Republic or Fascism, the only choices available
We're nearly out of time to decide
TAT readers,
First of all, I am wishing all, the best weekend possible. I’m also asking readers to spend a couple of minutes this weekend, pondering what would have been the unthinkable at any other moment in my life; “are you willing to stop a coup?” Today’s essay will have a couple of different parts to it. First, I will make my case for deciding to actively oppose the ongoing coup and why, if we don’t begin acting now, or as soon as possible, that it will become much harder over time or maybe, too late altogether.
For the past week I have been sharing my thoughts on whether we are experiencing a coup or not… we are. I followed that with an essay regarding my first thoughts on fighting back. Today, I’m asking the hardest possible question; are you ready to commit to fighting back or, to standing on the sidelines? I don’t mean this in any way, as a challenge or to be interpreted as aggressive fearmongering. It is simply a plea to take a serious look at whether you will oppose or tolerate a fascist America. If the former, now is the time to decide and if the latter, it is a moot point.
Throughout today’s essay, I will leave a few links to previous essays that explain what our constitutional republic is, rather than what Trump, Musk and Putin are attempting to convert us to. These links are merely there for background for those who wish a deeper foundation of knowledge. Otherwise, this essay itself should be self-explanatory. Either way, you will have in one essay, a small library of sorts that helps to build resilience in your American spirit of citizenship. That spirit includes among other things, defending this extraordinary republic. When it comes to “winning” an argument, conflict, civil war etc., having a strong core understanding of what you are fighting for and why, is the key component. In the military, we call this, “the will to fight.”
Onward
Background
I was born in 1956, when the man that I call the ultimate “principled conservative” was president, Dwight D. Eisenhower. For the record, his 1956 campaign platform, was nearly the same as Joe Biden’s 2020 platform. Most Americans also knew that despite our political or social differences, we were united in preserving our republic. My uncles and most of my neighbors or their parents, had fought fascism in WW II, both my parents, the Korean War and like them, I raised my right hand to join the army in 1974. This was a low point for our nation, at the end of the Vietnam War. I then came back after 9-11 and finished my army career through several combat zone deployments, one of those deployments, shared with my US Navy son.
Still, it would never have crossed my mind, that we would not rally together against an outside foe. It would have been unthinkable to have not supported our nation and its values. Then came Trump and Putin. Now, we are not only at a very serious risk of losing our republic, but since the 2016 election, the Republican Party won’t even consider standing up to Putin’s Russia. In fact, via Trump, the Republican Party now sides with Putin, the genocidal autocrat that invaded Ukraine. His far-right ideology has been exported globally to places like Brazil, India, the US, Italy and other parts of the world and shockingly, now is very the ideology of today’s GOP.
Over the past thirty years, FOX News and the ever-increasing, extreme right-wing media sources have in lay terms, been “brainwashed” into believing in fake patriotism and that a lifelong serial sexual predator, convicted felon, Putin sycophant and immeasurably corrupt Trump, is the ultimate patriot. Due to their brainwashing, they don’t even understand just how farcical their behavior is. Their ideology is now what I term, The Four Horsemen of the MAGA Apocalypse, Autocracy, Oligarchy, White Christian Nationalism and Political Violence. Yes, this is so close to Putin’s exportable far-right ideology, that Project 2025 might as well have been written in Cyrillic.
Now, the United States is fully immersed in a coup attempt and to quote Putin when congratulating Trump after his election win, we are at the beginning of a “new world order.” As we can see from recent reporting, this new world order is already shaping up and it would appear, that Trump may align us with Putin. I am speechless and have no polite words, to describe this budding alliance of evil.
There we have it, a seriously abbreviated background for today.
Onward
My friends, I know professionally and from first-hand experience, what insurgencies and other types of UW/ unconventional warfare look like, feel like and the catastrophic outcomes of them. I’ve spent nearly three years in combat zones where such things were the basis of my daily life. In my profession as a long-time member of the USSOCOM, United States Special Operations Command, UW, asymmetrical warfare, irregular warfare, unconventional warfare, etc. are part and parcel of the profession.
Once, in the summer of 2004 at the city hall in Baghdad, one of my daily scheduled appearances for the year I spent there, I and our small team that coordinated with what would become the city council and mayor, when the government was turned back over to the Iraqi people, ran headlong into an impromptu coup. City Hall or as called locally, the Amanat was a six-story building in a walled compound shared with the City Water building.
