When is the truth the truth? You know, when we can just see it and acknowledge it? Maybe dealing with it is another matter, but there must be a common ground for what is clearly visible.

If you see something that can fly, swims and paddles in the water, waddles when it walks and quacks then it's a duck. So let’s call it a duck.

I may have my own bias — we all do — but the impeachment trial and the evidence as laid to me is a cold truth. The former president disbelieved the election result, which was approved and authenticated in all 50 states. Even after court challenges, the margin of victory was 7 million, backed up by the Democrats winning the Senate.

Then the former president decided after all diplomatic means were exhausted, with even Vice-President Mike Pence refusing to do something he was unauthorised to do, that he would resort to physically stop the ratification with a mob while refusing to transfer the power.

Who can’t see that?

What would have been the case had the rioters seized the Capitol Building, apprehended the Vice-President, whom they called a traitor, and destroyed the signed electoral votes? Would Donald Trump still be president today while the country is in turmoil?

Loyalty is blind. How would America ever again have an election decided by the people when its conclusion is to be determined by whether the incumbent leader accepts the result? Loyalty is such that it bends and justifies its own truth and, worse, at times it just ignores it because the truth doesn't suit the political or whatever desired narrative.

We can’t besmirch America alone for that because we have our own to account for. We go $2 billion in debt and pass it off under a cover of "the White man just didn't like a bold Black leader". OK, there is plenty of evidence the White man did that, but the $2 billion in debt wasn't one. Truthfully, wasn't it because too much got spent on too little? I mean, that's what it looked like from the naked eye.

We've allowed cult behaviour to grab our political psychic. Our collective dream of Black empowerment turned it into a nightmare from which we have yet to awaken. No, the $2 billion shift was not an empowerment exercise; more a missed or lost opportunity for empowerment, the likes of which may never be seen for a long time.

Bermuda is an extremely hostile place against truth. There are real repercussions almost everywhere for being honest and truthful. The equally sad reality is that there are real Trumpian-type, "right-wing" monsters still walking the streets hellbent on maintaining the order, unrepentant. Making people think the unthinkable such as "They ruled like it was only their world, but at least we had more bread on the table."

What a pitiful thought, and what a pitiful badge of honour to wear when they can say we kept crumbs on your table while our cabinets were full of wine. It’s so sad when their mouths can’t be shut by success, but can we change the optics while romancing a cultish belief of adherence?

The huge and urgent challenge is to find a rational space of discourse between the walls of cultism and right-wing monsters who get stronger every day in the face of a failing economy hoping for another puppet regime. Simply put, can we have a clearly articulated vision that recognises our challenges but shows the way forward? That is, was and should be my big Progressive Labour Party hope. I've been holding my breath to exhale for joy, but my oxygen levels are dropping.

It's almost like the need for a Jesus voice to come through the clouds of our confusion that says "all before me are robbers and thieves". Bermuda needs a good dose of unfettered truth, a “tell it like it is and how it should be” intervention that may be uncomfortable but is needed. Otherwise, we all have to keep drinking the Kool-Aid so that we get our sedatives on time.