Our 2024 election isn't politics, it's a new, Civil War
The cold, hard truth
TAT readers,
Phew, we’ve almost made it to the weekend. When possible, I try to give you something to ponder over the weekend, when you have a little less pressure to squeeze essays in between appointments, chores, duties etc. Today’s essay is one that I have been wanting to write for quite a while, and one that I believe honest Americans, regardless of political beliefs need to consider. Many of my longer-term readers have heard my political disclaimer and baseline beliefs before, but for the newer readers, I will spell it out again. Longer term readers, please bear with me for a handful of paragraphs.
Like one of my top-tier heroes, President George Washington, I despise political parties and largely for the same reasons that he stated in his farewell address. An honest look at today’s allegedly political arena, illustrates clearly that he was beyond accurate, and quite nearly, prophetic. Below are two of his most known quotes regarding political parties or more commonly called, “factions” in colonial terminology.
As for my political beliefs, I am a devotee of pursuing politics that most follow and remain within our constitutional guardrails. It is my personal belief that the more closely that we adhere to this standard, the party issues become moot. In today’s America, this means that only the left side of the aisle, adheres to this standard. The MAGA dominated side of the aisle, are unconstitutional insurgents and in simple language, at war with our nation and the constitution that defines it. Hence, today’s title, declaring that our 2024 election cycle is a continuation of our Civil War, not an election.
I get a closeup view of the civil war battlefield daily here in Texas. Our Jim Crow 2.0 voting laws gave DOJ/ Dept. of Justice, cause to sue our state. The assault on public education by White Christian Nationalists, is unconstitutional. Even our own state police, the DPS and Texas National Guard, attempted to deny Federal Authorities access at the border that is required for the CBP/ Customs and Border Patrol to do their jobs. These are only three of the higher profile constitutional issues at stake in Texas. Most so-called red states and especially at the national level in the halls of congress, are the same when it comes to the GOP. If this does not constitute an attack on the very constitution and Bill of Rights from our founding, I have no idea what would.
At the national level, the armed insurrection of January 6th, 2021, was the first open and large scale battle of the new civil war. You deny yourself any claim to the term, “patriot” by supporting the new Confederacy, a.k.a. the MAGA controlled GOP. For the record, the ideology is much the same as in 1861, oligarchism underpinned by White Christian Nationalists.
Finally for this introduction, I will add a personal note about family tradition. Raised in true Midwestern fashion on both sides of the family, oppositional politics and religion were not for public discussion. My entire life, I strictly followed family tradition by doing the same. Then came Trump, MAGA, deep Russian influence operations and the near loss of our republic after the 2016 election. As we neared the 2016 election, I made the conscious decision to speak out and forcefully if need be. So long as our republic is at war with those, falsely calling themselves conservatives and patriots, I will not stand down.
There now, with the baseline of my views charted, let’s get serious about this civil war.
Trump may be the modern focal point, but the MAGA movement is nothing new. By different names, it’s been part of our nation’s history across a variety of historical phases. Nearly always, challenges to the Establishment Clause were funded and driven by oligarchs, supported and enabled by the mob, subservient to and under the influence of Christian Nationalism. One of the first battles, was the demand and acquiescence of our earliest congress classes, to observe a gag rule, that slavery must not be discussed openly in congress, for more than a decade until John Quincy Adams finally managed to lead the effort to repeal it.
"Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1, is one of a handful of provisions in the original Constitution related to slavery, though it does not use the word “slave.” This Clause prohibited the federal government from limiting the importation of “persons” (understood at the time to mean primarily enslaved African persons) where the existing state governments saw fit to allow it, until some twenty years after the Constitution took effect. It was a compromise between Southern states, where slavery was pivotal to the economy, and states where the abolition of slavery had been accomplished or was contemplated." - The Slave Trade Clause - ARTICLE I, Section 9: Powers Denied Congress
The Slave Trade Clause, was meant to assuage southern “oligarchs,” largely plantation owners and shipping magnates who depended on slavery for their bottom lines. This clause was an affront to the august principles, born of the Scottish Enlightenment and codified by brilliant founders such as Washington, Jefferson, Adams and especially Madison, in our constitution. Of course, slavery was supported by a version of White Christian Nationalism, now advancing powerfully as the ideology of the Southern States. Yes, Shipping and manufacturing oligarchism of the Northern States also played a role, albeit far more limited, outside of building ships used in the slave trade.
Despite attempts to deal with the issue of slavery within congress, Southern representatives and senators dug in ever more deeply. With a resurgence of religious prominence in America, often called the “Second Awakening” the social justice pursuits became all the more entrenched in northern and abolitionist states. It had the precise opposite effect below the Mason-Dixon line. Either way, it detracted from the secular values that our prestigious founders, had so carefully instilled in our founding documents.
For a better understanding of southern and northern religious perspectives pre-war, I highly recommend two related views as seen below. The links to both are in the caption.