Due to unreliable electrical power after the initial invasion, those going to any floor other than the ground floor, used a narrow winding staircase so as to avoid the tiny, cramped elevator and risk being stuck inside, in the sweltering heat. The mass of humanity both climbing and descending the stairway left one unable to move their arms or even see too far ahead or behind them. I was with three colleagues as we rounded the stairs on the top floor where all of the primary offices were for the highest-level city officials.
The four of us ran headfirst into a couple of dozen or so armed Iraqis, who had bribed the guards at the gate and were hellbent on attempting a coup. Both they and our team were left pointing weapons at each other in standoff. Being clearly outnumbered, we called for one of our interpreters urgently and began a long negotiation to convince them of their folly and that we had countless reinforcements on the ground floor. We really didn’t but it was worth bluffing at the time and it worked. To this day, I can recall the sights, sounds, and emotions of this roughly half hour of intense confrontation. Our uniforms, always sweated soaked and salt-stained due to the perpetual heat of Baghdad, were even more so after this encounter.
Finally, via our collective powers of persuasion, we managed to get them to relinquish their coup efforts for a promise of safe passage, out of the compound. Our hearts, and I imagine theirs as well, began to resume a regular beat as we drew away from each other without a major fight. This was but a small, impromptu coup attempt, although the threat was real… deadly so. In fact, there were in 2004, multiple nationwide efforts to fight back against the US and our coalition partners. It was the second most dangerous year of the nearly two-decade war. Later Afghanistan deployments, met with both insurgency by Islamic extremists and the Taliban at every turn. Tactics and strategy to overcome such efforts vary by circumstance. USSOCOM understands this world very well and knows how to operate in such environments.
We were never trained though, to deal with this on American soil and against our own government. Now, we have no choice in the matter due to the ongoing coup attempt, by the MAGA GOP, led by Trump, Musk and Putin. Because the US military is not authorized to act on this issue by law on domestic turf, we must now rely on teaching and assisting US civilians in putting down the ongoing coup.
The one thing we don’t have, is time. Like my experiences in Baghdad and other less than hospitable places in the world, I know with all certainty that the longer we allow opposing forces to consolidate their power and control, the more difficult it is to slow or stop such a coup. Trump and Musk particularly, have learned these truths due to mentoring by Putin. Putin, the former mid-level KGB officer who was trained to foment coups and insurrections and all manner of covert efforts to overthrow opposing governments, was a very good mentor. Russian intelligence has been involved with the Trump and his close associates for well over a decade and in fact, far more.
I’ll tell you what we are up against at this moment.
T and M, Trump and Musk are bullying their way into our government. Most of their actions are illegal and unconstitutional. Lawyers are stepping up, but this is only temporary relief. Without backing these courageous lawyers and judges without loud, overwhelming public support, their efforts will fail in the long run.
T and M will not abide by legal rulings if they believe that there is no or limited public support for the courts. This is the job of honest Americans to fulfill, regardless of party
They are already attempting to use the FBI and DOJ to unlawfully charge innocent Americans, as intimidation tactics to terrify the rest of us. This will fail if we respond in numbers. This is the only way to stop these practices, especially at the local level. Remember, congress makes the law that the Federal Government, only partially gets to enforce. The rest comes down to local LE/ Law Enforcement.
It’s not just in the US that people are standing up to Trump. Foreign countries like Jordan and Egypt are standing up to Trump’s aggression, far better than American citizens. Let’s fix this and stand up for ourselves
Nearly everything that Trump and Musk have already done, can and will be reversed due to illegality and being unconstitutional… if we support the courts and lawyers standing up for all of us, we can sustain these wins.
In most neighborhoods, counties and regions, there are more honest Americans than MAGA devotees. The weight of numbers are the most powerful tool we currently have in our arsenal of freedom.
This last point is essential to understand. When populist movements like MAGA attempt a coup, if they do not succeed quickly in suppressing the population of a nation, they fail.
This very moment is our best and most likely successful opportunity to stop this coup attempt. Trump’s most effective tool is popular support. If we can overwhelmingly support the decisions made by honest lawyers and judges, regardless of party affiliation, our constitutionally grounded rule of law prevails, and deprives wannabe dictators of the very power they require for a successful coup.
