An open letter for all Americans, in our time of crisis

We are at a critical phase in our history. Choose wisely.

TAT readers,

It’s Friday and again, we all remain perpetually exhausted by the cruel, anti-American greed of the current administration. As anyone who reads this newsletter understands, I write about what America is and is not, through the lens of threats to our nation. I write factually and never from a partisan perspective. I simply write truth and support that truth with credible sources. These days, Republicans might assume that I was a leftist, but this is just another schoolyard insult that they toss around whenever we call them out for their incessant lying. They never seem to have facts, when requested. Like my family’s tradition, I do my best to be an honest and patriotic American. Yes, I despise political parties as much as our first President did, and for the same reasons. As I have long told family and friends, “if we follow the intent of our founders, who were in fact by today’s vernacular, “woke” and “radical progressives” for their time, the politics will sort themselves out.”

Driven by the principles in the first paragraph, I have written four open letters since last November’s election. One was to then president-elect, Trump, followed by three versions to the American people. They are linked beneath this paragraph in chronological order, beginning with the oldest first. Like our own lives, political truth is not in what we say, but how well our actions match our words. The only promises the current administration keeps, is when they threaten and soon after, violently injure our fellow Americans and legal residents, therefore denying us our constitutional rights. Now that we are without our government due to Republicans shutting it down, I find the entire voting Republican Party including their voters responsible.

• An open letter to President-elect Trump - by Paul Cobaugh

• An open letter to everyone’s friends and family that voted for Trump... again

• A little something for readers to share with their Republican, Trump voting family and friends

• A second open letter to Trump voters. They won’t like this one either

With this background behind us, it’s time to pen that next “open letter,” and this one is addressed to every single American now experiencing the GOP’s willfully created crisis.

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Dear America,

For well over a decade now, our nation built onto the foundation of extraordinary human, not religious principles, has been engaged in an ever more aggressive and largely verbal, low-level civil war, over what most call “politics.” Civil war is not politics and we’re no longer at the “low-level” phase. We now stand far too close to the edge of the cliff of experiencing the real thing... again. No one will win such a conflict in any tangible manner, other than restoring our republic. The problem though, is that our restored republic will be but a shadow of its former self. A fragile economy, a military hollowed out by what I professionally consider treason by the administration and a government infrastructure on life support.

Like our first civil war, the costs will be difficult to quantify and will impact everyone in our republic. Honest Americans have had enough, and as demonstrated this past Tuesday, we’re willing to stand up to a hostile administration, that meets the definition of fascist. The sooner we collectively say, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take this anymore,” the more of our republic that we save to rebuild upon.

Our determination to restore our constitutional republic is not in doubt and our efforts will only multiply exponentially, as the Trump administration, the Republican Party and Republican voters, continue to enable a fascist takeover of our beloved nation. If our two and a half centuries of history tell us anything, they tell us that this fully MAGA version of the Republican Party, will fail while concurrently suffering the humiliation that all former foes of liberty have learned the hard way. This is now where we are in our storied history.

Our nation now only has room for two camps, those who are part of and enable this regime with their support and votes, and the second group, all others. There are at least double the number of those who oppose these fascists than there are of them. We are quite frankly, under assault from those that would enslave us, in support of oligarchs, far-right hate groups, corrupt politicians and their billionaire campaign donors, who are the financiers of this fascist coup. The current course of events, have led us to a point where we must all now choose which side they will be on when the dust settles, because the opportunity will not remain for much longer. Either you believe in real American values and principles, or you sustain your support for fascism. This does not end well for those who continue to support and enable the current Republican regime.

For a decade plus, GOP, Russian and mercenary influencers and marketers have turned Republican voters into brainwashed zombies, believing every syllable that spewed from Trump, right-wing media and his party’s mouths. Those who voted for Trump and Republicans last November, are adults and have no excuse for electing a lifelong sexual predator, probable pedophile, multiple count felon, coward, conman and common thief. Republican politicians rode his coattails into office by spewing the same lies that their voters spewed against us, their family, friends, co-workers, and colleagues etc. For the record, Being a Republican now means that you are MAGA. People, organizations and even states, are what they do, not what they say. This is called reality.

They always argued that they were just exercising their free speech rights to their opinions. This is utter nonsense. A difference of opinion or different perspectives based on facts and reality is ethical debate. Informed opinions versus conspiracy theories are not. Ironically, those zombies become angry when we call them on their “road apples” or confront them with facts, but refuse to acknowledge that we have a right to be angry as well. After all, the lot of them has been lying to us for over a decade. If you’ve argued with Republicans, have you ever noticed that it’s “all about them and their feelings?”

Well Republicans, we’re no longer just frustrated, angry and silent when it comes to your unwillingness to defend our nation. We are now fighting back and nothing you can do will stop the restoration of the very republic and her principles, that countless Americans have died defending. That’s what real patriots do. Pay attention Republicans, because clearly, you are clueless as to what patriotism means. Just because FOX News and their ilk have wielded military-grade influence operations against you and made you believe that, “God, guns and Trump” was patriotism, doesn’t matter at all to those of us in the resistance. Like I said, you’re grown ups with the same access to credible information that we have. You chose willful ignorance, not morality. All adults know that decisions, have consequences. You chose poorly and we will never forget, even though one day, we may forgive.

