I paused my posting for most of July and August—for a reason. I’ve been at work on something.

Good news: I’ll begin to share it soon.

Starting September 8 and continuing through Election Day, I’ll be publishing a new democracy-focused series here on Substack, as well as on Facebook and LinkedIn.

I’m calling it “Vote for Me.” In each post, the “me” is a person who uniquely exemplifies one democratic principle.

In other words, it is a 57-day civic argument built around the stories of eighteen people caught in the grip of anti-democratic forces—each story illuminating a core principle of America’s constitutional republican democracy.

To metaphorically “vote” for each of these eighteen people means reframing how we see our vote. It is bigger than our own policy preferences; more important than past political allegiances. Especially now, our vote can become a gift to the future of American democracy.

Its premise is simple: democracy is not an abstraction.

Individual liberty. Equal opportunity. Due process. Equal justice. Constitutional fidelity. Independent courts. Free and fair elections. Free speech. A free press. Freedom of conscience. Impartial justice. Shared humanity.

These principles matter because they shape the lives of real people.

So every post will begin with a person—and with the democratic principle that person’s story calls us to defend.

Taken together, the eighteen stories make a larger argument: democracy’s principles are interconnected, like the load-bearing beams in your own home. When one weakens, all become more vulnerable.

Together, they make a common plea to those of us in America’s vast quiet middle: set aside policy. Vote first for the constitutional system that makes all legitimate policy disagreement possible.

Vote democracy now, so that someday we may once again be free to vote policy.

The penultimate post, just before Election Day, will gather all eighteen faces into one:

America.

And on Election Day, a prayer.

I hope you’ll read the series.

If it speaks to you, please share it with friends and family.

Really—I hope you’ll pass it on.

We’re talking about America’s future.

Here is my suggestion for what to do next.

Go to whichever AI model you use—ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini, or another—and enter this first prompt:

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Prompt #1 (copy / paste)

From Trump’s election integrity speech last night, draw out and list the core claims he makes, using the fewest words possible.

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Once the model responds, enter this second prompt:

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Prompt #2 (copy / paste)

Analyze the available evidence as if you have no information about my beliefs or desired outcome. Do not infer my preferred conclusion from the wording of my question. Evaluate each factual claim independently, weighing evidence according to source quality, corroboration, primary documentation, and logical consistency.

Explicitly distinguish established facts, reasonable inferences, disputed claims, and speculation. Where the evidence is insufficient, state that the conclusion cannot be determined rather than filling gaps with assumptions.

Then:

List each factual claim separately.

Identify the strongest primary sources.

Rate the reliability of those sources.

Present the evidence supporting the claim.

Present the evidence contradicting the claim.

Identify what remains unknown.

Give a confidence assessment—high, medium, or low—and explain why.

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I expect you’ll find the AI model’s response illuminating.

I give credit to a friend of mine (whose perspective on the current state of America differs considerably from my own) for this exact language. He drafted it directly for the purpose of testing disputed questions of fact through AI.

I could give you the answer I received.

But I think it is better that you do this on your own.

If you doubt the answer from the AI model you use, repeat the exercise with another model.

Better yet, do it alongside a friend, neighbor, or colleague whose political leanings differ from yours. Compare what the models find—and whether they lead you toward the same factual ground.

The moral of the story:

In this fraught moment, AI can be a force for good. It can help us penetrate lies, exaggerations, and unsupported conclusions.

Truth matters. We all must come together to pierce the “alternative fact” silos that have created such distrust and alienation.

Let all of us—from hard Red to hard Blue, and everyone in between—use AI to help us test disputed claims against the evidence as we debate the future of America and the future of democracy.

A song for democracy and the soul of our nation.

May it rise first from the vast quiet middle — we who live between the Reds and the Blues, we who are now the beating heart of America’s future.

Let our voices ring so clearly, and with such hope, that the rest of America cannot help but hear and join in.

We sing to remember who we are:

Neighbors, not enemies.
Patriots, not puppets.
Citizens, not sheep.

America has a true self and a false self — just as we all do. And lately it is the false self that has been ascendant.

