Restack of: Hate is not an American value, especially within the political landscape.

According to our founders, being well and accurately informed is a requirement of citizenship.

TAT readers,

Every now and then I feel the need to express my political views, in order to be fully transparent with you fine folks. Out of sheer laziness, I dug up the last essay explaining them so as not to have to write another version. Sourcing information and intelligence throughout my professional life, means that I carefully scrutinize the credentials of reporters, media sites, think tanks etc. in order to bring my writing to you, based on the most credible sources I can find.

This repetition of my views is me offering to you, what I look for in my research. Knowing how authors see the world, lends a helping hand in your selection of the choices of media to consume in everyone’s busy schedule.

Back tomorrow with a brand-new essay on a topic, yet to be selected.

My kindest regards,

Paul

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TAT readers,

Every now and then, especially during a strong uptick in followers and subscribers, I feel it only fair to write a short explanation of my political beliefs. In fact, with so much hate surrounding our past nine years of political discourse, it is also the right time to explain that it is indeed possible to hate a party’s agenda, but not the people themselves. Hate is a word that I use quite sparingly. The problem is, Today’s GOP is entirely MAGA and this extremist movement has hate as the lifeblood of their extreme, right-wing ideology.

Like most of America, I have friends, family and colleagues, that are deeply MAGA. I don’t hate them, but can be deeply disappointed, angry with or feel sorry for them. Also, since our nation was founded on democratic principles, it’s everyone’s right to express their opinions so long as they don’t cause harm or imminent harm to fellow citizens. MAGA does both. Denying any citizen their constitutionally guaranteed rights, is about the most un-American path, a person can take. This is my issue with MAGA. They wish to protect their rights while compromising those of all dissenters or those they feel unworthy.

First, my political views:

Mom was a lifelong Republican and Dad a lifelong Democrat. Both had college educations with dad adding grad school accomplishments to his undergrad degree when I was pre-teen. Dad began his professional career teaching history and government in rural Ohio, which eventually led to running Title programs and related efforts in support of US Navy educational opportunities. Both parents were Veterans and lie side-by-side here in the National Cemetery, in San Antonio.

Both talked to each other about politics and both crossed party lines when the need presented itself. The one thing that made this political flexibility possible was that they both dealt in truth, not empty promises, conspiracy theories or innuendo about candidates and parties. This is how that I see politics as well.

The biggest difference between my parents and I, is that in the Trump era I have deviated badly from the morally sound concept and family tradition of not discussing politics and religion publicly. My loophole in family tradition is that I don’t see the current US political landscape as “political,” but as an ongoing Civil War between MAGA on one side and all honest Americans on the other. Due to the MAGA threat to our republic, I made the decision to speak out over the one thing that mattered deeply to my extraordinary parents and me as well, our sacred military oaths to “protect and defend our constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. MAGA threatens both our constitution and our nation’s survival as a constitutional republic constantly. Project 2025 for example, threatens both, and severely at that.

My background in CT/ Counterterrorism gives me deep professional insights that support my perspective of MAGA as an extremist movement, not a legitimate political party. Yes, MAGA controls the GOP now and so, this means that both acronyms are synonymous. Any self-respecting “principled conservative” has already left the party or votes against it. Those who remain are by default MAGA, because no matter how much you love your elected representatives, the party agenda is MAGA and will continue to be so long as the MAGA members remain under the spell of far-right/ Russian influence operations.

Personally, and as one of my top 5 heroes, George Washington explained so insightfully in his Farewell address, that factions or as we know them today, political parties, will grow into unprincipled entities that serve their own selfish needs, not the nation’s. This alone, without even considering platform or ideology, makes them a severe threat to the republic. Now… here we are, over two hundred years later and again, his remarkable and pragmatic prediction has come true, almost exactly as he warned.

