Stands With a Fist
The courageous woman from Dances with Wolves
TAT readers,
Although today’s essay is a tough one, it is absolutely necessary. The election results are in and unlike the GOP, honest Americans regardless of party will abide by them. This though, absolutely does not mean the fight to restore true American values, is anywhere near over. In fact, it is time to roll up our sleeves and do the hard work, again and as many times as is required. Resistance to the Fascism of the MAGA controlled GOP will be harder, especially in MAGA entrenched states like here in Texas. There is not one bit of principled conservatism left in the party agenda. It is un-American, unconstitutional and grievously dangerous fascism at best. We cannot afford to fail.
As for today’s title and photo… here’s where it comes from. One of my all-time favorite movies is Dances with Wolves. In the movie, the love interest of Lt. Dunbar, Kevin Costner is a white woman who had been taken captive by a native American tribe, while still quite young. She assimilates into the tribe as she grows but is named for her initial defiance to being taken captive. She literally stood with her fist balled up, to do battle with the warriors who captured her. Hence her name, Stands-with-a-Fist. She stood is life-threatening defiance to the murderers of her family and way of life. Considering the dishonest and uncivilized abuse heaped onto VP Harris, I found Stands-with-a-fist, an apt metaphor for VP Harris’ loss on Tuesday.
This brings me to something that I must get off of my chest before pursuing today’s overview to the November 5th, slow-roll coup. I’m sure that most of you face the same or similar challenges. Like most, I have family and friends that I love and care for deeply, that have succumbed to the FOX, NEWSMAX, OAN, Breitbart, etc. lies and conspiracy theories, often based on Russian influence operations and support.
I will continue to love and care for these family and friends, but it has and will continue to cost me relationships, just for telling the truth. They are offended at being lumped in with MAGA and while they may not think the same as MAGA’s edgier extremists, the agenda of the GOP is strictly MAGA. For this reason, any R vote, is a vote for MAGA. MAGA is defined in one of my recent essays, The Four Horsemen of the MAGA Apocalypse, autocracy, oligarchy, White Christian Nationalism and Political Violence. The cost of staying quiet, is too much to pay and will injure the future of our children and grandchildren.
As I have mentioned ad nauseum, today’s GOP voters have been in lay terms, brainwashed or conned, and can be easily controlled, to believe anything that their favorite narrators say. Trump demanded that every elected GOP representative, senator or otherwise, hand over their spine, years ago. They now parrot Trump and Putin’s lies without batting an eye. Yes, every single one. This is also no longer up for debate. The evidence is the size of a mountain range. I understand that this hurts the feelings of such friends and family, but I am not cut out to lie to anyone, much less family and friends. The only way to change this is for those in opposition to fascism, is to be vocal, public and truthful.
So many, me included have been in private groups since 2016, commiserating. We must take our voices outside the groups if we are to succeed.
As most of you already know, Republican voters become quite defensive or offended to be lumped in with the fascism of the Trump world, but voting to keep a racist, rapist, traitor and felon in office, actually offends those of us who deal in truth just as much. Most MAGA types only cry foul, when they are offended, never once giving a thought to the fact that honest Americans regardless of party and who believe in truth, are just as easily as offended by their false knowledge and conspiracy theories. Navigating relationships in the Trump era is a minefield for all of us. To get respect, one must give it as well, is how I was raised.
We’re not debating whether the Browns or the Cowboys will win the Super Bowl (this is laughable on both counts), but literally the fate of our republic. If we don’t stand up now, the high principles our republic was founded on, will simply cease to exist. I do my best to explain this respectfully, but today’s GOP doesn’t tolerate criticism… not at all. In fact, open honest discussions are not welcome from today’s right. They never once have sources and this is why I write here, to provide everyone sources to support their voices.
Words have meanings and just because the MAGA/ GOP doesn’t like the fascism label, they have spent decades building an alternative definition for patriotism. In simple terms, they are doing their best to do as the old saying goes, “you can put lipstick on a pig, but that don’t make her a prom queen.” Thirty plus years of watching FOX has now conditioned viewers to accept fake history and a fake version of American values, including revisionist history. This ideology is a pile of road apples, the size of Mount Rushmore.
MAGA will become angry and malevolent again, on the heels of victory. This is where we must step up and so no more. We cannot simply walk away and mumble our disdain and disgust. We must speak up for ourselves, at every opportunity.
If I sound defiant, it is because I am. I will not lie to anyone. The next few years will take all of the courage possible to rid our nation of the spineless GOP leaders who refuse to a person, to stand against treason, oligarchy, White Christian Nationalism and political violence.
