There is no patriotism in Tyranny
"Truth hurts, doesn't it?"
TAT readers,
I hope that everyone had a relaxing, albeit contemplative weekend, celebrating what remains of our freedom, and honoring those who have provided it for the past 250 years. Of course, those who voted Trump or Republican this past election, will never understand the weight of that last sentence. How could they, if they voted against America?
Today’s essay will be harsh by some standards and especially so, if read by Trump/ Republican voters. As was popular to say in elementary school when someone told an embarrassing, inappropriate or inelegantly told truth to someone who needed to hear it; “truth hurts, doesn’t it?”
The moral to today’s essay is; We cannot save our republic from the fascists, until we minimize its base of supporters, including all GOP politicians and voters. We must minimize the oligarchs as well, however we have less opportunity for success in that group. Republican voters especially, must be made to understand that it is not just Trump, Putin, Musk or the entire elected Republican party, but the GOP voters themselves, that are guilty of the ever-expanding tyranny, that we all currently live under. “There is no patriotism in tyranny.” If you you interpret this as the GOP is not patriotic, you would be correct. In fact, they are the anti-patriots.
Fascism : a populist political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual, that is associated with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, and that is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition - Fascism, Merriam-Webster online dictionary.
Ordinarily, writing about all of this in-depth, would amount to a series of books. Today, I will make my points and support them with prior essays that address some of the more complex concepts, in-depth. The points in today’s essay will only become clearer with every passing day of this second Republican coup attempt. This piece will also partially reflect the concept of my next full book, to be titled, “Conned,” how the Republican Party was turned against America and democracy.
Onward
Part I, Words have meanings
The Republican Party needs a dictionary. They toss around the meaning of phrases and words as if they don’t own either a dictionary or encyclopedia. Words and phrases like patriot, conservative, coup, freedom of speech, press, assembly, separation of church and state, truth, logic etc. etc. etc., all have existing definitions and meanings. All of these and more, are shape-shifting terms that today’s MAGA GOP narrowly interpret, with their characteristic dishonesty, in order to make them mean what they wish, not what they actually mean. Those converted meanings, support their fake-patriotism and concepts of government that exclusively support what I have termed, The four horsemen of the MAGA Apocalypse: Autocracy, Oligarchy, Christian Nationalism and Violence. As you can clearly see, none of these four categories have a thing to do with being an American, let alone a patriotic one.
As I am oft inclined to say; “people are what they do, not what they say.” Today’s GOP is well-embarked on this second of two coup attempts, with January 6th, 2021 being the first. That is who they are, no matter how often today’s GOP politicians and FOX News-types call them patriots. They have become the supporters of massacring our constitution and especially, our Bill of Rights. Trump and the GOP’s first 100-days, were a full-blown assault on the First Amendment, along with other grievous attacks on the rest of our constitution. Of course, Project 2025, which is the current administrations “playbook” is designed to fully replace our constitution with one formed on the foundation of those pesky “Four Horsemen of the MAGA Apocalypse.”
This last paragraph is intended to clearly state that every last Trump/ Republican voter, knew what they were voting for when they cast their ballots for fascism. They are adults and have no justification for voting for fascism, a term they either fully identify with or have allowed themselves to become desensitized to via their daily doses of extreme, right-wing media, like FOX. Believe me, there is far-worse than FOX but still, it’s the normalization of inviting a fascist propagandist like FOX into their very homes, that turned them into fascists and fascist supporters. In many cases, they were simply, “conned” into believing what tumbles unceremoniously out of the south end, of a north-bound FOX News bull. In no way, is this your grandparents’ Republican Party.
What FOX and the GOP call “conservatism” is in fact, far-right extremism. What FOX calls Christianity, is in fact Christian Nationalism or rather in my research, White Christian Nationalism. January 6th was in professional terms, a mass-casualty, sustained violent extremist attack on our Capital, intended to produce the same results as any other coup attempt. The version of patriotism FOX spews, is anathema to all true patriots and has been condensed by unethical influencers into the now noxious, “God, Guns and Trump,” framing of everything today’s GOP does.
Part II: What Patriotism isn’t
By calculating what today’s GOP and their voters approve of, all we have to do is watch this Trump/ GOP coup unfold via their actions. They have nearly obliterated one of our most important and defining amendments to our constitution; the First Amendment. Without our First Amendment, it would literally be difficult to define being an American. Yet, the GOP wishes to deny all Americans their full constitutional rights.
In many ways, Project 2025 and some of Trump’s EOs (Executive Orders) establish a religious preference. Here in Texas where I currently live, Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Taliban, a.k.a. the Texas Republican Party, violate these rights on a regular basis and increase the pressure almost daily. As I often do, I will use Texas as an example with the following links.
