August 15, 2026 - 250 Years - Part 3

A Way of Life.

A continuation of thoughts sparked by our trip to Washington D.C., discussed earlier in Part 2 and Part 1...

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself

I mentioned in the previous part the observation that for a brave people, some of us seem to be quite the opposite. On the other hand, there are many lately who are not. Both Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti fearlessly asserted their freedoms as Americans and paid the ultimate price for it.

Many - more than ever before in this nation's history - in our military are speaking up. Retired U.S. Army General Mark Milley has this to say regarding our president: "He is the most dangerous person ever. I had suspicions when I talked to you about his mental decline and so forth, but now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is now the most dangerous person to this country, ... a fascist to the core." It's worth noting General Milley was the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during Trump's first term. His farewell speech is a stark warning to both those serving in the military and the American public.

Retired Navy Admiral William McRaven - the former commander of U.S. Special Operations Command - has stated publicly that Trump's hostility toward the news media "may be the greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime." Not to mention that Trump has "embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worst of all, divided us as a nation."

The Freedom of the Press is one of the greatest bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained by despotick governments.

The quote above, difficult to read, comes from a more obscure man from the founding of our country - George Mason. According to Thomas Jefferson, George Mason was "a man of the first order of wisdom among those who acted on the theatre of the revolution, of expansive mind, profound judgment, cogent in argument...." The recognition that Freedom of the Press is one of the cornerstones of a healthy democracy is expressed repeatedly by many of our Founding Fathers, and it rings true now just as it did then.

To have someone of Admiral McRaven's stature express concern regarding the current administration's attitude toward the Press underscores how dangerous things are. One of the more prominent attacks occurred on October 16, 2025 when, under Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon attempted to require journalists to pledge not to solicit unauthorized or unapproved information. Almost every member of this country's Free Press that had a press pass granting them access to Pentagon press briefings relinquished their passes and walked out - many leaving offices that they had occupied in the building for years. These included all major news organizations (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, etc). Out of hundreds of reporters only 15 signed and accepted the new policy. I applaud our Press for maintaining their integrity and remain disgusted by the actions of those attempting to implement the policy. Like so many of these foolish and unconstitutional ideas, it was ultimately struck down by the judiciary. Yet, according to major outlets, the underlying restrictions remain intact. The fight continues in court.

Of course, this is only one incident in a long list of attacks against our Press. Trump has publicly threatened journalists with imprisonment for refusing to reveal confidential whistleblowers, Pam Bondi rescinded Justice Department policies that protect journalists from having their phone text records searched by federal prosecutors, malicious subpoenas targeting reporters and their spouses and parents have been issued, The Associated Press was banned from the White House, millions of dollars in foreign aid supporting independent journalism abroad have been frozen, Public Broadcasting has faced significant cuts, the FCC has engaged in regulatory coercion, ordering an unprecedented early review of eight local ABC licenses in response to Jimmy Kimmel's commentary. Depressingly, the list just goes on.

Returning to the brave service members that have spoken up, former Defense Secretary James Mattis and four-star General states that Trump is "the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American People - does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us."

Retired four-star General Stanley McChrystal succinctly stated "I think he is dishonest and immoral." The evidence for both just keeps accumulating. So many of Trump's "promises" have been broken. No new wars, domestic investment, national debt reduction, hell there's an entire Wikipedia Page dedicated to this.

More than a dozen high-ranking four-star generals, admirals, and defense officials have been fired, forced into early retirement, or removed under this administration. This is unprecedented and an enormous red flag for the health of our democratic republic. Top uniformed legal officers (Judge Advocates General, or JAGs) for the Army and Air Force have also been removed.

These are people who have served under multiple presidents - Republicans and Democrats. Their words have weight, and we should listen. And, their words align with their actions as is the case with honest, upright men of integrity.

I'll take a brief detour here to point out that this is one of the anomalies that disturbs me most about the current president and his sycophants. Their actions rarely align with their words. Yet, people seem unbothered by this. I get it, the ambiguous, often contradictory statements are great for blind followers - they can read anything they want into it and hear only the things that align with their hopes and dreams. What concerns me is that this is a very well-known and practiced propaganda technique that arises from Russia. It is called the Firehose of Falsehood. And, the larger impact for people who are not cult-like followers willing to jump off a cliff is that it can overload and exhaust people to the point that they disengage from the situation. It is reassuring to me that this seems to be failing quite spectacularly in this country - no doubt in part due to our Free Press.

Back to our military, though, we also have active service members like Air Force Major Jason Watson going so far as to risk their careers to warn us. There is no doubt that Major Watson knew the potential consequences before taking this action. To do so in spite of this requires a level of concern that is almost difficult to imagine. Of course there are also outspoken critics like Senator Mark Kelly who are being harassed by attempted demotion in an attempt to silence them. How small of a person must one be to try and demote a distinguished service member in response to them stating a core value that has permeated our military since its inception - that illegal orders must be refused. Something that so obviously follows from an oath to the Constitution that the reaction forces one to wonder what kind of country Hegseth thinks he lives in.

Regarding slavery...that slow poison which is daily contaminating the minds & morals of our people. Every gentlemen here is born a petty tyrant. Practiced in acts of despotism & cruelty, we become callous to the dictates of humanity & all the finer feelings of the soul. Taught to regard a part of our own species in the most abject & and contemptible degree below us, we lose that idea of the dignity of man which the hand of nature had implanted in us for great & useful purposes...