Post war, the assassination of President Lincoln, who had a non-punitive strategy for reintegrating the South back into the union, derailed any real chance for post war reconciliation. Vengeful northern congressmen from the relatively new Republican Party, opened the Carpetbagger era of retaliation and persecution. To this day, our failure to heal post-Civil War, has recreated the twin evils of oligarchism and Christian Nationalism in the modern South, now spread to all corners of the nation, again by oligarchs seeking to keep and sustain their power over their fortunes. Like slavery, oligarchs via worker abuse, low wages and draconian measures, dominance over the working classes continue to impose oppressive hardship onto tens of millions of Americans. Look no further than Tesla, Amazon etc. for modern examples. In other words, all races are enslaved by oligarchy, not just black Americans in modern America.
Post Civil War America was not the end of our woes, and largely synonymous with the MAGA movement. There was the Robber-Baron era, Trust-busting era, Civil Rights Era, Vietnam and far more, that perpetuated both the inherent racism and employee abuse, below the level of elite wealth. In all cases, established oligarchy wielding power over workers and the lower classes, exploited labor, most often, immigrant. Now, It wasn’t just white over black, but oligarchy over marginalized populations. A common example and in my opinion, fairly accurate, would be the movements of southern whites such as those from Appalachia and blacks from across the south, moving north for work, post WW II. Yes, both saw an increase in standard of living, but were still a couple of the lowest of American castes in respect to privilege and opportunity.
The Great American Dream is still unobtainable for many and so long as we continue to permit corporate price-gouging, dishonestly labeled as “inflation” it will remain so. Denying opportunity, is a deeply American wound that is painfully contrary our most heartfelt American principle, that “every American is created equal and and equal shot at opportunity .”
Power will always have more privilege, but to the degree that it now exists in America and much of the world, one thing can be counted on; people will reach a threshold of pain that causes rebellion. The oligarchs enabling today’s MAGA crowd, are attempting to preempt this by temporarily stoking the fires of their MAGA mob, to rebel in support of the twin towers of right-wing oligarchism and Christian Nationalism. They are short-sighted though as that once they achieve their goal to overthrow our constitutional republic, those oligarchs and autocrats in power, will turn on them. Rule by mob in this case, ends very badly for everyone. End the end, elite wealth oligarchs and autocrats come for everyone, once they have acquired sufficient power.
Looking across the globe, over the span of millennia, fanaticism via ideology has never endured. Anarchists at the turn of the century and the fascism of the 1930s and 40s were destroyed by those defending liberty. The Catholicism of Spain’s Inquisition floundered badly in nearly every nation it saturated with their beliefs. Eventually, Inquisitional ideology moderated in order to survive. Spain lost near all of her cruelly acquired empire. The ideology of communism is now nearly non-existent. Even though China for example remains technically “communist,” there is nothing communist about how China is run.
The lessons of ideological failure for the MAGA crowd, are as imminent as they are tragic for all, regardless of “side.” The brilliant illumination by our founders, of the human and rational principles of the Scottish Enlightenment were indeed radically progressive for their time. Madison, Jefferson and other signers of our Declaration of Independence not only understood the radical nature of the Enlightenment, but fully embraced it. Benjamin Franklin, a friend of one of the most brilliant Scotsmen, David Hume, brought personal knowledge and understanding, based on their friendship, to our constitutional debates. Much of our Declaration and Constitution embodied a great deal of the Enlightenment’s progressive thinking, especially that which flowed from Jefferson’s and Madison’s quill pens.
Yes, America was founded by radical progressives or what today is pejoratively described as “woke,” by the MAGA mob. Were we to allow ourselves to succumb to the historical oligarchism and dominance of a state religion, it would set back the leading light of global democracy, by at least three hundred years. Our constitution, scholarly described as the “anti-oligarchy constitution” and embracing an oppressive version of a state-religion could hardly be more un-American. Collectively these two facets alone are by default, anti-liberty.
As I near the end of today’s essay, I hope that I have at least given readers some baseline historical and civics knowledge. Should readers consider the phrase spoken by President Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address, “by, for and of the people” one could hardly form the words without choking, if you consider that the only people that matter today, are the oligarchs and immoral church leaders.
The last primary feature of today’s essay is that it is important to leave a note or two about our current SCOTUS’ 6-3, super-majority. Mitch McConnell has engineered legal justification of both oligarchy and Christian Nationalism with his despicable handling of his constitutional duties, as Senate Majority Leader. The legacy of both McConnell and Chief Justice John Robert’s Court, will have been to have tear down our constitution and toss it to the MAGA mob, controlled by priests and billionaires. The Citizens United decision was but one of several cases decided in favor of oligarchy.
The Roberts’ court overturning of previous a SCOTUS decision regarding, Roe vs. Wade decision is but one example of imposing a state religion onto every single American, regardless of their religious beliefs. AJ/ Associate Justice Alito’s basis for the decision was significantly based on the findings of a late 17th century English jurist most known for legalizing marital rape and providing the legal/ religious justification for burning witches at the stake.