I am neither a historian nor a politician. I am simply an American who loves this nation. Over this past year, we have all borne witness to outrage after outrage from our president. For me, my heart’s response has been to write.

What has brought us to this fraught moment?

Let’s begin at the beginning. America’s true self is found in its highest ideals:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all are created equal.”
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
“Government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

But America has always had a shadow side. Even in our greatest moments, the shadow has lurked just behind the light.

The Declaration spoke of equality even as it called Native Americans “merciless Indian savages.” The original Constitution enshrined liberty even as it counted enslaved people as three-fifths of a person.

And in the long years since then — through slavery, Wounded Knee, the Civil War, Jim Crow, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, Joseph McCarthy’s red scare, the violent suppression of civil rights marchers, and the cruelties of our own time — we have again and again been forced to confront the false self that lives beside our promise.

And so we must today. For the shadow has fallen upon us.

Cast outward from the White House, it now darkens the very pillars of our constitutional republican democracy: individual liberty, equal vote, equal justice, equal opportunity, and truth.

But we are not powerless. We are the light.

And on this 250th Fourth of July, let us sing for that light to rise again across this land — to awaken memory, strengthen courage, and call this nation back to itself.

To do that, we must confront the false prophets of patriotism.

For there is no patriotism in cruelty to the marginalized, in the suppression of dissent, in attacks on free speech, free press, and the right to vote, or in enforced purity tests for public servants and party officials. Patriotism cannot mean teaching Americans to fear and despise one another. It cannot mean surrendering our conscience to strongmen, our citizenship to cults, or our country to lies.

America is never finished. It never has been, and it never will be. So even as we celebrate her, let us keep faith with her promise — and continue the work of forming a more perfect union.

That is the duty — and the privilege — of every generation of Americans.

Take note: this will be my last post until Labor Day.

Then, from Labor Day to the November midterm election, I plan to write seventeen times about seventeen lives upended by this administration’s tyrannical actions — from five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, seized by ICE during Operation Metro Surge, to Melissa Hortman, gunned down by an extremist steeped in hate, to Daniel Hodges, the Capitol police officer crushed and bloodied in a doorway by the January 6 mob.

Their stories will carry one unifying theme: Vote for me.

Vote for me: Liam Ramos.

Vote for me: Melissa Hortman.

Vote for me: Daniel Hodges.

A reminder that our midterm vote is, in a profound sense, not only for ourselves. It is for democracy. It is for America.

Will you join me? Let us call America back to itself.

Let us right what is wrong.
Let us stand for justice.
Let us defend every American now living under the shadow of tyranny.

For all of these things, on this July 4th, let us sing —
for the country we love,
for the democracy we cherish,
for the more perfect union we are still called to build.

May God bless America — and may our actions from this day forward prove worthy of her promise.

As America nears its 250th birthday, it seems a timely question.

Do we find patriotism in our “USA” chants at sporting events? In the flags we wear and wave? In our singing of “God Bless America”?

All of these may express patriotism. But none is patriotism itself.

The real thing runs deeper.

Remember that beautiful August day before the Lincoln Memorial, when Martin Luther King Jr. set forth a dream that still echoes in our hearts. Out on an island in the upper bay of the Hudson River, the Statue of Liberty lends that dream a voice: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” And right in our pockets, our pennies bear its quiet promise: E Pluribus Unum.

America is not frozen in time. It is ever changing, ever new — yet always anchored in bedrock principles.

I love America. I always have, and I always will. I was born in Endicott, New York. When I was five, my father was transferred to Toronto, and our family moved there. But I always thought of myself as an American at heart. I grew up enthralled by the American story — the space race, GI Joe, the Camelot Kennedy years, and stories of heroism from World War II. After college in Canada, I returned to the United States and have remained here ever since. Yes, I love America. And, like all true loves, loving America demands much. Certainly more than patriotic feeling; it calls us to the real work of patriotism.

As I see it, true patriotism calls us to three things: gratitude, preservation, and aspiration.

