Napoleon once said, “He who saves his country does not violate any law.” Two centuries later, another world leader echoed those exact words nearly verbatim. Those aren’t the words of a constitutional conservative—they’re the logic every autocrat uses to dismantle democracy. So why is half the country cheering instead of recognizing the pattern? Because MAGA has convinced itself the republic already fell to a deep state coup, which justifies any measure—even unconstitutional ones—as restoration rather than violation. But you can’t save a Republic from a coup that never happened. And scholars of democratic erosion will tell you we’re following the exact playbook that killed democracies in Hungary, Turkey, and Venezuela.
An Open Letter to r/Republican on Reddit
I was permanently banned from r/Republican for warning that the precedents conservatives celebrate today become the powers they’ll face tomorrow. Not for opposing Republican values—for defending them. Not for abandoning conservative principles—for taking them seriously. My crime? Making a constitutional argument about executive overreach and institutional constraints from an explicitly conservative framework. Apparently that makes me “anti-Republican.” If raising concerns about abandoning the checks and balances our oaths require us to defend is now grounds for expulsion, then “Republican” no longer means what I spent my life thinking it meant. And that should trouble Republicans far more than it troubles me.
My Oath Didn’t Expire. Neither Did Yours.
In January 1994, I swore an oath to defend the Constitution. As far as I’m aware that oath has no expiration date. I’ve voted Republican my entire life. But I’m now watching conservatives make a catastrophic strategic error: dismantling constitutional constraints to empower Trump, without realizing these same tools—deportation infrastructure, normalized defiance of courts, purged oversight—will inevitably transfer to a Democratic president they’ll despise. MAGA isn’t building durable conservative power; they’re eliminating the very safeguards that protect our values when power changes hands. The machinery they’re cheering today can be repurposed against us tomorrow. So I’m asking you—one veteran to another, one conservative to another, one American to another: Stop celebrating and start thinking. Think about the system you’re building. Think about who inherits it. Think about whether you’d accept these same powers in the hands of a President you despise. Because that’s coming. Not maybe. Guaranteed. Our oath is being tested right now, in real-time. The question is will we honor it?
Things Aren’t as Bad as They Seem; They’re Much Worse
In March 2025, the V-Dem Institute warned the U.S. was “on track to lose its democracy status in six months.” It’s October 2025. We’re there. I’ve been tracking what I thought were three separate crises for months: constitutional collapse, genocide infrastructure, and unchecked executive power. I was wrong. They’re not separate—they’re components of a single, integrated authoritarian mechanism where each requires the others. This isn’t partisan catastrophizing. It’s pattern recognition backed by international democracy monitors, genocide scholars, and constitutional experts. The window for prevention is closing. I’m a U.S. Army veteran and lifelong Republican-voter, and I’m sounding the alarm—before it’s too late.
#NoKings isn’t Hyperbole
Someone on Twitter said #NoKings is just grandstanding from people who lost, that Trump’s power grab doesn’t approach monarchy—but they’re historically illiterate. Most kings throughout history had less power than Trump claims: they couldn’t fire every official, ignore parliaments, or eliminate institutions that constrained them because financial dependency, nobles with armies, and customary law weren’t ideals but survival mechanisms. Trump claims authority to purge agencies, ignore Congress, override courts, and centralize all executive power personally through “unitary executive theory”—control most monarchs never possessed. The Founders fought a revolution against exactly this, built an entire constitutional system to prevent it, and traitors in America are dismantling it voluntarily while calling themselves patriots.
Nobody Boycotting Your AI Cover Was Going to Buy Your Book Anyway
The median indie book earns $300 lifetime—yet the anti-AI crowd demands you spend $2,000 on custom illustration to protect an industry that was never serving you anyway. I searching extensively for evidence that AI covers hurt sales. Found nothing. Not “limited evidence”—nothing. Meanwhile, peer-reviewed research shows readers prefer AI art in blind tests and detect it at barely better than chance. One review bombing case in three years. Zero organized boycotts. Zero sales data showing impact. The people threatening to boycott your AI cover? They weren’t spending $4.99 on your book anyway. Here’s why the math matters more than the guilt trip, what the research actually shows, and why you’re not the villain in this story.
How Not to Build an Author Platform in 2025
I hired a social media brand strategist to fix my Twitter woes and help me build a new audience—she delivered 47 pages of optimized posting schedules, hashtag combinations, and engagement tactics “guaranteed to see results.” The strategy was data-driven, specific, actionable. But I completely forgot to ask one critical question before forking over her fee: how many books will this actually sell? Because I’m launching a book in four months to a completely new audience, and I need to rebuild my platform from scratch. Here’s what I learned about what actually works for indie authors in 2025—and why your “social media author platform” isn’t nearly as valuable as you might think it is.
Colonial Violence and the Monstrous Other
I’m honored to host Dr. Imani Okonkwo’s powerful analysis of Where the Wild Things Are today. What generations have celebrated as imaginative children’s literature, Dr. Okonkwo reveals as “a primer in colonial logic” that normalizes white supremacy and imperial violence. From Max’s appropriative wolf suit to his assumption of kingship over racialized “monsters,” from the erasure of indigenous perspectives to his consequence-free return home, this beloved classic teaches children that distant lands exist for conquest and that white dominance is natural. Drawing on critical race theory and postcolonial studies, Dr. Okonkwo delivers an unflinching examination of how seemingly innocent stories encode and transmit colonial ideology. This is essential, uncomfortable reading.
You Can’t Vote Democrat and be a Good Christian?
I’m a veteran, pro-Second Amendment Catholic who’s voted Republican most of my life. Christians have quoted Scripture to condemn my interracial marriage as “white genocide.” Now they quote the same verses at my gay son. When someone says “you can’t vote Democrat and be a good Christian,” I hear the same biblical arguments once used to defend slavery and ban interracial marriage. Arguments history proved catastrophically wrong. The data demolishes conservative culture war narratives. The history reveals abortion became a wedge issue through political strategy, not theology. And the Bible has far more to say about welcoming strangers than Republicans want to admit. Good Christians can vote Democrat. Let me show you why.
Eco-Marxism for Toddlers
Today I’m thrilled to host Chad Pemberton from The Pemberton Principle podcast for his devastating takedown of The Lorax. What most people see as a charming environmental tale, Chad reveals as “the most successful piece of anti-capitalist propaganda ever produced.” From the demonization of the Once-ler’s entrepreneurship to the Lorax’s elitist activism, Chad systematically exposes how Dr. Seuss taught generations of children that business is evil, profit is dirty, and economic growth destroys the planet. Drawing on Austrian economics and his own experience building (and losing) a sustainable business, Chad offers the free-market perspective The Lorax desperately needs. Essential reading for anyone tired of eco-Marxist indoctrination in children’s literature.