TAT readers,
Well readers, my summer adventures around the US have sadly come to an end, and now it’s time to settle back into a more productive writing routine. My travels around the country have been every bit as enlightening about our current national crisis, as they were delightful in reacquainting with some family and old friends. The one thing I noticed as I traversed the country east to west and north to south, is that there are some common moods in communities across our nation regardless of whether they are in a red, blue or purple state. As it pertains to the title of this essay, the reality that our republic is precipitously under siege by the White House and Republican Congress, is finally beginning to sink into the entirety of America. Progress is slower on the right side of the aisle, but there is progress. The bottom line is that in the near future, Trump and the GOP, will meet their Waterloo. This is when reality will really set in for them and their base.
Most of America is partially solemn these days with legitimate concerns for household budgets, a functioning government and the loss of their constitutional rights. Mostly, no one seems to know when or if all of the administration’s chaos and fascist behavior will end, or that we can all begin affording our lives again. All of us who don’t vote Republican, have understood this reality since Trump’s first administration, 2017-2021. In the interim, we’ve weathered a global pandemic, made exponentially worse by the Trump administration’s corruption and criminal negligence, multiple global wars, a hollowed out economy and a fascist administration brutalizing the American people. And this is just the short list. America has murdered hundreds of thousands due to the sudden, illegal cessation of USAID programs and continues to strip us of our healthcare and subject us to the insanity of RFK Jr’s decisions about the health of the nation. That is reality, not what spews from the right side of the aisle.
Inflation is perpetually rising while wages are declining relative to the cost of living. Even the normally stable US bond market is alarmed at where the US economy is heading. Our national security is also hollowed out by purges, unconstitutional global aggression and Pete Hegseth’s personal racism and misogynism. The US Treasury is being emptied by GOP corruption in congress while GOP congressmen, stridently protect pedophiles. This is not America.
A brilliant young American Writer who we lost to mental health issues in 2008, authored the quote below. If I was a Republican, I’d heed David Foster Wallace’s warning. All of the truths being withheld from the American people throughout this administration will come to light in the future, and all non-republicans are in the mood for some serious accountability. When this is all over… and it will be, accountability will fall hard on GOP elected officials, from the local level to the very top. This reality is already setting in for GOP voters. As much as we love our MAGA GOP family, friends and co-workers, the situation has gone too far for us to stay silent in the face of the GOP’s alternative realities.
If those true Republicans wish to continue living in a universe that is fully delusional, we are no longer obligated to patiently go along them. If this causes unrest, so be it. Our mission now is simple; we must do three things, 1. stop the madness by voting for the resistance in November, 2. rebuild our republic so that it mirrors America’s true values, and 3. protects us from ever experiencing any such era again. Accountability is step one. GOP be warned.
"The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you.” David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest (1996).
All of us in the resistance who’ve lived through this Trump/ MAGA era have had enough, and any sane national security risk analyst will tell you that the risk to our republic is not only real, but acute across the full-spectrum of potential threats. The risks we face here in the states are also enabling other similar authoritarian governments like Russia, China, Argentina, Iran, N. Korea etc., to run roughshod over half the world by using the exact same playbook as this administration. After a long career in US and allied national security, I can assure you that every single one of our US allies or global friends, now see the US as an authoritarian threat that specializes in violence and kleptocracy.
"In a law-abiding administration, personal finances wouldn’t be an important part of the public debate. But this administration’s leaders have decided that laws and norms of behavior that have held for a century or more don’t apply to them. The Republican-led Congress has so far decided not to enforce them either. It’s now up to the media, to outside organizations, and to whistleblowers to keep reporting the slide into kleptocracy to the public and to the courts, to make sure that remaining laws are enforced." - Kleptocracy, Inc. - The Atlantic - Anne Applebaum - April 14, 2025
It is not just the administration and the Republican politicians either. US and some other western media, have sold their spine to the administration, and refuse to report on them as they would any other administration. Some of this is the administration’s extortion of networks but overall, it’s just plain cowardice from network owners. Government databases are no longer available for the simplest of things and even when they are, we’ve lost faith in any announcement from this administration or GOP-led Congress. The Republicans are doing so terribly, that they are coercing networks like ABC and CBS to either not report on news, or to lie about the reporting to make the administration not appear so corrupt and incompetent. Yes, we aren’t only being lied to, but are being kept in the dark intentionally. Sometimes I wonder if ethics are still taught in journalism. Ethical journalism as the Fourth Estate, is an imperative to American Democracy.