We are grateful for what we have inherited and built here together: a hard-won constitutional republican democracy, a richly diverse immigrant nation, a society shaped by the rule of law, an uncommon energy and boldness, and a deeply American spirit of optimism, generosity, and hope.

But gratitude, while necessary, is not enough. Our nation is never finished. It never has been, and it never will be.

So even as we give thanks for all we love about this country, we are also called to preserve its most essential principles and to keep striving, in the words of our Constitution, to “form a more perfect union.”

That is the duty — and the privilege — of every generation of Americans.

For my own part, I have spent these past six months focused on the work of preservation. It is my belief that we are living through a time of grave threat to our constitutional democracy.

Our democracy rests on five load-bearing pillars: individual liberty, equal vote, equal justice, equal opportunity, and truth. All five are now under sustained assault by our president, his administration, and his party.

To preserve America’s bedrock values and its distinctive form of self-government is patriotism in action.

And we must be vigilant. Our freedoms can never be taken for granted. Indeed, we are engaged once again in that great test Lincoln described: whether a nation conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all are created equal, can long endure with its principles intact.

Patriotism begins with gratitude. It is proven in preservation. And it is strengthened in aspiration.

True patriots ask not only, “What must we save?” but also, “What might America yet become?”

Conservatives of good conscience often answer that question by emphasizing liberty, restraint, order, and the rule of law. Liberals of good conscience often answer it by emphasizing equality, inclusion, and justice for those still left at the margins. Both traditions have helped move America forward.

That tug and pull is not a defect in our democracy. It is one of the ways a free people keeps moving peacefully toward a more perfect union.

Yes, we live in a time when democracy itself must be protected. That is the preservation part of patriotism. But even as we do that necessary work, we are also called to aspire — to imagine a country more just, more united, more faithful to its creed, and then to labor toward it.

That too is patriotism.

Gratitude for the gift. Preservation of the vessel. Aspiration toward the horizon.

May God bless America — and may God bless the patriots in our midst.

Six months ago, Renee Nicole Good died.

Since then, I have written with one urgent conviction: defend democracy.

The other day, a fellow Catholic from my church took me out to coffee and said something I have not been able to shake.

“It seems to me you’ve made your politics your religion.”

Over the past two weeks, through prayer and reflection, I have weighed the charge.

Now let me answer it plainly.

Jesus is my Alpha and Omega — the center of my life. Each day I seek to understand His will and to follow Him. I do not always do it well, but when I fall short, I try to see it, admit it, and seek forgiveness. That is my journey with Jesus — a journey I will be on for the rest of my life.

Now as I see it, the heart of His message is love — love of God poured out into love of neighbor. In His encounters with the Samaritan woman at the well, the leper, and the Roman centurion, and in His telling of the Good Samaritan story, Jesus models a neighbor-love that crosses ethnic, religious, and social boundaries.

In a moment I will draw a clear line from our faith in Jesus Christ to our duty as Christians and citizens to defend constitutional democracy — and from there to the voting choices this hour now demands of us.

I know that may sound dangerous, even heretical. For it is true that Christ has no party. But I believe the circumstances we are now in place a unique burden on our faith.

Give me grace to make the case that the moment we are in does indeed call us to vote a certain way. At each link in the chain, fellow Christian, I ask you: weigh what I write prayerfully. Test it against your faith. See whether it holds.

To begin: Holy Scripture teaches that every human person bears the image of God.

And our Lord Jesus Christ teaches that these are His greatest commandments: love God, and love your neighbor as yourself.

As the Good Samaritan shows us, our neighbor is everyone — every human being on earth.

If neighbor-love is real, it cannot remain passive or distant. Real love seeks for our neighbor the justice, truth, dignity, and protection from domination that we seek for ourselves.

Sin is not merely personal. It corrupts systems as well as souls.

If systems can be corrupted, then the state of a political system becomes a matter of legitimate moral concern.

In a pluralistic modern society, a healthy constitutional democracy is the best available political order for protecting neighbor-love, because it restrains power, honors equal dignity, and allows peaceful correction of injustice.

