With the pressures we all feel, it sometimes appears hopeless. There are forces from outside our nation that are attempting to subjugate us into a system in which we will be told how to live and when to die. There are conspiratorial forces within our nation that are intent to burn it all down and integrate our nation into that horrific fascistic and oligarchic world that will darken the entire Western civilization and destroy everything of which, together, we’ve built. Our freedoms and our families will be ripped from us and we will live within a system that controls how we spend our money, that meager allowance we will be given.
Those of us who have been paying attention realize that it is difficult to put into words the immense struggles that are ahead of us and the enormous strains that have been engineered to force us to submit. There are those who dismiss out of hand that which is plainly in sight. Those people will awaken but probably not before it is too late.
We can go back to the Bush-Clinton-Bush years and see the groundwork being laid but in 2008-09 the mischief of Wall Street peaked. Too big to fail was a lesson to each of us that they, those in the cat bird’s seat, will protect their own over the pains and sufferings of those of us who still believe that hard work, ingenuity, and integrity can fulfill our aspirations in the American Dream.
Then they came for healthcare in a most dysfunctional attempt to seize control of eighteen percent of our economy. It was misguided and mostly a failure—except for the inflationary effect on the economy—but they did it in a way that exposed their totalitarian dreams and the extent to which they will exercise power to gain power.
Then came the villainy of the 2016 election that saw the executive branch of the outgoing administration use its powerful reach in an attempt to dispose of the opposing party’s presidential nominee. Once lost, with the protection of their corporate media allies, they stymied what were positive policies that began to return us to a semblance of the American Dream.
Then came the pandemic that, while impactful, was inflated to the point that we allowed the bureaucracy to dictate how we lived and how small businesses died.
Then they unleashed a faux anger and need for retribution that destroyed struggling areas in our large cities. They tore down symbols of past struggles and triumphs to remove all signs of what a true national reconciliation looks like. They seek to defund justice and with its success will usher in a nationalized police force that will, eventually, be truly crueler than any of the current sham allegations of law enforcement abuse.
Then the election disgrace, where well-over sixty percent of Republicans still believe was stolen from the actual winner.
And then…
The incontinent, incompetent fool and his feckless kindergarteners—who speak to us as if we are halfwits—spit on the hallowed grounds that we have fought for centuries to safeguard.
It is a deliberate attempt to destroy America from the inside out. The boarder is like a screen door on a submarine. We (and I say we in this regard because this government represents us to outside eyes) wet the bed in Afghanistan and our soldiers—don’t forget hundreds of innocent civilians—were killed. We destroyed domestic oil and gas producers and, as such, are paying for it at the gas pump and cash register, enriching despots and dictators who chuckle at our arrogance. We are fast transitioning from a current economy that has too many job openings, to a recession where there won’t be any jobs to be had. Let’s add baby formula, fertilizer, crops, and the rest of our supply chain, all gone in less than one year.
It doesn’t seem like too long ago when my family and I were living paycheck to paycheck. I can remember when a $50 shortfall meant we would have to be late in paying bills. I can remember when our maxed-out credit card companies would call to angrily remind us that we hadn’t paid that month. Thankfully we never had to live through this dizzying inflation and depressive spirits under which Americans now live or I doubt we, as a family, would have thrived, let alone survived.
My heart goes out to all of the millions of Americans who lost everything during these manufactured crises after manufactured catastrophes. The mom-and-pop stores and businesses that have been destroyed through thuggery and deceit, has been the greatest crime against Americans in the modern era. As businesses closed, Wall Street, Big Tech, Big Woke—for lack of a better term—and most of the other Bigs sucked in what little capital was still available to small businesses. These forces of evil want to limit your choices in the future and by killing small business, that’s what they are doing.
Just over a year and a half ago, we lived within a system that was producing the greatest economy and living standard the world has ever seen. We know that other nations, the poor and exploited, too can raise their living standards but it is their decision to do so, not ours to force. We were once that beacon in the storm where the world stumbled to find their way; now, we are no different than dysfunctional Europe, a dimming light of frustration and fear.
Our world has been taken from us. It has been taken by greedy men and women driven by the illusion of power who dwell in the deep canyons of far-off cities, that prosper at the expense of those who they despise. They make rules and regulations that make them feel virtuous but have real impact upon those who are simply trying to gain our little spot in the sun.
To those who work against our spirit of freedom:
You believe we pollute your virgin skies and that without us—or at least with a version of us that you can manage to your liking—your lives will be greater and you will live forever. Your hubris is stifling. Good God I don’t understand how you can live with yourselves.
But then there are those of you who know that the earth isn’t warming, that population is not out of control, that true poverty is not inherent, and that there are no real crises facing us. You’ve manufactured all of it. Yours is a world of tyranny through technology. You are the people who are pulling the strings of the multitude who follow your global fascist dreams.
I don’t think you understand that if you destroy it all, you will suffer the most. Your money will be worthless; your companies and wealth will rot from the inside out; and your trusted assistants, servants, and yes, even your bodyguards will leave you because you will no longer have anything to offer. If you push us into the dystopian world of your making, you will be the first to feel the pointy end of a pitchfork.
