? The people that do the real work, the ones that make the difference, you don’t see them on tv or the front page, I’m talking about the day in, day outers, the grinders. Come on man, you know what I’m talking about… The Other Guys.”

Think about it, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new role waiting for him as the head of HHS, he’s positioned as a prominent supporting figure in Trump’s administration, not the central character in the political narrative. I really think this is an honest reflection of where things stand.

At one point, I thought RFK Jr. could be the “hero” of the conversations that I have on YouTube—someone who united independents and brought fresh ideas to the table—but I’m not sure that’s the case anymore. Something I’m becoming increasingly interested in now is, The Other Guys. The Shanahans, the Fettermans, the RFKs, the Tulsi Gabbards, the people who are doing the real work day in and day out. The people who don’t play by the rules or necessarily do as their told. I really believe that, The Other Guys, are the ones that push humanity forward.

The Future Needs Heroes

One big takeaway: You can’t win elections or shift culture by only attacking a villain. The conversation needs to be elevated.

The right rallies around a central hero, creating a positive, aspirational message. The left? They’re stuck in a reactive cycle, attacking Trump without offering an inspiring alternative. When you’re stuck in a reactive cycle, you’re simply reacting to the future instead of creating the future.

Who do you want to be, someone who reacts to the future or someone who creates the future?

Villains are important, I won’t lie to you, but they can’t carry the weight of the entire narrative. Political culture needs a hero who’ll inspire action. And this, right here, is exactly where the left is stuck. They’ve made Trump the villain, without the Avengers to fight him. No clear hero, and no unifying figure. And when you look at Biden or Kamala? There’s just no cultural spark.

Trump: love him or hate him, he’s a cultural force that both the left and the right are benefiting from. The right loves their uniting hero, while the divided and fractured left loves their villain.

Can I Be Honest?

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