Other political systems do this less well, because they concentrate power more heavily in rulers than in the ruled, and therefore provide weaker protection against domination.

America’s constitutional democracy was built to restrain the tendency of power toward tyranny — through the separation of powers, the rule of law, and the checks that keep rulers from standing above the ruled.

Tyranny is an assault on neighbor-love. It degrades truth, justice, freedom, and human worth.

America’s constitutional democracy rests on five foundational pillars: individual liberty, equal vote, equal justice, equal opportunity, and truth.

These pillars arise from the equal dignity of persons made in God’s image, and they place moral limits on power. They give public expression to Jesus’ command that we love our neighbor.

If these things are so, then when these pillars are placed under grave and sustained threat, do not Christians have a duty to rise to democracy’s defense?

We may rise in many ways: through witness, truth-telling, solidarity, service, organizing, prayer, sacrifice, and civil courage. All of these are good.

But in the end, the vote is the people’s chief lawful instrument for change. And in times like these, Christian conscience may rightly discern that one voting path better protects our neighbors and the democratic order than another.

In normal times, policy preferences largely shape our vote. Those preferences may rightly be informed by our faith. But when democracy itself is under threat, faith calls us first to protect the system within which our differences can be argued, our rights preserved, and our votes counted — even if, for a time, that means setting aside our treasured policy preferences.

Look around. Are not all five pillars of American democracy under active, intense, and sustained assault? Is not our president, his administration, and his party attacking them from every side? Has democracy not become too inconvenient for them — an obstacle to be weakened?

In such a stricken hour, is staying “out of politics” truly neutrality? Or is it failure — failure to love our neighbor where our neighbor is being harmed?

Policy disputes between parties are simply democracy at work. But when the pillars of democracy themselves are under grave threat, that is something altogether different.

And when the system itself is in peril, must not ordinary policy preferences yield until constitutional democracy is secured?

The argument leads to one inescapable conclusion.

To resist authoritarian acts lawfully, and to defeat at the ballot box the party most implicated in anti-democratic acts, becomes a Christian duty. Why? Because it is rooted in Jesus’ command to love our neighbor.

And in this moment, that duty leads into action.

Our president, his administration, and the Republican Party have mounted a sustained assault on the pillars of America’s constitutional democracy. Under such conditions, Christians in the middle are called to vote Blue — not because the Democratic Party is “the Christian party,” but because, in this emergency, it is the vote more likely to defend the democratic order and protect our neighbors from the harms of authoritarian power.

And that calling does not end with one election. It remains until the Republican Party breaks with its authoritarian fever, renounces this assault on constitutional democracy, and returns to its rightful role as a steward of the republic rather than a threat to it.

This is what I believe.

Where does your faith lead you?

If your faith leads you where mine has led me, then let us rise to the moment. And let us highly resolve: that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.

But watch us. In November, America will cleave the sky with our votes.

A friend just wrote a song — “What If,” by Terry Esau — that says everything I’ve been trying to say for six months. But better. Because he does it by going straight to the heart.

In the song, a homeless man asks us to trade places with him. “What if you walked in my shoes — till they wore holes in your truth?” And then he asks the question I keep hearing again and again in my soul:

“What if you voted for me?”

It is a beautiful plea. It asks us to widen our circle of care.

What if we saw our vote not as a lottery ticket to win our favorite policy positions, but as a gift to our fellow Americans? If we saw our vote as a gift, then the first question would not be, “What do I want most?” It would be this:

“What does America most need from me now?”

The answer, I believe, is clear: to retrieve and renew America’s birthright — our constitutional republican democracy. Face it: the current assault on it is grave. Its future is in doubt.

How long we have taken democracy for granted. How much it now needs our renewed devotion.

It does merit that devotion. Let us never forget: it is the source of our liberty. It vests power in we the people, not in rulers. It was built to restrain tyranny.

No, it has never been perfect. But it stands above all other forms of government in aspiring to secure for the people those five sacred and enduring principles upon which it rests:

Individual liberty.

Equal vote.

Equal justice.

Equal opportunity.