I will wrap up today’s essay by noting just how exemplary our founders were. George Washington, the pinnacle of colonial virtue and as expressed by his lifelong commitment to role-modeling virtue, as seen by ancient Roman and to a lesser extent, Greek philosophers and statesmen. If you have the chance and willingness, I highly recommend Tom Rick’s book, First Principles which details my description of Washington’s virtue. As a spoiler alert, ancient virtue was in admittedly, paraphrased terms, seen as serving the public good with dignity and humility. Serving the public good, seen as noble in Roman culture, was redefined slightly by Madison’s deep research into all known representative government from the early Greeks through his modern contemporaries, such as leading the leading revolutionaries in France. He did the research preparing for the conference to ratify our constitution. Titled, Notes on Ancient and Modern Confederacies is remarkable scholarship.
Madison, our fourth president and most often and accurately described as the “Father of our Constitution” was a world class scholar on representative government. Even as a youth, when selecting a college, he opted not to attend the school of his social class, Harvard but instead, what was seen as a radically progressive college, the University of New Jersey or now known as Princeton. In modern terms he would be considered a political nerd but that nerdiness was the secret to the survival as a republic.
Madison, in preparing for the constitutional convention, authorized Jefferson, then serving in France for our new nation, to buy all available histories of and political thought on, representative government, at his own expense. He then laid out every researched example, comparing and contrasting in order to find the flaws that caused them to fail as juvenile forms of government. Due to this scholarship, he settled on a variety of innovations for our constitution that would in theory, prevent failure of our nascent republic.
Checks and Balances for example, were a requirement, based on his research. Other non-negotiables were things like “separation of church and state” and protecting the people from the most powerful, or the oligarch class. Brilliance doesn’t even come close to what he achieved. Our survival as a republic so far, can be traced directly to him and his co-founders whose challenges and additions, served to mold a revolutionary document… our constitution and Bill of Rights.
Now, a handful of US and global oligarchs, paying to hypnotize citizens with the drug of Christian Nationalist ideology, masquerading as Christian, are threatening to overturn the most stable republic in the history. Today, as global democracies are periodically evaluated by experts, the US is no longer considered a healthy version. Erosion by those funding dissolution of our founding values for their own selfish gain, have formed mobs out of our fellow citizens whose moral resilience has been consumed by relentless assaults against their former core beliefs.
This is where my field of influence operations triggers an absolute disgust for my own profession within the national security community. We mostly won a cognitive war against the Soviet Union during and by the end of the Cold War. In a sheer display of arrogance, we quit playing and now, via foreign adversaries like Russia, China, Iran, working side by side with our MAGA dominated GOP and funded by oligarchs, nearly half of American voters are in lay terms, “brainwashed” to believe the conspiracy theories spewing around the clock from their foreign and American narrators like FOX, Breitbart, NewsMax, OAN and literally thousands of lesser sites.
In professional terms, this is what is called Narrative Warfare/ NW, my core specialty. In all possible humility, it is important to note that I’m one of only a handful of operators, that even know what Narrative Warfare is operationally, and have demonstrated its success on and off of America’s battlefields. The US and to a large extent, NATO security communities are tragically and willfully ignorant of NW. They make up obstructive doctrine and unfathomable terminology claiming that they understand narrative. In reality, they are devoid of working knowledge and even worse, dangerously ignorant of how to operate in NW.
We still pay the researchers and fraudulent defense contractors to fight our cognitive wars but all that they have to show for the billions we’ve paid them, is four plus decades of fraud and failure. A look around the globe that compares the health of democracy forty years ago and now, clearly shows just how badly they have failed. There is no hope on the horizon either. The community at large refuses to hear a word from operational experts like me and literally a handful of other true influence operators. They refuse to understand how humans make meaning out of all that they experience or… simply narrative.
The second edition of my book, Modern Day Minutemen and Women/ The Art of Influence: Narrative Strategy, a Voter Education Guide, has just been published by, The Athina Press, and available at Barnes and Noble, is oriented not only towards voters, but explicitly towards the US and NATO national security communities. The primary purpose of this book is for our nation of principles, to survive for the sake of our children, grandchildren and fellow citizens. Without our founding principles, there is no America. Those who favor oligarchism and Christian Nationalism, just like the Confederacy over a hundred and fifty years ago, are threatening to destroy all that we’ve built for the US and the world. They do this, exclusively for their own selfish purposes.
Based on what I’ve written here today, I hope that I have conveyed the truth about our November elections… it’s not politics, it is in fact, a civil war, and I am not given to hyperbole. I will honor my oath to the constitution to defend and protect her from all enemies, foreign and domestic. I hope that all of you will join me as the modern-day minutemen and women, that embrace our defending our founding principles at the ballot box.
My very best for everyone’s weekend,
Paul
Here at The Athina Press we are all thrilled to be the sole publishers of your current work , making the pirated licensed and copyrighted earlier editions on sale across the internet by third party sellers who pay no royalties to author or publisher , finally irrelevant.
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