The quote above is relevant in the larger context of Juneteenth but also very much so in the way that our current president treats the American People. "Every gentlemen here is born a petty tyrant." How sad is it that Trump and many in his orbit seem to have never become more than the petty tyrant of which we are all born.

Declaring immunity from law, weaponizing criminal justice, defying court orders, purging civil servants, attempting to bypass congressional spending, attempting to bypass the Senate for confirmations, domestically deploying the military, assaulting free speech, intimidating political figures, praising other dictators, and utilizing his position to line the pockets of those who suck up to him, etc., etc., etc. This is so painfully and obviously not the way the President of the Free World conducts himself. Nor is the faux flattery and sucking up that those in his orbit engage in how high-ranking officials in our government conduct themselves.

The other part of this quote is relevant too. We face once again "that slow poison which is daily contaminating the minds & morals of our people." Perhaps more subdued, certainly more subtle and insidious, but the obsession and focus on - the enslavement to - money to the exclusion of all else is proving once again the Biblical notion that "the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil."

At some point very recently in this country’s history, a small group of manipulative, unworthy men convinced enough of our population that this country is all about money, and that we live in a purely capitalist society. This country was not founded on those principles, and it has not espoused nor lived by those ideals. Ever. It is far too dogmatic a position for something as complex and nuanced as reality.

I recommend it to my sons... never to let the motives of private interest or ambition to induce them to betray, nor the terrors of poverty and disgrace or the fear of danger or of death deter them from asserting the liberty of their country, and endeavoring to transmit to their posterity those sacred rights to which themselves were born.

So much of our political system is permeated by "the motives of private interest" these days. We have fallen so incredibly short of the intentions of the founders of this government in that regard. Citizens United, Buckley v. Valeo, SpeechNow.org v. FEC, McCutcheon v. FEC, National Republican Senatorial Committee v. FEC, the list goes on. So many of the guardrails to keep our election process clean have been removed. It is no surprise that it has become utterly contaminated by money.

What is surprising, at least to me, are some of the proverbial phrases that are being regurgitated by some - "money is speech" for instance. A phrase that is so insane that one must assume anyone parroting it has an ulterior motive. The very nature of that notion guarantees a disproportionate influence and weight to certain individuals, undermining the very idea of democracy.

Another cousin of the above phrase is "corporations are people." I put forth that you must either have a screw loose or be a selfish charlatan to make such a claim in the context of a democracy such as ours, for essentially the same reasons above. Such a belief or position lacks any sort of consideration for freedom and liberty.

Of course, it is my belief that the notions above are expressed by high-level representatives and "leaders" in this country that lack one of the most important attributes of those in a democratic republic - a desire to hold paramount the public good. Instead they leverage fear and deception to push agendas and actions that are so often detrimental to even their own constituents. These bills are even often named in an almost comically deceptive fashion - the "Patriot Act," the "Clear Skies Act," the "Healthy Forests Initiative," the "SAVE Act," "Right to Work," "No Child Left Behind," "Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)." The list continues and is depressingly long. When you actually read these bills they have almost entirely the opposite effect of what you would expect from their name. I honestly cannot decide if it is an inside joke mocking the American public or a genuine political tactic capitalizing on ignorance.

As to George Mason's quote above, it is indisputable that many of our prominent, wealthiest "Americans" have chosen instead of "endeavoring to transmit to their posterity those sacred rights of which themselves were born" to be driven by the "motives of private interest or ambition," betraying their fellow man and choosing disgrace instead. The somewhat funny thing is, I suppose, that they do not yet seem to realize it. Although perhaps a few are starting.

Private equity firms are probably the most insidious manifestation of unmitigated greed in this country and a testament to the failures of our government's regulatory responsibility. We now have companies - groups of people - running around, buying other companies that make high-quality items (and have the reputation that goes along with that), significantly lowering quality, gutting them, and profiting off of their reputation while they slowly die. What a pointless tragedy that clearly harms the public good.

Of course, the existence of large mega corporations is another testament to our regulatory failures. You see it all over - with technology companies, ski resorts, banks, so many industries have consolidated into a handful of massive companies. The definition of an oligopoly. And it's no surprise, that's what you get with an unregulated market. All the while some people keep screaming about the free market. Anyone who has taken even a cursory look at economics knows that free markets cannot exist without regulation. Intelligent people tend to also recognize that not everything is a "commodity" that benefits from a market environment. Healthcare is a good example. In an unregulated, free market the incentive for a health insurance company is to not insure sick people. I.e., let them die. To even make this point we had to conflate commodity and public good. Or human right.

All power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people....

Government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people....

One of the most important facts of all, stated over and again by those who founded our government is that all power comes from the people. It is a fact that is often forgotten or perhaps not even believed. We have the power. The power to change, the power to improve, the power to halt and remove officials. The power to repair and restore.

The other quote has also fallen by the wayside - more so perhaps for those selected and elected to serve - that government exists "for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people." Not your own motivations, not your own profit or benefit, and not your own safety. It also doesn't exist for your friends'. It is high time we start finding and placing individuals that understand and embody these notions back into service and exercising our power to ensure they're successful.

To be continued...