Truth.

And the hard truth is this: our president, his administration, and his Republican Party have for too long been methodically deconstructing that inheritance. All five principles– democracy’s load-bearing pillars– are under such sustained attack that they are beginning to crack.

So what are we in the middle to do?

If we were to vote just for ourselves, we would vote for favored policies. Tax preferences, border preferences, cultural preferences, abortion preferences, regulatory preferences, spending preferences, and the like — whatever cluster of issues most closely reflects our personal convictions.

Under ordinary circumstances, that would be fair enough.

But these are not ordinary circumstances. Our treasured system of self-government is at risk.

When the system itself is under such threat, policy must yield to a higher purpose. When the house is on fire, you do not argue over furniture. You save the house.

That is where we are now.

Let us see our duty as citizens. Our vote is not for us. It is for America.

We in the middle must rise to this moment. It truly is on us. The most solidly Red and the most solidly Blue are largely fixed. Their votes are not the votes that will decide this. We are the ones who hold the power to bend America’s path toward renewal.

Vote first not for favored policies, but for the country itself — for the republic that makes those policy debates possible. Painful though it may be for some of us, voting for America in this hour must mean voting for Democrats.

Certainly in the midterms. Probably in the presidential as well.

Not because Democrats are right about everything. Not because we in the middle suddenly agree with every progressive priority. But because the sorry truth is that the Republican Party has become the principal vehicle of democracy’s deconstruction.

And if that is true, it brings us to one inescapable conclusion. As a lifelong Republican until Trump, I say this with pained conviction. Sending the Republican Party to decisive defeat is not partisan betrayal. It is civic duty.

It is a vote for our neighbor — our fellow citizens — America.

This act comes with a prayer:

If that defeat does come, as I hope it will, I pray the Republican Party is ultimately brought to repentance — that it confronts and admits what it has become, and finally casts off this authoritarian fever that has held it in its grip for so long. So that someday it might return to its rightful role as co-conservator of our constitutional republican democracy: our founders’ “love thy neighbor” gift to America.

Until then, while we still have it, we in the middle will use our vote — not for ourselves, but for America.

Find an old penny. Turn it over. It says: E pluribus unum. Not: in our diversity, division. But: in our diversity, unity. We need to find that unity again. Not conformity, but appreciation of our diversity — and love of country.

It begins with our vote. That is the gift America needs now.

A gift of retrieval.

A gift of renewal.

A gift of democratic rescue.

This is our work, and this is our resolve: that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.

War. Election schemes. Lawless force. Cruelty toward immigrants. Crumbling alliances. New shackles on freedom.

Ask yourself: what price citizenship? Is yours cheap or costly?

Cheap citizenship says: “Give me mine.” “Don’t fence me in.” “Fix my problems.” “Serve my tribe. Punish theirs.”

Costly citizenship says: “I solemnly pledge to uphold and protect the Constitution of this nation — to stand firm against every adversary, whether from distant shores or within our own borders, offering unyielding devotion and total fidelity to its core principles: individual liberty, equal vote, equal justice, equal opportunity and truth.”

We live in a historic moment. Daily outrages unleashed by our president, his administration, and his complicit party batter America’s constitutional republican democracy. Under this sustained assault, its most treasured principles have been left torn and tattered.

Who will come to democracy’s aid in its moment of greatest need?

Grace glides through history on the wings of a fabled few. Washington crossing the Delaware. John Lewis walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge into tear gas and police batons. Martin Luther King Jr., on the night before his assassination: “I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.”

Words and actions that cleave time into Before and After. These are the ones who saw the truth, traced its ominous trend, rose to the call of conscience without counting the cost, and turned a tide that, by all rights, should never have turned.

That’s costly citizenship. When country calls, true patriots pay the price.

What price are you now willing to pay?

Some make sacrifices so consequential they enter the moral memory of a people. But history also bends on the actions of millions of ordinary citizens — people who, in their own spheres of influence, stand tall when others slink away. Consider Minnesota this past winter, when Operation Metro Surge came to our streets. Thousands answered with whistles and phones. Ordinary citizens heard the call of conscience and moved toward danger. Alex Pretti. Renee Good.

