Courage and cowardice, will define the fight to save our republic
Yes, on all sides
TAT readers,
Here’s a little something to chew on over the upcoming weekend. Today’s essay is not something that you will likely see elsewhere, but it is a topic, at the very crux of the ongoing coup attempt by the Republican Party. The topic today is courage or rather… the lack of courage in many Americans. An absence of moral courage, supported exclusively by conspiracy theories and outright lies, is about as far as the Republican Party can get from being patriots, or having credible religious beliefs. The cowardly silence of Republican voters betrays their lack of informed patriotism, religiosity and their lack of courage to seek truth. I believe, it’s a combination of all three that prevent them from joining in the restoration of our republic.
Lack of courage is not just on the MAGA Republican side either. The left is devoid of leadership and there are countless left and middle of the road voters that think that fighting back, is exclusively the purview of their phones and keyboards. Worse yet is their apprehension in joining in the fight outside of their comfort zones, especially if their neighbors or family found out. Obviously, the primary threat is from the right, but this does not limit the culpability of some on the left or in the middle either.
Most have forgotten that the identity of America is indelibly linked to courage, from the minutemen at Lexington and Concord, to those that defended our capital building during the first Republican coup attempt on January 6th, 2021. Immersing ourselves in our historical courage as inspiration until this GOP coup is beaten into submission, is not only needed, but required if we are to succeed.
We must remember who we are as Americans, and not what politicians tell us it means. This is why I often weave history lessons into my essays. If there were ever a time to display our uniquely American moral courage to stop tyranny, it is now. Not tomorrow, not next week or month, but right now, today!
Onward
First, a definition of courage:
Mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty - Courage, Merriam-Webster dictionary
To begin, let’s talk a bit about courage in our history, our character and in our accomplishments of protecting freedom at home and abroad. Yes, I realize that this will have little impact on most brainwashed Republican voters but they are less the audience. They have their own narratives, albeit fake patriotism and Christian Nationalism in origin and the propaganda of Trump, FOX and crazy right-wing influencers. This is reality, not some made-up partisan pitch. I have written plenty about the process of brainwashing audiences in previous essays, whose links are below.
This is how narrative works in all human beings. Narrative is how humans make meaning, based exclusively on their own experiences since birth. Narrative is the dominant factor in decision-making. Most of our daily decisions are made subconsciously, in order to free up room between our ears to make more important and more complex decisions, consciously. Estimates vary but most science agrees that up to 95% of our daily decisions are made subconsciously. What this means for the brainwashed, is that they are largely under the control of their most powerful influencers or rather, most powerful narrators. Whatever information infiltrates that critical 5% can be life-changing if the 95% isn’t already infected with conspiratorial and ideological nonsense.
In the case to today’s Republican Party, the individual (s) have primarily consumed FOX-like propaganda and mis/ disinformation for thirty years or more. These voters will likely not recover from their radicalization and even if they do, it will not be a full recovery. These voters don’t even realize that they have been brainwashed and loyally will support their party without ever consciously thinking about it. Does this excuse their lack of courage? Not no, but hell no. They are after all, adults with at least 5% of free will still intact. They interact with reasonable people and information, all the while ignoring both. They recognize right from wrong but subconsciously, they will default to the demands of their narrator (s). In common terms, they are more like “zombies.” That’s what we are up against, with our MAGA GOP, family and friends.
Well, if we can’t convince all of the Republicans to embrace the courage to seek truth and morality, it’s up to us to marshal enough forces of our own, imbued with courage. In the military, we call this, “the will to fight.”
Will to fight
In 2018, RAND published two reports for the U.S. Army describing will to fight. Arguably, will to fight is the single most important factor in war. Will to fight is the disposition and decision to fight, to keep fighting, and to win. The best technology in the world is useless without the force of will to use it and to keep using it even as casualties mount and unexpected calamities arise. Will to fight represents the indelibly human nature of warfare.
- Will to fight, Returning to the Human Fundamentals of War
- Rand Corporation
- Ben Connable, Michael J. McNerney, William Marcellino, Aaron B. Frank, Henry Hargrove, Marek N. Posard, S. Rebecca Zimmerman, Natasha Lander, Jasen J. Castillo, James Sladden, et al.
- Sept. 13th, 2019
For a quarter of a millennia, the US has never once fully embraced the “woke” and progressive” concepts of the Scottish Enlightenment, that our nation was founded upon. We have though in each generation and via the indomitable and courageous actions of true patriots, moved a bit closer. Our founders, courageous to a fault, intentionally chose founding principles based on the Scottish Enlightenment. This was an act of courage roughly equivalent to the courage required for the colonies to take on the world’s preeminent superpower, in an eight year war for independence.