Our own governments work against us. In the USA, our governing bodies have become wealthy and powerful though they are ignorant to the fact that what they do is unsustainable, despite that “sustainability” is their mantra. They are driving us toward a type of civil war where the states and the people will no longer listen to their edicts. The power of the federal government fades and as it does, so do the binds that hold us together. I don’t see bloody secession; I see states that will coalesce along ideological and economic identities and begin to establish their own governments. The federal government will dissolve into a quagmire so deep it will simply fade into oblivion.
This assessment is terrifying; together we are better. I truly pray it’s wrong but I’m not the only one who believes this version of truth may, indeed, be the truth. Some of you may not believe the end is near; some of you definitely believe the end is near but most of us, I feel, still have hope and it is that hope that should keep you working hard every day, taking care of your loved ones, keeping the faith, and knowing that we can fight back and we will, eventually, win.
But how do we fight back? Can we fight back?
It’s great to explain to friends, family, and sometimes complete strangers about what is happening. It’s great to write about the ills before us. It’s great to vote for the person who we believe may continue to fight on our behalf. It’s great to spend money with only those companies that at least stay mum on cultural values (though as consolidation and monopolies grow, we find it harder to vote with our dollars). With these efforts, however, we are simply treading water.
It will take direct involvement. The example of fighting back, that I’ve heard, is for you to run for every political office there is, from dog catcher to senator. Without money and without the backing of the party elite, no matter the party, you don’t stand a chance. That’s the honest truth. The system is so rigged against the People that the people don’t even have a seat at the table. We can burn the table down.
Hopefully, we are now beginning to understand that their childish tantrums are part of a larger international movement to subjugate the entire Western civilization into a fascist oligarchy with the goal of destroying the very backbone that enables the freedoms that we still believe are God-given rights. Don’t lose that belief.
We have identified the enemy. Next we must define the allies.
I guess this is an introduction, of sorts, to a continuing effort to fight back. I know there is a way, but our counterattack cannot be scatter shot; it must be directed at a weakness and where the corruption is strongest; at a place that, once taken, can then be a rallying point for the rest of the world; we will show them the way. There will be a day when the world can live in a state of peace; maybe tentative but it can be a peace.
I return, in my mind, to the knowledge that there are liberals of conscious, liberals who no longer see the left as representing their values. They see the destruction and they know it does not end well. There are social and cultural issues in which many disagree; most of us see root causes but differ on the solution. These are all areas that in a free and broadly shared power structure, can be solved though never completely to everyone’s satisfaction. That’s okay. That’s how our system was constructed. It is the only system in which a diverse civilization can survive within a cautious harmony, but harmony, nonetheless.
We must become a political force; there is no other way. We have to put aside our deep-seated convictions that the other side is evil and join, arm-in-arm, to take back our nation.
First, we must all agree upon the fact that our Constitution is the operating manual for how we are governed for it says that We, the People are the governing factor in our great nation. We may disagree on the interpretation of some tenets of our founding documents but we must all agree that it is where we started and to where we must return. We must reject revisionist history that applies warped hindsight to altered foresight.
We must never accept a two-tiered form of justice where the connected and the elements of destruction are innocent and the great unwashed are guilty. Justice is blind. Once we remove the gag from Lady Justice’s mouth and reapply the blindfold to her eyes can we return to integrity.
We must return to a world of the righteous; not dictated by one’s God over another but equally agreeing that there is a higher cause to which we must all strive toward and respect differences without judgement.
We can no longer sit idle as individuals make statements that are then turned against them and, thus, their lives destroyed. A person has the freedom to speak his or her mind. I may hate what the person says—and not particularly care for the person who said it—but I respect that they said it and I will defend their freedom to say it. I believe you will agree with this. Shatter the people who use faux outrage in these attacks. Turn the tables. Ruin their lives.
Ronald Reagan said there is no left or right, there is only up or down. It takes no effort to be swallowed by the totalitarian depth beneath the bowls of humanity. Fighting your way up takes a determination to escape the allure of security over your personal freedoms. If you consider yourself on the left but want the freedom that is guaranteed in our Constitution, then you are with anyone of any political stripe in this fight. Those on the right must accept that not all who disagree with your position are automatically the enemy. There are many on the left, famous and anonymous, that are willing to fight for freedom. We must all fight this fight together.
Once achieved, we can again begin to debate but a debate that is honest and respectful of each other’s belief. I ask that you begin to understand that you cannot condemn those with contrary beliefs if they are willing to join the fight. We can no longer let these fascists divide us along cultural, religious, racial, and political beliefs, among others.
Reagan also said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” The corollary can be said, that, in this generation, we will reclaim our freedoms from those who seek to destroy.
Let us further discuss and discover the fight ahead and the concrete actions that must be taken. If we do not, then we will not survive.
[Originally published June 12, 2022. Our subscription base has doubled since and so I believe it’s a good read for those who missed it the first time through. Hopefully I’ll have new substantive material coming in the second week of April. Thanks for your patience!]
Without that postscript I'd have thought this was written yesterday--timely and fresh. Thanks for re-sharing. We keep waiting for the sound of cannonfire, but we are in the middle of war right now. CCP has no need to come against us militarily when its apparatus can destroy our finance, education, healthcare, security, public safety, and moral infrastructures. This is like watching a controlled demolition of a skyscraper. In fact, think our enemies have used object lesson of WTC attacks to go after the rest of the country. It will only stop when people get out in the streets, call a nationwide general strike, and bring the system to its knees. Either that, or the grid has to go down. As long as the people holding the mics keep making money, it ain't happening.