Can you hear the echoes of our history? They call out to you: “Do something.”

The campaign contribution. The protest march. The voter registration table. The neighbor-to-neighbor conversation: “Don’t you see? Those policies you care about won’t matter if we lose democracy. I know you’ve always voted Red. But this time, democracy has to come first. This time, you need to vote Blue.”

Whether renowned or unsung, whether a leader or a foot soldier — you are indispensable when destiny hangs in the balance, as it does right now.

Make this promise to yourself: that decades from today, as you share with your grandchildren your memories of these times, you will be able to say you did your part. That when it mattered most, you affixed your signature to the parchment of this nation’s birthright — with time, talent, and treasure.

Toward that end, let us highly resolve: that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.

Consider Ukraine. Consider Minnesota.

Two peoples. Different arenas. Yet in the crucible, each faced the same demand: defend your own, and save democracy — or lose both.

And the people answered yes.

Ukraine has shown the world what it takes to fight an authoritarian force from without: courage, ingenuity, self-sacrifice, stamina. A love of country so great that a whole people has willingly suffered years of war rather than bow to tyranny.

Minnesota has shown the world what it takes to resist authoritarian force from within: moral clarity, peaceful and creative mass action, legal resistance, public witness, democratic solidarity. A love of neighbor so deep that fear, winter, and even bloodshed could not empty the streets or silence the whistles.

The lesson is the same in both places: democracy is fragile. It cannot save itself. It survives grave threat only when ordinary people decide that comfort and normalcy must give way to the defense of freedom.

Minnesota: this past winter, we awakened America.

We showed millions that hate can be defeated by love, tyranny by unity, and anti-democratic machinations by the disciplined courage of a free people. We did it, in the words of Bruce Springsteen, with “our blood and bones and these whistles and phones” — and with them, we stirred the conscience of a nation.

But Minnesota: we must awaken America again.

For the midterms loom.

Our winter fight was one skirmish in a much broader battle. Across this nation, the assault on our constitutional republican democracy continues unabated. Free and fair elections are under attack. The rule of law is under attack. The separation of powers is under attack. The free press, freedom of speech, and the right to protest without intimidation are under attack.

So the question rings out: who will stoke the fire of resistance? Who will stand again for democracy? Who will bring America back to the streets, and from the streets to the ballot box in November?

Minnesota, let it be us.

Doubt not: our president, his administration, and his Republican Party are working in lockstep to tilt our free republic toward tyranny. They advance by pressure, threat, intimidation, distortion, and the steady bending of rules. Watch them gerrymander where they can. Restrict voting where they can. Flood the zone with lies. Attack election workers. Pre-poison trust in outcomes.

All to make us feel powerless. Isolated. Afraid.

We cannot let that happen. We must rise again, Minnesota; we must lead America again — all the way to the ballot box.

Let this be our next Minnesota miracle.

Because we cannot lose this election. We must win. Not narrowly. Not barely. We must win so decisively that no trick can overcome it, so broadly that no lie can explain it away, so clearly that America’s birthright is reclaimed — and the long journey of healing can begin.

Our part is to flip Minnesota’s two most reachable red districts — District 1 and District 8. We will do it by forging a grand coalition:

Minnesota Blue joined with Minnesota Middle.

Let’s be clear: in Minnesota and across the nation, it will not be enough simply to turn out the Blue base. A victory large enough to overcome every trick, lie, and scheme will require the middle.

And the middle can be won.

Not by asking people to abandon every conviction they hold. Not by asking conservatives to become liberals, or independents to become Democrats. But by helping our neighbors see the stakes clearly: this is not an ordinary election, to be decided by ordinary policy preferences or old party habits.

This is a democracy election.

And in a democracy election, the question is not: Which party do I usually prefer?

The question is: Which vote will best preserve our constitutional republican democracy?

Minnesota, it’s on us to build on the moral authority we won this winter. To show the nation the way: Blue and Middle, hand in hand.