President James Madison, considered the “father of our constitution” was deeply educated on the Scottish Enlightenment and found its concepts far more along the lines he preferred, based on his deep scholarship of all known “democracies” from the ancient Greeks up until his own times. This is why our constitution has a separation of church and state, checks and balances and an “every man is equal before the law” approach, not one based on theology.
"The Scottish Enlightenment began in the mid 18th century and continued for the best part of a century. It marked a paradigm shift from religion into reason. Everything was examined: art, politics, science, medicine and engineering, but it was all begot by philosophy. The Scottish people thought, discovered, discoursed, experimented, wrote, but above all questioned! They questioned everything, from the world around them, like Adam Smith’s work on the economy, to Hume’s Human Nature, Fergusson’s discussions on history, to Hutchison’s work on ideals such as what makes something beautiful and whether people need religion to be moral?" - The Scottish Enlightenment - Historic UK
By the 2016 election, we were closer than we have ever been to those esteemed founding principles. And then, along came a fully formed MAGA Republican Party, led by a Pied Piper preaching fascism, in between his conspiracy theories. The courage and perseverance of the Biden administration, put us back on track partially in 2020, but the threat had not abated in the interim. Not willing to lose another election, the grafting, cheating, unconstitutional legislation and of course, help from Russia put the GOP back on top. Now, it is the entire GOP that is intentionally dismantling our republic, and I make this statement devoid of hyperbole. They are attempting to replace our constitutional republic with, The four horsemen of the MAGA Apocalypse: Autocracy, Oligarchy, Christian Nationalism and Political Violence.
When I assign cowardice to today’s Republicans, I draw little distinction between Trump, the cabinet, the Republican-led congress and their voters. In my opinion, they are all guilty of insurrection. If this was Trump’s first run, I could grant a mulligan to voters, but he was elected again on his third try, with the full support of allegedly decent, well-informed Republicans. Those Republicans that voted R last November, were too cowardly to read, watch or hear credible news. It is this group that I will discuss first. Don’t worry, I’ll get to the other side of the aisle too, albeit on a lesser scale.
Today’s GOP is the very opposite of courageous. I don’t make this statement in a flip manner. My mission is to tell the truth as eloquently as possible, so that we can be well-enough informed to solve our nation’s problems together. Full truth rarely favors one side only, and truth well-told, is the vaccine for our current crisis.
My only “side” in this fight is our constitution and its supporting amendments, never a political party. This requires me to challenge my own courage, especially when I write. My fact-based opinions here at TAT, often rile feathers in many communities, not just political ones. My personal list of received threats and attacks, is impressive, but then again, truth-telling, always has been a threat to any oppressive government, movement or organization. Many outspoken writers suffer far-worse. Look no further than the courageous writer, Salman Rushdie for an example. Summoning the courage to tell the truth in this low intensity civil war, is a daily chore, especially here in MAGA-crazed Texas. I wasn’t raised to quit, and I won’t change my ways at this stage of my life.
It took courage for early politicians and experts to take on the tobacco industry’s lies. Then came the Climate Change hoax nonsense, paid for by big oil supermajors like ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Chevron, etc. It will take far more courage to dislodge big oil from our government than tobacco, and the rest of the scam oligarchs. As a disclaimer here, I want to clearly express that I am not anti-oil or at least until there is a suitable replacement for the energy it provides. I am furious with them though, for their abuse of every citizen on the planet by lying about Climate Change, manipulating markets and investing with our sworn enemies. Sure, let them profit as wildly as they can legally earn, but also hold them as accountable as any other industry.
Like today’s big oil oligarchs, America has always been subjected to the greed of oligarchy. To be clear, our constitution is considered the anti-oligarchy constitution by formidable scholars. Why? The answer is painfully simple; You cannot have a democratic or constitutional republic, if oligarchs have an unfair say in everything from politics and markets, to national security and the economy. It took unfettered courage from prestigious politicians like Teddy Roosevelt to dislodge these oligarchs from their corrupt perches. He was not alone.
The most widely recognized era of oligarchy was a collective of the Yellow Journalism era, Robber Baron era and Trust-busting era. Many just lump all of these together and call it, the “Gilded Age,” or in some circles, “The Progressive era.” Like the Gilded Age, oligarchs were permitted to abuse workers and legislate legal protections for doing so.
