Hey GOP, Culture Wars have nothing to do with governing. Do your jobs!
Spoiler alert: If you are voting about culture wars, you aren't paying attention
TAT readers,
Let’s start off the week with a topic that we’ve all come to hate… GOP culture wars. Bud Light, different colors of M&Ms, trans issues and DEI, CRT, book bans, Disneyland, Marxism, Christian Nationalism, book banning in schools and libraries, etc. etc. etc., have absolutely nothing to do, with why we should be electing politicians. None of this matters to healthcare, national security, the economy, taxes, public education, etc. These issues are nothing more than distractions and diversions from the failure of politicians to do their jobs, and in the Trump/ MAGA GOP era, especially the GOP.
In the military and national security world, such diversions are employed to distract from what is actually occurring. Magicians call this “directed energy.” This GOP in Congress is distracting us from graft on an unprecedented level, as well as selling out our national security to Russia and constitutional republic. They do this exclusively for their own power and profit. This doesn’t mean that the Democrats are without sin, however their agenda is not outside of our constitutional guardrails. The GOP is far outside and they are attempting to destroy all of these guardrails.
Sure, most mainstream media and news won’t say this because like nine, now notorious, cowardly law firms, they have caved to Trumpian/ GOP, mafia-styled intimidation. We are all alone against the GOP, the media and other oligarchs. This is why we must be painfully clear about the role of culture wars to the GOP, especially as it pertains to the impact it has had on our friends and family. It is their votes, continued subservience to and silence that enables this GOP coup to continue.
The truth is that in lay language, GOP voters have been brainwashed via influence operations between the global far-right, the GOP, Russia and all financed by a select set of enabling oligarchs.
I guarantee that even a cursory understanding of the constitution would clearly demonstrate that the culture war sewage, pouring unabated from the White House and Republican-led Congress, has nothing to do with the job requirements of representing the people. Still, that is all that the GOP and their voters seem to care about. I can’t tell you how many times that an online GOP troll will argue about national security issues or a point of law, and when they realize that they have lost the argument, they will then inject some laughable culture war tidbit into the discussion. Most often their challenge is along the line of something like, “Oh, I bet you like it when boys play girl’s sports,” or something else nonsensical and gender related. Then, in standard form they will issue one or two more grade-school insults before running away.
I can’t think of a single GOP culture war issue, that is unconstitutional or for that matter, illegal. Those law-abiding citizens dishonestly accused of being DEI are all protected under the constitution. What happens regarding someone’s gender, disability, race, ethnicity or religion are quite bluntly, no body’s business. All that matters in our nation is that you are law-abiding. Since when does anyone have a right to legislate what happens in someone else’s bedroom, wedding or job? All that is required to to obey the law and do our jobs. Those Republicans screaming loudest claim to love freedom, so long as it looks like what they approve of. This is patently, un-American and unconstitutional. The GOP doesn’t give a damn about the constitution that their Project 2025 is attempting to dismantle.
The Republican response to January 6th, was a culture war like no one had ever seen, and not one sitting congressman or senator has done a thing about that first or two attempted coups. False claims of “tourists,” weapons, brutal assaults on Law Enforcement and the now pardoned felons and Seditionists, became a culture war referendum on patriotism, claiming that the attackers, were just patriots defending the nation, while being saturated with lies and conspiracy theories from the entire GOP.
As the opening cartoon shows, the list of critical issues facing our nation and the world, is long, frightening and still, largely unaddressed. Meanwhile, today’s administration and their party, create “bathroom bills,” anti-CRT legislation and book banning bills. None of these issues matter to the health of our nation, and are already covered by the constitution in a way that the GOP despises. Why??? It is the culture war crowd that largely runs their propaganda machines and keeps their voting based, zombie-like. The quote below from Voltaire is emblematic of what I am describing.
Voltaire, a brilliant and prolific French writer, philosopher and free-thinker, whose thoughts on free speech, the dangers of religion in governance and a thousand other things critical to a healthy society, laid a large part of the philosophical foundation for the French Revolution, only a year after our own constitution, was ratified. Voltaire a the sharpest and most persistent thorn in the side of monarchal government and church conservatives. There is no doubt that he also influenced our own revolution and constitutional governance. James Madison read and thoroughly respected Voltaire, especially on issues of separation of powers and against both tyranny and the church, in government.
Voltaire knew and well understood the power of what we today, call the employment of “culture wars” as propaganda. This is largely where his most famous quote, originates regarding “absurdities” originates. Today’s MAGA GOP, has been victimized on a large-scale, by a combination of Russian and GOP influence operations, fully grounded in conspiracy theories, or as Voltaire expressed, “absurdities.” The primary culprit is FOX News, who regularly disseminates the same propaganda as Russia for the past thirty-plus years. Over those decades, the former “conservative” party has changed their political identity from “conservative” to far-right and occasionally, violent extremism. Don’t forget FOX’s role in the January 6th coup attempt, based on lies that cost them nearly a billion dollars in court.
The old principled conservative mainstay policies of fiscal responsibility, strong national defense, stability and a strong, moral global leadership role in the world, is the precise opposite of what we now are experiencing from the Republican, anti-American and anti-conservative party. I have written on this at length several times so will not rehash all of this here, but provide a handful of those essays below this paragraph.