"The Trump administration came into office promising to end federal censorship and government weaponization. Its Jan. 20, 2025 executive orders framed the prior administration’s pressure on social-media platforms as intolerable interference with the marketplace of ideas. But rather than abandon coercion as a tool of speech policy, the administration has redirected it through the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The targets are the intermediaries that structure modern speech markets: social-media platforms, advertisers, fact-checkers, broadcasters, and payment networks. Many of these intermediaries are multisided platforms, meaning pressure applied to one side can reshape incentives across the whole ecosystem. Government officials can therefore influence speech indirectly by targeting advertisers, banks, broadcast affiliates, or evaluators of online content rather than speakers themselves. That is the danger of censorship-by-proxy." - Censorship-by-Proxy: Jawboning in the Marketplace of Ideas - International Center for Law & Economics - Ben Sperry - May 8, 2026
For those of us not blinded by influence campaigns being run by the GOP with Russian assistance for the past couple of decades, we are not deluded by the conspiracy theories, outright lies and omissions that serve as news for Republicans. You and I live in the reality that our family and friends have imposed onto all of us with their vote and right now, that reality is as abusive and un-American as it gets. Republicans are now being abused like the rest of us, and this is why our reality is becoming theirs as well. Nearly as many Republicans depend on social safety net programs as the left. Those GOP voters are finally getting it through their thick heads that they were conned, and that their party doesn’t give a damn about them. Welcome these folks back into our herd if you get the chance. Every vote will count come this November.
Even though that many Republicans are beginning to understand our long-held convictions about them and their party, I will introduce a fact into our reality that plays a role in November. During all my years in CT or Counterterrorism, I have had the opportunity to review a great many de-radicalization or countering violent extremism programs and to be frank, the success rate for rehabilitating fully committed extremists and violent extremists, is absurdly low. Once someone’s identity has been so completely brainwashed that they will act on their extremist beliefs publicly, their recovery chances are slim or none. Those believing in and acting on conspiracy theories and radical ideology publicly, like Project 2025, are by definition extremists attempting to overthrow our constitutional republic. Those involved in the January 6th, armed insurrection, are violent extremists with the same goal and their loyalty to Trump and the GOP brand, are inseparable.
There is no chance that the administration or the GOP will change their ways in a positive manner before the midterms. This is reality. They will also continue to deny us news about what’s going on in America or around the world. The war in Iran and the Persian Gulf attest to this fact. We have little to no idea what is occurring there because between the administration and their co-conspirators who own networks, there is an informal censorship. As one who reads history and has participated in a couple of wars, I find the reporting on the Iran War abysmal. Stories are suppressed, facts are altered, press briefings are for cheerleading the administration, not disseminating credible information. The Trump administration even went so far as to demand that satellite owners not allow any video or images about the war, to be transmitted to the US. Censorship takes on many forms and this government is employing all of them.
Between the brainwashing of GOP voters and the administration’s censorship, acquiring high-quality news in the US during the Trump era, is far more challenging than at any other time in US history other than the Yellow Journalism Era. It’s no wonder that Republican reality is grounded in the fairy tales and conspiracy theories marketed by liars, conmen (and women) and traitors. Here’s the critical point regarding the brainwashing and censorship; roughly 70% of America is not brainwashed. We must encourage empathetic voters to venture from their sofa and cast their ballot for reality, not the cartoonishly ridiculous lies that are the trademark of today’s GOP and the White House.
Like any other problem that we face in our lives, we must make decisions based on the best information at the time. When we are deprived of credible information or information at all, our opportunities to make informed decisions evaporate as fast as water on a Palm Springs pool deck. Reality is truth. Republicans and the White House are the ones depriving voters of the information required to make the hard decisions we must make, in order to repair the massive scale of damage done to our republic, and its citizens. One aspect of reality that a large component of the Republican voting bloc ignores, is how angry and frustrated we are that we must endure our current disastrous upheaval. As much as I hold my GOP voting family and friends dear, I resent the fact that I must now be the one to stop the insanity of listening to their dangerously aberrant ideology out of politeness. I for one, cannot allow myself to protect their feelings from reality.
I have intentionally made this first essay back a somewhat shorter endeavor. I simply wish to make the point that, we cannot wish away reality. We’re in a helluva jam and the only way out is to return to a point where newsrooms aren’t cowardly and that Republican voters, stop ignoring their shrinking balances in their checkbook, the Iran war on for oil, that America’s racists are now running the very nation secured by the blood of a myriad of all faiths, religions, ethnicities, races etc., and that 70% of the nation is angry with their willful ignorance. While raising my children, there were times when I didn’t much care for their behavior but the one thing that was never in doubt, was that I loved them unconditionally. They grew up into remarkable adults, one and all, and I’m beyond grateful for the wonderful warm relationships we have.
Like my children, we can continue to love our family friends too, even when we don’t very much like them. The relationships may be a bit rough for a while, but we can heal as a nation so long as we all have the courage to operate on truth… and after we get our country back under control. In the meantime, we must find a way to reacquaint those we care about with reality. If not, it’s up to us to find those independent voters and help them understand that apathy is the equivalent of defeat. It is fitting that I close this essay with another quote from David Foster Wallace, that speaks to this point far more eloquently than I do.
"In reality, there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard's vote." - David Foster Wallace, Consider the Lobster and Other Essays
My very best for your weekend and, keep the faith.
Paul