In the current administration, every agency that protects citizens from oligarchs has already either been decimated or will be as soon as the Project 2025 thugs believe they have enough strength to get away with it. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is one such agency. Heaven knows, we need another Teddy Roosevelt and far more courageous investigative news services.
The Progressive Era "The early 20th century was an era of business expansion and progressive reform in the United States. The progressives, as they called themselves, worked to make American society a better and safer place in which to live. They tried to make big business more responsible through regulations of various kinds. They worked to clean up corrupt city governments, to improve working conditions in factories, and to better living conditions for those who lived in slum areas, a large number of whom were recent immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe. Many progressives were also concerned with the environment and conservation of resources. This generation of Americans also hoped to make the world a more democratic place. At home, this meant expanding the right to vote to women and a number of election reforms such as the recall, referendum, and direct election of Senators. Abroad, it meant trying to make the world safe for democracy. In 1917, the United States joined Great Britain and France--two democratic nations--in their war against autocratic Germany and Austria-Hungary. Soon after the Great War, the majority of Americans turned away from concern about foreign affairs, adopting an attitude of live and let live." - Theodore Roosevelt and Labor Reform - Theodore Roosevelt Center - Sept. 5th, 2022
Teddy Roosevelt, a remarkable president in a variety of ways, is considered the “trust-buster” or the driving force behind breaking up monopolies, cruel and abusive oppression of workers and oligarchical control of markets. Of course, this thumbnail description doesn’t do justice to one of the most critical presidents in our history. TR as Roosevelt was often known, slowly but surely adapted his original anti-union beliefs to those that reinforced that America was fair for everyone, not just a handful of oligarchs. Anyone that passed middle school history classes on American history, should know all of these terms and their relevance to today’s Republican effort to restore their own “Gilded Age,” at the expense of every single working American.
Teddy Roosevelt embodied courage, whether boxing, exploring, hunting big game, leading troops on the battlefield and most prominently in his battle to move America closer to our stated principles. He formed, funded and led his own Army unit up San Juan Hill during the Spanish American War. As president, he took on the handful of monopolies whose wealth was gained immorally, and reversed the government precedent of siding with owners over labor. Even though he was born of wealth and high station, his life was lived primarily in service to the greater good, most poignantly, the working people of America.
Teddy’s exemplary courage, enabled others of the period, in a shared effort to move America forward in accordance with our values, not those of the Robber Baron class. The era birthed a new and special type of journalist called muckrakers. Famous names like Nellie Bly began appearing in newspapers and the attention was welcome among working Americans. Bly exposed the inhumane treatment of the mentally ill in asylums by disguising herself as mentally disturbed and allowed herself to be locked up as an inmate. Her descriptions of the asylum and the horrors within paved the way for dramatic improvements.
".Muckrakers were investigative journalists during the Progressive Era (1890s–1920s) who shone a light on corrupt business and government leaders as well as major social problems like racism. Ida B. Wells wrote graphically about the horrors of lynching in the South. Her newspaper office was burned to the ground, and she was forced to move to Chicago after her own life became imperiled. Jacob Riis photographed immigrant children who lived among the garbage dumps underneath the wharves in New York City. Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle, revealing the unsafe and unsanitary conditions in the meatpacking industry. Ida Tarbell wrote about the monopolistic practices of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company, which destroyed small businesses, including her father’s. - The Muckrakers - PBS
Throughout our history, including the pre-Revolutionary War period, personal and collective courage, or “will to fight,” has played decisive roles, and not just on actual battlefields. Our SCOTUS, Congress and countless individual cabinet members, presidents and cultural leaders, have paved the road of our uniquely American history with their courage to challenge the status quo. MLK, Dr. Martin Luther King is another exemplary example of a dynamic, courageous man challenging centuries old convictions of the majority population of America. He did not shirk from his calling and in the 1950s and 60s, his road wasn’t only challenging, but could be deadly. Again, perseverance in the face of danger is ultimately courageous. Leading millions in protest, is another level of courage entirely. Again, he did not waver.
These examples are high-profile and famous leaders, but courage beats in the breasts of most Americans when liberty is threatened, with one notable exception. The 2016 election, was the first time America had been attacked by an external enemy and did not come together to defeat the foe. The GOP not only ran from conflict with Russia, but joined forces with them regarding their assault on America, by repeating the co-narratives of the Trump campaign and Putin’s. To this day, there is far too much similarity in Russian propaganda and the GOP’s, to not reasonably question a formal working relationship between the two.