MFIA Fights Texas Law that Limits Free Expression Online | Yale Law School
Protecting Free Speech in Texas: We Need To Stop SB 336 | Electronic Frontier Foundation
Here’s what the law says about protesting on Texas college campuses | The Texas Tribune
Texas’s War on Abortion Is Now a War on Free Speech | Electronic Frontier Foundation
Now for a couple of links regarding this new, anti-constitution Trump Administration, enabled by a subservient GOP Congress and an army of GOP voters:
Donald Trump Is Torching the First Amendment. Judges Are Putting Him in His Place | Vanity Fair
Beware the Attacks on the First Amendment by a Trump Presidency - Media Law Resource Center
The Bully’s Pulpit: Trump v. The First Amendment | Knight First Amendment Institute
How Each Pillar of the 1st Amendment is Under Attack – Krebs on Security
These links, merely are the proverbial tip-of-the-iceberg. I haven’t even gotten to the rest of the Bill of Rights nor the Constitution and the other 17 Amendments. Don’t worry, my essays are long enough and I will not being going into all of that… today. The point is clear though, today’s MAGA Republican Party, is tearing down our constitution under the guise of being “conservative” and our constitutional rights along with it. There is zero truth to what this GOP claims… not one ounce!
In this section, we are not simply looking at what is unconstitutional, but also unpatriotic and downright treasonous. This includes so many aspects of this GOP administration, that no amount of writing would be able to communicate it sufficiently. A couple of the highlights though, should suffice in painting a fascist government, not a patriotic, constitutional government.
This administration has almost fully, reversed our national security posture, globally and domestically. Russian interests have taken precedence over the relationships with our allies. We have been ordered to not engage in offensive operations in cyber and influence against Russia, despite their persistent and ever-growing operations against us and NATO. We treat our allies with disdain and arrogance while engaging Russia with excessive tolerance and deference.
We again abuse our “anti-Oligarchy constitution” by elevating all manner of oligarchy to the highest cabinet positions, ambassadorships and special appointees. Tax frauds, convicted felons, some violent and January 6th thugs who participated in the first coup attempt, Jan 6th of 2021 are among the parolees. As I write this, another set of tax frauds named Todd and Julie Chrisley have been announced as new parolees. Yes, if you’re looking for a personal reason to be disgusted, it is because every single tax fraud makes the rest of us pay more taxes in order to cover what they refused to pay. This is what a Mafioso type tyrant would do. Yes, Trump is a longtime aficionado of mafia figures of repute, and mafia-styled business dealings and operations. There are five factions within Congress that operate on Mafia-styled operations, all Republican but one, that is bipartisan.
As is oft intimated in other journalism activities of credibility, there is also an eugenics thread running through this intentionally cruel administration.
The New Eugenics Authors Samuel R. Bagenstos, University of Michigan School of Law Follow Document Type Article Publication Date 2021 Abstract During the first third of the Twentieth Century, the eugenics movement played a powerful role in the politics, law, and culture of the United States. The fear of “the menace of the feebleminded,” the notion that those with supposedly poor genes “sap the strength of the State,” and other similar ideas drove the enthusiastic implementation of the practices of excluding disabled individuals from the country, incarcerating them in ostensibly beneficent institutions, and sterilizing them. By the 1930s, with the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany, eugenic ideas had begun to be discredited in American public discourse. And after the Holocaust, when it became clear just how much Hitler had looked to American eugenic practices as a model, our Nation seemed to turn away from them in horror. But eugenic ideas and practices never went away, and they have been increasingly prominent during the last half decade. The election of Donald Trump was the crucial turning point, though his election perhaps did more to reveal the lingering eugenicism in American society than to bring it into being. Trump himself has repeatedly endorsed eugenicist ideas. His administration relied on eugenics-era precedents in seeking to bar immigration by those who might become a “public charge.” And both he and his administration—at times explicitly, other times tacitly— endorsed a “herd immunity” approach to the COVID-19 pandemic that subordinated the interests of older people, those with disabilities, and members of racial minority groups to others. These developments highlight the persistence of eugenics in the politics, law, and culture of the United States, nearly a century after the end of the original eugenics era. Or so I argue. I begin, in Part I, by discussing the Trump Administration’s public charge rule limiting immigration. Although the future of that policy is now uncertain following the election of Joe Biden to the presidency, the Trump Administration’s rule powerfully demonstrates the resilience of eugenic thinking in American policymaking. I then turn, in Part II, to the COVID19 pandemic. Trump’s response to the pandemic is best understood as resting significantly on eugenic ideas. But what is more important than Donald Trump’s own actions is that the eugenic ideas underlying them seem to have been widely endorsed—perhaps by only a minority of the populace, but by a large and vocal minority with substantial support from many business and state-government entities. This widespread support for a eugenicist response to COVID is among the most frightening aspects of the pandemic for the long-term moral health of our Nation. Comments Originally published as Bagenstos, Samuel R. "The New Eugenics." Syracuse Law Review 71, no. 3 (2021): 751-763. Recommended CitationBagenstos, Samuel R. "The New Eugenics." Syracuse Law Review 71, no. 3 (2021): 751-763.
The Eugenics issue, like most dangerous Trump/ GOP initiatives are well-hidden from public view, by an obsessively cautious mainstream press. They have been threatened and outside of a few heroic platforms and outlets, most have “bent the knee” to an evil (yes, I mean what I write) to this administration. For those short on history, the Nazis employed Eugenics radically, including the Holocaust.