It would be difficult to decipher which GOP culture war is most offensive to liberty loving and patriotic Americans, although the anti-DEI issue ranks up there. From a dangerous to the nation standpoint, their glorification of oligarchy via bizarre unsupportable claims in support of it is far more dangerous to the nation. What gores me like an angry, injured bull at a Spanish Bullfight, is their Project 2025 attempt to undermine and overturn our constitution. . Sure, with my family being a public education family, a few dozen times over, the GOP’s dedication to fascist, White Christian Nationalism and historical revisionism in public education, has and continues to leave an open wound as well. Don’t even get me started on the abuse of the military by this Republican administration. The list is nearly endless with these soulless, un-American Republicans in Congress.
Deep background on the above issues:
Our very Declaration of Independence, resolutely claims that we are all equal, yet DEI efforts that advance our most precious founding value, are cruelly rejected by Republican voters. We are a nation made up almost exclusively of immigrants, but this GOP cheers the cruelty of anti-immigrant and unconstitutional operations by this administration. America was never designed to be cruel. Justice is at the heart of who we are yet our SCOTUS, consistently violates the very concepts of the equality and justice enshrined in our founding documents. Look no further than the farcical Trump immunity decision, as a glaring example of Chief Justice John Roberts and his far-right support from the likes of AJ/ Associate Justices, Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch.
The most historically important entity in embracing social, constitutionally mandated progress has been DoD, but now under the tutelage of an immoral, far-right incompetent by the name of Pete Hegseth, all of this is disappearing. US government ant—DEI efforts are pure racism, and nothing more. Were I still uniform, I like to believe that I would have resigned rather than serve such a racist and un-American SECDEF. Musk and his DOGE thieves, are stealing our data and also include shady, yet to be fully investigated attempts to share it with Putin. How does this not fly in the face of our 4th Amendment protecting us from unreasonable search and seizures.
Prestigious scholars consider our extraordinary constitution as the “anti-oligarchy constitution” yet, there is nothing but oligarchy in this criminal administration. Still, GOP propaganda propagandizes Musk and DOGE’s theft as “cost-savings,” that are still unproven due to the near total lack of transparency from the GOP administration.
I could go on endlessly, documenting this criminal and what I firmly believe, to be a treasonous administration, but that will not help to end it before it is too late. What matters now is to put loud, massive protests in front of every congressman’s home office and drag the media along with you to the protests. When those GOP congressmen wish to shove their dishonest talking points down your throats, do to them what every other American townhall has done, challenge them loudly and aggressively about their oath of office, which they are fully failing.
Demand to know why a bathroom bill is more important than healthcare and price-gouging by their oligarchical buddies. Demand support for Ukraine, who is fighting not only for their survival, but to stop the globe’s most dangerous aggressor, Putin. Demand to know why ICE refuses to honor the law, and worse, why the administration refuses to honor a unanimous SCOTUS decision to return an innocent man to the US. Demand to know how and why that they are silent when DOGE steals our data, rather than those non-existent, CRT threats or why banning books matters when our nation has just been downgraded by the last of the big three credit rating entities, Moody.
These are questions for politicians because it is their job. mindless repetition Simply repeating the GOP’s lies and conspiracy theories is not. I sit here often writing, and diligently trying my best to express these extremely complex narratives in a coherent overarching narrative of our omnipresent threats, but the complexity makes it difficult to convey to the hard-working people of our fine nation. Americans are intelligent but complex narratives are difficult to consume and interpret, even for those like me, who are professionally immersed in them regularly. Still, we all must try and try hard, before American democracy ends up as nothing more than a blip on the history of the world.
I get it, it’s tough to talk with family and friends who voted Trump/ GOP, but it must be done. It was their votes that made this administration possible. It is their silence, that condones it and it is their continuing support that will execute outright, what our founders crafted from blood, sweat and tears for us. It is an insult to all of those who gave their lives and limbs to safeguard our republic, ensuring that it will survive. On a personal level, Culture wars, are an insult to those of us who depend on truth to protect our republic.
Understand this, our family and friends are looking us straight in the eye and demanding that we believe the lies that they repeat. Too often in such a conservation, I will ask why they voted for a lifelong sexual predator, thief, felon and traitor, only to be told, that they “like Trump’s policies.” What the hell?!? This is the rough equivalent of a shark telling you to “come on in, the water’s fine.” They have zero evidence to back up their canned responses.
The last thing that I will say on this “culture war” essay is a handy bit of information for all of you. In the past decade of fighting the conspiracy theories and lies of today’s Republicans online and otherwise, I have always asked them to provide a single credible source for their beliefs. Not once, in what by now, is tens of thousands of exchanges, has a Republican provided a single source to refute truth. Yes, you read that right… “not once.” Just because they have been conned, doesn’t mean that we must entertain their views and opinions as a worthy argument, without evidence. They are lying and the fact that they refuse to read a credible source, only reinforces the ugliness of their lies.
From a professional perspective, they are like those who were my main focus most of my career, radicalized violent extremist groups. They have been so brainwashed that they will not recover from their cult-like addictions. These people are threats to our nation, but only if they survive politically, in numbers large enough to continue imposing their lies on us all, via their Republican government. They must be removed from office by any and all legal means… urgently. Our friends and family so compromised, will tragically be lost to those of us not brainwashed. Very few recover from such radicalization, once they cross a certain threshold of believing propaganda.
For those old enough to remember the movie, Sophie’s Choice, sometimes in life, there is no good choice. The painful choice we must all come to terms with now is that we will lose some of our friends and family or we will lose our republic. My choice is to ensure that this extraordinary nation survives for my and your grandchildren, even if their parents and grandparents cannot be saved. Our forefathers experienced exactly this during our Civil War. We never recovered completely and today’s Republicans and their oligarchical enablers, are the reason. Godspeed the restoration of our constitutional republic.
Viva Libertad, long live freedom in Spanish
Paul