Being a Republican today, doesn’t make you a Conservative

When I moved to Texas, in 2005 for my Army posting, I registered as a Republican. My home was a few acres in the Texas Hill Country, adjacent to the small-town county seat where my parents then lived. Small town Texas is by and large Republican, and I saw no strategic benefit from registering otherwise. At the time, one had to pick a party in order to vote in primaries. Besides this, my closest affiliation to a politician’s character and platform, was the leadership and concepts of the Eisenhower administration, which is ironically, nearly the same as the Biden platform today. Best of all, I consider neither Biden nor Eisenhower, anything but pragmatic progressives. They both believe (d) deeply in our national values and recognized that we must continue moving towards our highest ideals, from the perpetually evolving but yet un obtained pinnacle of our founding principles.

When Eisenhower was drafted as the GOP candidate in 1952, no one prior knew if he’d run as a D or an R. The most succinct political analysis that I can make as to why Ike ran as a Republican, is that he knew where America had to go as the Cold War heated up. He had a fair amount of cooperation from the left but just like today, a divisive GOP that had been obstructionist to the US joining WW II in the first place, and even more uncooperative post war. Ike not only knew how to lead, but how to strategize leadership. Like Kennedy who followed him into the Oval Office, America had the right man at the right time.

This election year, there is only one choice that will support the constitution and continue our evolutionary progress towards our stated founding principles, especially after the disaster left by the Trump administration. This is simply common-sense, analysis that anyone, not under the influence of party propaganda should easily see. Like Mom and Dad, I simply look at truth and apply critical analysis. This year, the choice is simple: Support America or support the Fascism described in Project 2025 and the perpetually running GOP propaganda, that doesn’t even come close to patriotism.

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Summary

Considering how much hate and discontent I occasionally receive from readers, because they allege that I am biased, or for no reason pick on conservatives, I hope that this clears things up a bit. First, there is nothing “conservative” about today’s GOP. If you wish to know what real principled conservatism looks like, read Eisenhower’s 1956 presidential, political platform. A while back, I wrote a long-detailed comparison of his platform as compared to the Texas 2022 Midterm Platform and the results clearly showed that what counts as “conservative today,” especially in Texas, is pure right-wing extremism, when compared closely with Eisenhower‘s principled conservatism.

I don’t personally believe in conservative values or liberal values. I believe in American values as defined by our constitution and legal shaping by SCOTUS (except of course, the now-disgraced, right-wing extremist, John Roberts’ SCOTUS).

The last thing that I will say today, is that success in reaching so many of you here on Substack, is one of the most surprising and rewarding experiences of my life. You allow me to talk frankly and from informed positions about things that concern us all and, in many ways, threaten us all. My dad would be so proud that from 5 years old on, my time in front of his bookshelves filled with antique books on education, history, government etc. had stuck between my ears, and that I was willing to share it. He’s probably looking down from somewhere, talking my mom’s ear off… as usual. Mom on the other hand, I believe had a yearly bet with herself that she could speak fewer words in the present year than the last. I have been told that in this respect, I take after dad ;). Yep, what I learned at home has stuck permanently for my very long life.

Today when I see children of MAGA parents, I worry about the lessons that they are learning. Right, left or otherwise, please ask yourself, are you teaching your progeny to think, read credible sources, make moral decisions and to rebut conspiracy theories, or teaching them that hating America enough to throw away our constitution and the republic it defines, is the right path? As a committed, life-long optimist, I will believe in a future of honest voters that keep their politics between our constitutional guardrails. Not because a politician told them what the constitution meant, but because they actually knew it from their own due diligence.

As for “hate,” I know that violent extremist movements, end up “eating their own” eventually and due to their intense addiction to hateful ideology. I don’t wish this for MAGA family, friends and colleagues, but also understand that in the lifecycle of extremist movements, this moment will come. The answer for America, is to focus our next generations’ attention on real, constitutionally grounded American values, such as ingenuity, courage, defender of freedom, compassion and generosity nation. If we do this, they will become far more resilient to the fake patriotism of the FOX crowd or any other extremist propaganda.

For those who’ve heard this before, thanks for putting up with these thoughts again. For all others, it’s important to me that I’m transparent on where I stand, and why.

Best for your midweek,

Paul