Democrats. Independents. Disillusioned Republicans. People of faith. People of conscience. Veterans. Students. Teachers. Nurses. Farmers. Union workers. Small business owners. Parents, grandparents, and first-time voters.

All gathered around one sacred civic duty: to defend the republic.

With whistle parades and coffee meetups, voter registration drives and neighbor-to-neighbor conversations, let us organize. Not only in Minneapolis and St. Paul. In Rochester, Duluth, Mankato, Winona, the Iron Range, Olmsted County, Blue Earth County, Steele County, Freeborn County, Carlton County, Itasca County, St. Louis County, and Beltrami County.

Let us go to college towns and mining towns, lake country and Trump country — wherever Blue voters must be reawakened, and wherever voters who have voted Red may yet prove to be members of the vast quiet middle, ready to hear the call of democracy.

This is our hour, Minnesota.

Let not our whistles go silent. Let not our streets stay empty. Let not the Blue base grow weary. Let not the middle go unreached.

Organize. Mobilize. Work. And win.

Win by a margin no scheme can defeat.

Toward that end, may we Minnesotans highly resolve anew:

“That government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

The ark of the American covenant — the vessel of our values, our constitutional republican democracy — has been seized. In unworthy hands, defiled.

Look around. The signs are everywhere.

The White House ballroom build. The triumphal arch vanity project. The Jan. 6 slush fund. The Hormuz war. Operation Metro Surge. Canada / Greenland / Cuba takeover talk. NATO deconstruction. Putin pandering. Pressure on Ukraine. Endless election tricks. The systematic silencing of critics. The weaponization of the Department of Justice. Epstein.

Chaos-mongering. Self-glorifying. Self-dealing. Corruption-flaunting. Norm-crushing. Democracy-destroying.

One desecration after another.

We in the middle — the vast quiet middle — have had enough.

Had these acts been mere errors of judgment, Mr. President, we might have endured them. America is a tolerant and forgiving nation.

But you have squandered America’s exorbitant privilege. You have disgraced America and sullied its reputation before the world. You have set us back at home and abroad by a generation — even if we succeed in wresting our country back from the grip of tyranny.

That cannot go unanswered.

So come November, we will render our verdict.

We see things clearly now. This is a democracy election. Policy and party preferences must be set aside. First, we must save constitutional democracy.

We in the vast quiet middle will join with Solid Blue.

And together we will defeat you in a democratic landslide.

The truth is grim. Every day brings fresh evidence of democratic harm. We are living through a daily assault on liberty, truth, the vote, the rule of law, due process, free speech, the free press, and the separation of powers.

For a time, with each new outrage, the same inner panic returned:

The sky is falling.

But now, at last, something has changed. We have begun to remember:

We are the sky.

So watch us work to flip Republican House districts from sea to shining sea. Watch us fight for every flippable Senate seat.

We will defeat your party. We will break its hold on the House and Senate. And then, come 2028, we will deny the next Republican nominee the presidency.

We will save our democracy from you and your corrupted Republican Party — until that party has broken with its authoritarian fever and returned to its rightful role as a steward of constitutional democracy.

What is the value of values?

Everything.

Which is why we here highly resolve: that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.

Will you rise, or stay silent?

Our constitutional republican democracy is under grave threat. America cries out for citizens of character and courage to lay down their plows and take up the work of democracy’s salvation.

This is true patriotism: to see the threat from within, and rise to defeat it. As was true 250 years ago, so it is today. Our country needs its leaders in every corner to rise — to pledge their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to the cause of liberty.

Even now, many of us can scarcely take it in. Let us be clear: our first fight is within. We must defeat apathy and any creeping sense of normalcy. These are not ordinary times. These are the kind that test souls and set the course of nations.

Do our eyes deceive us? How can it be that our treasured democracy — our birthright, that shining beacon of liberty to the world — is under such grave assault from our president, his administration, and the Republican Party?

Yet so it is.

The separation of powers is under assault. The rule of law. Due process. Free press. Free speech. No pillar of democracy is safe.

