Truth, freedom, common sense: What I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving Day as a Russian immigrant to the US

On this Thanksgiving Day and holiday season, I’m thankful that in the 2024 election, my fellow Americans have chosen truth over lies, freedom over government control, and common sense over nonsense. Americans have chosen to make my adopted homeland great again. I’m so proud that we will be restoring America to be normal again, the way she was when I arrived 35 years ago, having left behind my country of birth, Soviet Russia.

For the past few years, however, I felt that I was back in the USSR, where the government apparatchiks and the elites controlled everything. The state was in charge of every aspect of your life. While we were afraid to speak our minds and demand freedom. 

Over the last several years, America had become a country of censorship, a country where the ruling class has been treating working people as second-class citizens, calling them names; a country with two separate justice systems – one for the governing and a different one for the governed. 

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Flags of the Soviet Union and the United States (iStock)

Today, I’m grateful that my fellow Americans have decided that enough is enough. They voted, overwhelmingly, for the kind of America that my mother dreamed of me living in. Here’s what Americans have chosen:

Truth

Growing up, my mother would always tell my sister and me. "Do not believe what TV, radio, or newspapers, or your teachers are telling you. Ask your parents if things seem confusing." Confusing things were indeed. As a teenager, you started noticing that things weren’t exactly as the party leaders and media presented them to be. 

The teachers told you that socialism was the best system in the world because everything is free, enabling you to thrive. But you went to a grocery store and saw mostly empty shelves, sparsely populated with dried out sausages, stale bread, wilting potatoes and sour milk. Free visits to the dentist – you only went when you couldn’t tolerate the toothache anymore – meant that your teeth were drilled without Novocain. Talk about torture. The doctor strapped you in so you didn’t kick him while you were in severe pain.

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The White House in Washington, D.C., on July 2, 2023. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

During the Biden-Harris presidency we heard again and again that "the border is secure." But going outside in New York City, you no longer felt safe walking alone, even in midtown Manhattan.

Freedom

Many of my friends and family members have been strong supporters of President-elect Trump. But they’ve been hiding it for the fear of jeopardizing their careers and ruining their professional relationships and friendships. They’ve quietly tolerated being called deplorables, garbage and other horrible things. My friends come from different backgrounds – lawyers, doctors, executives, law enforcement officers, entrepreneurs and other regular hard-working, honorable Americans. Native-born Americans or immigrants. 

Many people across America were afraid to wear a red cap with the simple inscription "Make America Great Again" for the fear of being insulted or even assaulted. I couldn’t believe that for 35 years I would be repeating to my own American-born children my mother’s admonitions "Do not share your political views and your family’s dinner conversations except with your closest friends and like-minded family members." "Do not wear your read hat to your ballet studio."

Those days are over. 

President-elect Trump arrives to speak during an election night event at the Palm Beach Convention Center on Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Common Sense

I’m glad to see that President-elect Trump plans to disband the Department of Education and cut federal funding for schools teaching the destructive critical race theory and prohibit biological men from participating in women’s sports. No more men in women’s clothes insisting on using women’s bathrooms. No more William Thomas (aka Lia) winning medals from Riley Gaines in the swimming championships. No more insanity.

The renowned Russian author and historian, Nobel Prize winner Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, who served an eight-year sentence in a forced-labor camp for writing a letter in which he criticized Josef Stalin, wrote this about the Soviet regime. "We know that they are lying, they know that they are lying, they even know that we know they are lying, we also know that they know we know they are lying too, they of course know that we certainly know they know we are lying too as well, but they are still lying."

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A Thanksgiving meal set on a holiday table. (Adobe Stock)

The powers that be knew they were telling us lies. How else would you explain that they did a 180 on their absurd policies? Trump is not back in the White House yet and Walmart, Ford, John Deere, Toyota and other major companies are already ditching their woke DEI initiatives.

No, we will not be forced to buy electric cars if we can’t afford them. Yes, we will continue to use our gas stoves to cook our meals. And yes, we will proudly wear our hats – red, white, blue or any other color, if we choose to.

"The simple act of an ordinary brave man is not to participate in lies, not to support false actions!" Solzhenitsyn, one of the bravest men, said. 

Americans have refused to participate in falsehoods. And this is what I’m thankful for this holiday season.

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