Recommendations should you decide via your deliberations, to become active in resisting this coup attempt:
Where we must focus immediately and I mean as of Monday, is to commence with a handful of critical tactics, known to work, at this phase of the resistance. It is incredibly difficult to begin grassroots movements to interrupt such a coup. It requires diligence. In this case, it is American citizens that must be diligent. Please do not be discouraged though if there is a slow start. We are all human beings with jobs, concerns, demands of our time etc. While that time is critically important, sustainable support of the cause is more important.
There is strength though in numbers. America is full of honest patriots. This isn’t a left/ right, R vs. D, Liberal vs. Conservative thing. This is literally protecting our constitutional republic against the same type of fascists that we fought, alongside of our allies in WW II. Dividing tasks and time dedicated to the cause, is essential. The last time that our nation was uniformly behind defeating a common enemy was immediately after 9-11. Our parents and grandparents, the Greatest Generation, went through much worse, as they navigated the Great Depression and then were immediately sucked into WW II. If they could handle all of this, we can handle a bunch of bullies thriving on conspiracy theories and fake patriotism.
Phase I tactics:
Protest outside of every Republican congressman’s office in the country, demanding that they don’t support any more unconstitutional actions by the Trump coup crowd.
Overwhelm local newspapers with Op-Eds regarding the difference between constitutional and unconstitutional actions.
Support loudly all of the legal efforts protecting our constitution and our constitutional rights.
Work together to oppose the MAGA crowd on social media. It may seem intimidating at first but the inherent power of collective actions with support, will always defeat a bully. MAGA is nothing more than a rabid pack of schoolyard bullies and will retreat when faced with overwhelming resistance. Remember the one truth that we all remember from the playground… bullies are cowards at heart.
Seek like minds and begin forming groups willing and capable of supporting opposition.
When encountering MAGA GOP nonsense in social media, report them for hate speech and misinformation… every single time. This will adjust the machine learning/ AI algorithms. This is a critical task, and no amount of time spent doing so, is too much.
Work together to dominate the local Op-Eds. Don’t give MAGA any breathing room in print.
If you become aware of legal actions against the perpetrators of this coup, support them and I don’t mean just financially. These types of lawsuits will benefit from as much supportive publicity as possible.
Vote with your wallets by boycotting the big corporations that wrote Trump big checks.
Loudly denounce local Republican politicians if they refuse to condemn this coup. Do this in numbers. The GOP has spent decades putting their insiders into local office. Local offices are very easily swayed by public opinion, if there is enough effort. The local MAGA shills will quiet down very quickly, especially if you call them out on unconstitutional and immoral actions and words.
My friends, these ten tactics, employed at this moment will prove effective. I know this professionally. Silencing the immoral and un-American abuses of the coup crowd at the local level undermines their popular support. Populism is an infectious disease. Like COVID, stopping the spread and stealing the oxygen required for it to breath, is a most powerful tactic. Taking the local popular support away from those who wish to impose serfdom on all of us, must have local support or they fail. Trumpism or MAGA, is a populist movement. Everyone locally that disagrees with MAGA’s populist movement is not only a warrior for our rights, but a successful and heroic warrior.
I talk with a lot of Americans regularly and from all regions, political beliefs and with differing levels of fear regarding the chaotic and intimidating tactics employed by the Trump regime. The one thing that would bring their opposition to this coup into the open, is collective support for any and all actions to defeat such a coup. Courage improves with numbers. This is simply a fact of human nature. All across the nation, our so-called public squares are the first line of defense for patriotic, law-abiding citizens, refusing to submit to fascist overlords.
Finally, I wish to make one thing clear, this is what is called an “inflection point” in American and global history. Will you be able to say to your children and grandchildren in the future, that you were on the right side of history? The answers you craft to this question will be telling when those grandchildren ask you, did stand for our republic or a madman, obsessed with greed, power and cruelty? Only you can answer this for yourselves. I have made my choice and demonstrate it when I write these essays. As an American who respects the rights of others, I can only ask and implore you to join in supporting the most successful and enduring republic, in the history of man.
Despotism like Trump’s, Putin’s, Modi’s and maybe even Xi’s is not the answer for humanity. It is servitude to thankless and selfish men. I know where I stand. I respectfully ask that you join me.
My kindest and most sincere wishes for your weekend and wishing you a little time to ponder today’s essay.
Paul