"Captain America and Wonder Woman both premiered in comic books in 1941 as anti-fascist superheroes. On the cover of the first issue of Captain America, the hero in red, white, and blue clocked Adolf Hitler in the mustache. In Wonder Woman’s debut (All Star Comics #8), she rescues an American spy and captures a Japanese one. Both of these comics appeared before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, so the comics were at war before the country. During the war years, these superheroes didn’t let up their fight." - Captain America and Wonder Woman, Anti-Fascist Heroes - JSTOR Daily - By Matthew Willis - November 11, 2020
With this one exception outstanding, Americans have always come together to fight and win over a threat to our nation. The minutemen come to mind as citizen soldiers, much like the 12 million Americans that served during WW II. Sure there were courageous leaders like Ike, Patton, etc., but it was the G.I. that did most of the fighting. Our G.I.s were supplied by Americans at home who had also unified to support the war effort. Everyone contributed. It’s hard to imagine today’s America unifying for any reason, but layers of our identity run deep, very deep. Courage is still in there, just waiting to be properly triggered.
These triggers, are what influence operators like me look for, research and employ in support of our national security. Our enemies do the same. Even when those triggers are uncovered, it takes time to nudge extremists back towards reality. It also requires the courage of family and friends, to continue engaging with these people in order to minimize the threat of them rejoining their ideological MAGA addictions.
As I begin to wrap up today’s history lesson and essay, I will leave you with some insights regarding courage and the opposite, cowardice. It will take all of us to restore our republic.
Many are afraid to get into the street and carry a sign. Ask yourself, “is this a debilitating fear or something I can manage.” “Am I afraid that my neighbors or family will be angry?” These are of course, difficult questions to navigate, yet at times like this, we must attempt to do so.
If all you can manage is to be a keyboard warrior, so be it, but this also will put you on the radar of family and friends. Ask yourself what your actual line is, that cannot be crossed. Hoping, wishing and praying, are not enough. Republicans won’t change unless under a great deal of pressure. It may be testy challenging them, but a risk we must take.
How will you feel if you sit on the sidelines, rather than participate in democracy? How will you feel if we can’t find enough patriots to save our nation? I don’t ask these questions to shame anyone. I only ask so that you can challenge yourself, to see what, if any risk is acceptable.
We all understand that the schoolyard bully, is a coward when pushed back against in numbers. This entire administration is a walking, talking example of bullying. If we know they are bullies, and we know that there’s more of us than them, what’s our excuse for staying on the sofa?
I know that I won’t be happy with my level of commitment if my grandchildren have less rights than I do, especially my granddaughters who are more imperiled, simply by being female. Pose this issue for yourself as well.
Know that we are past the point of no return with this version of the GOP. Their feet are set on the path of insurrection. Like the old quote about not being a little bit pregnant, insurrectionists can’t be partly insurrectionists after they’ve made it public. The GOP has cornered themselves and they have no where to go but to succeed in overthrowing our constitutional republic. They can’t go back now, after revealing their complicity to the world.
If cowardice is their brand, will courage be ours? Only actions can answer this question. As I am well known to say often, “people and organizations are what they do, not what they say.” Will our actions show that we’ve picked up the mantle of American courage, or will we commit it to a dusty demise, on a page in a future history book, if they haven’t all been burned.
Courage like cowardice, is contagious. If those of us who can lead, do lead, others will follow. Conversely, if our strength begins to intimidate
the minority Republican voters, their cowardice will spread as well.
Since this is already far too long, I will close with the following thoughts and one final question for you. Millions have gone to war at home and abroad, to secure our republic for future Americans. Courage has been a major component of our 250-year success story. Courage runs vibrantly through the veins of nearly all Americans, as well as the flame of democracy burning in our hearts.
Will you trust your courageous American DNA to enable your success in this fight? Sure, it’s a tough question and for many, a downright dangerous question to ask. Still, we must all challenge ourselves to reach a little higher in our quest to stop the dangerous insanity of the current administration. With every cruel and unconstitutional act, I picture my grandchildren being subjected to a dystopian Republican future. This makes my personal decision easy. I believe that it will make yours easier as well.
My very best for your weekend and thanks to all, for continuing to read Truth about Threats.
Enjoy the closing days of your summer,
Paul
Viva la Constitucion’
Thank you, Paul. I appreciate that you're doing so much research and putting it out there. I did protest in NYC in 2016 for the first time. It's harder now, in my 70s, but I'm working on the courage to do so. (Other than writing).