The genesis of this essay today, was a piece I wrote last night and posted on Facebook. As a retired soldier, we understand that our friends and colleagues often move every couple of years or so throughout their careers, and FB is one way that we can stay connected that is convenient. Otherwise, I wouldn’t trust Meta or Facebook as far as I could throw them. What I wrote yesterday, is now an “open letter” within this open letter and can be read below.

"I take no pleasure in the following comments. I didn’t write this angrily or with intended malice. It’s simply truth and an honest assessment. 
I no longer have the more polite verbiage to describe the depth of depravity oozing like an infection, from today’s Republican Party. 

Our government shutdown is exclusively the Republican Party’s fault. This isn’t a partisan perspective but one based on reality, facts, the law and their spineless subservience to a dementia-ridden, lifelong sexual predator, probable pedophile, convicted felon, insurrectionist, common thief and a sadistic, malignant narcissist. I know what all these words mean and you Republican voters could too... if y’all ever used a dictionary or a credible source. 

Federal employees are suffering to a degree that most cannot fathom, including close family members of mine, both of whom are Veterans. I live in San Antonio, nicknamed “Military City.” Fellow veterans are losing their homes due to either the uninformed and utterly dishonest DOGE road apples or under the strain of this cruel and illegal shutdown. Now, the guy that our Republican family and friends voted to run our nation and his party, have refused for over  decade, reason, facts, reality and expert insights. At least now, they will suffer along with us. 

Any responsible adult knows that consequences come with decisions. I don’t believe in political parties and especially the American oligarchs who use them as weapons against us. I used to believe in family and friends, but most trump/ Republican voters, are still sitting on their sofas watching FOX News or some other far-right propaganda, refusing to take any action to support restoring our constitutional republic. They are either ashamed and are afraid to show their faces, or are true brainwashed voters who cannot see past, the now blood-red R that stains their hands. 

It gets worse from here folks, regardless of which party that you voted for. I used to feel sorry for those who were so brainwashed and/ or willfully uninformed. The overwhelming majority of Americans regardless of political affiliation are fighting back while R voters sit on their sofas and wonder how they can escape the anger  of friends and family members that have been telling them the truth. They cannot. 

We may forgive if they stand up for morality and help to stop the evil in Washington, imperiling tens of millions of Americans. If they don’t have the courage to take responsibility for their actions, forgiveness will be a long way off, if at all. Even if we forgive, we will never forget. 

I will tell you one last thing before ending this post. Our national security is now, at its worst since the end of the Civil War. Yes, I professionally know this to be true, beyond a shadow of doubt. My colleagues and former colleagues in national security, including our NATO partners are fed up and disgusted with America. We are now alone in the world, defenses hollowed out, while much of our intelligence has ended up in adversarial hands, such as Russia and China. 

Y’all voting Republicans did this. I am merely the messenger. It’s not too late to get back onto the right side of history, but it will require the courage that you haven’t shown in over a decade. History is written by the victors. Honest Americans opposing this regime will be the ones writing the history, and this era of Republicans will find no respite from those writing the final chapter."

- Facebook post
- Paul Cobaugh
- November 6th, 2025

There is no ambiguity in my words today or yesterday. I mean what I say, as do the rest of those in the so-called, “resistance.” We’ve reached our limit. As noted in this and last night’s FB post, the time for choosing sides has come. Either be an American patriot or suffer the consequences of your choice to remain with the fascists. We didn’t heal properly after our civil war, 1861-1865 and The four horsemen of the MAGA Apocalypse: Autocracy, Oligarchy, Christian Nationalism and Political Violence, is little different from the un-American ideology of the Confederacy during that horrific war.

Plantation owners and those in the slave trade were the civil war oligarchs, White Christian Nationalism was the South’s religious belief system and going to war to protect slavery, their political violence. We cannot go through this again and like this greedy and cruel government shutdown, we are done putting up with fascists flying the flag of our republic as if they were true patriots. They are not patriots and in most cases, not Christian either. No American, Republican, Democratic or otherwise gets to redefine patriotism or Christianity.

The last warning I will offer is to those oligarchs and organizations funding this coup attempt. Those 1% elite wealth oligarchs and their organizations are in our sights as well. Nothing stays hidden in the modern, digital world. We will uncover the truth and resolve the accountability that comes with the harshest sentences the law allows. We’ll show those like Justice Alito and Clarence Thomas to the door and maybe Kavanaugh and Gorsuch too. We must clean house, impose serious campaign finance restrictions and show Chief Justice John Roberts out as well, especially if he once again attempts to twist the law into a pretzel, in order to allow corporations and the wealthy to buy elections with “dark money.”

I will close with the iconic movie tagline from a very popular 1976 movie, titled, Network. I firmly believe that every true American fed up with the current regime, feels the same way.

I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore.

- Peter Finch as Howard Beale
- Network 
-1976

Thanks to all for reading this essay, which is part letter and part, mini-rant. I strongly suspect that many of you feel as I do.

Onward

Publius Redux