There is plenty of blame to go around, for Tuesday’s travesty. It would take weeks of writing to detail all of them. For this reason, I have decided to present you today with this overview and dig deeper in a follow-up essay, hopefully for the weekend, should enough time to present itself in my busy schedule. Today, I will simply tell you who I will discuss in the follow-up. I would recommend an adult beverage for this, and it may displease plenty of folks, no matter which side that they are on. Again, if we don’t look at a problem honestly, we cannot make the requisite changes to succeed in the future. The truth is, we all need intense soul-searching about the reality of the current MAGA threat to our republic.
Primary entities worthy of significant blame.
While reading below, please recall that I despise the concept of political parties and only speak against them when they are threats. The MAGA GOP is obviously the single biggest threat to our nation since the Civil War, but the Democratic party is the only game in town, to put down the rabid dog called MAGA.
The DNC which has been a failure at campaigning for decades. They seem to not understand working class Americans and are evidently, incapable of talking with us in any meaningful way. This is not Kamala’s or Tim’s fault. It is the imbeciles who run the party’s campaigns. They don’t understand Narrative Warfare, which is the most powerful of all influence strategies, if understood. Dozens of daily texts begging for money by both parties is not only obnoxious, but not what our republic was designed for.
Media drives competitiveness for advertising revenue. They still call the GOP conservative when it is nothing of the sort. Principled Conservatism for those not afraid to read previous GOP platforms, is best described in President Eisenhower’s Platform of 1956, the year I was born. That platform by comparison, is not a great deal different from Joe Biden’s. That is how far that the GOP has deviated from reality with their Platform, inspired largely by Project 2025.
Only a handful of media conglomerates own all media. This makes a handful of owners and boardrooms, the controlling faction of what we see, read and hear. This is a thinly veiled attempt to deny any site or service not under their control their voice.
I hold a particular and well-informed grudge against the US national security community, for their past four decades of waste, fraud and abuse within the communities responsible for protecting Americans from foreign and domestic, malign influence. They have failed miserably and dangerously. Global democracy has slipped precipitously and our enemies like Russia, now openly and covertly, collaborate with Russian influence operations.
Voters, on both sides and of any other political persuasion are to blame as well. Both sides adhere to their own narratives and with false narratives on both sides. Still, those on the left, pale in comparison to the bizarre and endless false narratives coming from MAGA.
Like I said, this is the short list of those to be blamed. I will flush out each in a follow up essay. I do this because if we don’t correct what is wrong within these primary groups of advocates, only the well organized and supported by Russian intelligence GOP, will succeed. So long as MAGA calls the shots in the Republican Party, every single R vote supports a MAGA agenda. I’m sorry to say this for conservatives in my family and friend’s circles. This is not me insulting them but simply telling the common-sense truth. No matter what Republican they vote for, will have zero voice, unless they toe the MAGA agenda line.
Summary
Today’s summary is short and sweet. There is a lot of finger-pointing going on for Tuesday’s failure, much of it is deserved. Give yourselves a few days to recover and lick your wounds, but the sooner we get back in the saddle and begin making sound decisions about campaigning and the responsibilities of different groups, the sooner we will have the campaign to repair all the damage to the US and the world, Trump plans on achieving.
We will require a new, grassroots movement focused on who we are as Americans, not party if we are to succeed. I will address this in detail along with those to blame. If we reestablish our true American values, it gives independents something to get behind, as well as disgruntled conservatives that feel as if they have no party.
One of my own favorite quotes and one that I have relied on, most of my adult like is.
"Do the right thing with passion, and the political party issues will resolve themselves." - Cobaugh
Besides those to blame and discussing a grassroots movement going forward, I encourage everyone reading this, to make the commitment to yourselves, that acting on our outrage and disappoint, not to accept this temporary defeat. Take your arguments to your local party leaders. Demand a clear, well-analyzed narrative strategy. Hell, I will gladly help is need be. We must do this for our children, grandchildren and so on.
More to follow my friends. Now… it is time to Stand with our Fists, ready to defend our republic from Trump’s fascism.
All my best,
Paul
Thank you for this. Right now, I'm making a list of links to posts that I'm resonating with, but don't yet have the mental capacity to engage. Some posts are recommending books to read for perspective.
Today, we lick our wounds and soothe our souls. But we don't have time to fully heal before we get started - there is work to be done while we heal at the same time. It is a tough balance.