Background reading:
Eugenics movement on rise in political rhetoric, academic literature
Donald Trump Wants to Make Eugenics Great Again. Let’s Not | Scientific American
In this part of today’s essay, we have focused on the sociopathic and pathological adherence to evil, immorality, absence of American values and the destructive nature of this entire Trump/ Republican administration. If I were to write a million pages in this essay, (God forbid) I would still fall short of enough pages to articulate all of the reasons, that supporting today’s Trump administration and the GOP that enables his every whim, are evil and have no place in American governance.
As most know, I hold no party in favor, disgusted with the oligarchy and massive corrupting dollars involved in party politics. Still, only one of our major parties, observes the constitution, the rule of law and the moral laws of man and nature… mostly. We as American citizens and voters, must put an end to not only this Republican Party of evil-doers, but political parties in general. At a minimum we must free ourselves of Chief Justice John Roberts writings on Citizens United, that permitted uncontrollable dark money into our political sphere.
Certainly, recommendations for future focuses like real, campaign finance reform and enduring enforceable ethics regulations are not possible so long as the Republican Party owns our government, albeit by exceedingly slim margins. What matters now is in Part III and summary of today’s essay.
On to the summary
At this time, the only job that matters is achieving a roadblock to this criminal, treasonous administration (my professional opinion). If we cannot achieve a couple of roadblocks in the very near future, the only way to resolve this lethal threat to our republic, will be civil war and I’m not talking about one with only keyboard warriors.
In order to save our republic, we must do four things and do them well.
Take the fight to each and every single Republican member of Congress, both at their home districts and their Capital Offices, and drag your local media with you.
Highlight their cowardice, corruption, unconstitutional support for Trumpism and the impact it has on every single citizen that is not one of the anointed oligarchs.
Make noise and lots of it. Yes, I get it, I also was raised in rural America where no one spoke publicly about politics or religion.
These are not normal times and we must break with these types of handcuffs on our patriotism. Like the Civil War, there will only be two sides, Trumpists and real Americans.
Along with it, we must challenge all local organizations that are attempting to abide by the GOP’s new unconstitutional laws, menacing our free speech and right to assembly and demand that they abide by the constitution, instead. The price they pay… less business.
Learn about our constitution and history. As noted earlier, don’t depend on politicians to inform you, from either side. The constitution and our Bill of Rights are all available online and along with scholarly interpretations that are easily read by all. My favorite website is, The U.S. Constitution | Constitution Center.
Never let a politician pull the wool over your eyes. Look it up. It won’t take but seconds from any cell phone. Stop watching, reading or listening to any media that only supports one side. Seek truth. Yes, this is much the same as many biblical admonitions.
Harvard, now under constant threats and abuse by the Republican Administration, is offering free online courses regarding the following:
Leadership and Character in Uncertain Times
We must all respectably and with persistence, engage our family and friends that have been successfully brainwashed to accept everything coming out of Trump, the GOP’s, Oligarch’s and Putin’s mouth. I get it all too well what this means to most of us because I have done precisely this. It is fraught with danger, regarding family and friends.
Here’s the deal though, and there’s no way around it, this moment will come now or if this administration continues, in the very near future. Like most medicine, I personally have always preferred to get tough jobs done first, especially if there is no way that I will avoid them in the long run. This is precisely the same and to be quite frank, these talks will be far more difficult the longer that this administration is unfettered. As a suggestion, use this essay and its mountain of credible links as the mechanism for beginning a conversation with the “truth-challenged.”
Finally, I understand that we all took civics in Middle and Secondary School, but that is not enough, and I can personally vouch for the fact that all of us, did not always pay attention in those days. Had my father not been both a history and a government teacher, I would also be less than well-informed until much later in my life. That does not mean that we cannot learn some very basic facts and develop some respectable knowledge about who we are as Americans quickly.
I can tell everyone one thing for certain and will debate any and every challenger willing to take me up on this offer… this trumpian GOP is everything that America is not; greedy, uncaring, cruel, treasonous and abusive for the sake of being abusive. I prefer saying that this GOP is sadistic, which is far more accurate. Most importantly, under this GOP regime, America is no longer a constitutional republic.
Well my friends, this has been a long opening essay for the week and within, plenty of the proverbial, “food for thought.” I will leave you here and with mountains of links to follow should you require them or be interested. My point is not to be a Republican, a Democrat or otherwise. My intent is to help build an America full of Americans who understand who and what we are as a republic, without the propaganda of politicians getting in the way.
Real patriots will not accept anything from this version of the GOP. Those who voted for Trump and their GOP officials are without further truthful knowledge, those who are attempting to relegate America to the dustbin of history.
Those like me, will always stand in their way. If you are still reading TAT after these past few years or as a new reader, you will also courageously stand in their way. I am beyond honored to know all of you and am grateful for your support.
Viva Libertad
(Long live Liberty)
Paul
Paul, keep fighting the good fight! What we need is a simple, yet powerful narrative to change minds and cut through the bullshit. That is our challenge.