But the greatest threat is to the vote. Face it. Government of the people, by the people, for the people — We are now at risk of losing it.

Consider just the latest reports from the field of battle:

New voter-suppression laws have been enacted in 23 states, echoing key parts of the SAVE Act, currently stalled in Congress.
Reuters reports that off-cycle GOP gerrymandering could hand Republicans as many as 12 additional House seats.
The Department of Justice is demanding voter-roll data from 30 states and the District of Columbia.
Trump has issued an order seeking to federalize voter eligibility and mail-ballot rules.

All with one purpose: to keep power by any means, no matter the will of the people.

And so we are left with one unavoidable conclusion: we cannot wait for the courts to save us. The midterms are too close.

There is only one answer now:

We must win.

Win so decisively that every trick, every trap, every act of suppression is overwhelmed by an uncontainable democratic surge.

And it’s not enough to turn out the Blue base.

If democracy is to be saved, a broader coalition must rise — a grand coalition of Blue and the Middle.

The vast quiet middle. Those who do not live at the ideological extremes, but who have honest eyes and a clear conscience. Moderate Republicans. The reluctant right. Independents. Libertarians. The politically weary. The civically uneasy. Citizens who may not agree on policy, but who can still unite to defend the democratic system that makes peaceful disagreement possible.

And yes, the middle can be won.

Not by asking people to abandon their beliefs. Conservatives will not become liberals. Independents will not become Democrats.

But by helping them see what this election is — and what it is not.

This is not an ordinary election, to be decided by ordinary policy preferences or party loyalties. This is a democracy election.

And in a democracy election, the defining question is not: Which party do I prefer? It is this:

Which vote will best preserve our constitutional republican democracy?

Here, then, good citizen, is your mission:

Find the closest congressional district to you that is currently held by a Republican — and is flippable. Then do something to help flip it.

Call friends. Gather people at a local coffee shop. Write a letter to the editor. Talk to your neighbor. Knock doors. Write postcards. Give money. Host one conversation. Do something specific, in some specific place.

Do it for your country. Do it for your children and theirs.

So that many years from now, you will be able to say that when America faced its greatest crisis since the Civil War, you rose and did your part.

And let us pray that millions will do the same — so that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.

Just today missiles and drones are flying again, ships and oil depots are being hit, and the price of oil has shot higher. We can’t predict exactly how this war will end—or what its after-effects will be—but we know this: our destabilizer-in-chief has set loose a firestorm of unintended consequences.

What possessed him?

Was it really that Iran was on the verge of a nuclear bomb? Or was it to distract from scandals at home? Was it to trigger a “rally around the flag” response? Or was it simply to witness the spectacle—the technicolor rush of American might?

Whatever his motive, the result is the same: a cascade he was utterly unprepared for.

The drone and missile attacks on Gulf states.

The closing of the Strait of Hormuz.

The economic consequences now descending upon the American consumer.

The ever-widening blast radius—spilling across the Gulf, the broader Middle East, Europe, and Asia.

And now the second-order effects are stacking up—because he didn’t think it through.

Just this past August, Ukraine’s Zelensky offered to brief the Pentagon on drone warfare—and even share interceptor-drone designs—so the U.S. could harden itself against exactly this kind of threat. He turned him down.

He didn’t think through how this war would strengthen Russia’s hand—or how it would compromise Ukraine at the very moment it had begun to regain the initiative.

He didn’t think through how this war would be tracked by satellite and studied by China—step by step, from logistics and supply to strike patterns—feeding a new trove that can recalibrate their readiness.

He didn’t think through what this would do to fragile alliances in the Gulf—or what energy shocks would do to Europe—or how instability would ripple outward into Iraq, into minorities, into conflicts we’re not even naming yet.

And he didn’t think through this either: how years of abusing allies and destabilizing relationships would make them less willing to help clean up his mess.

And the truth is, this war isn’t an isolated lapse. It’s one more link in a long chain of reckless decisions.

So now America asks: what got into us? Why did we let this man pull his faux-fierce mask over our eyes—again?

Yes, we have regret. But for the vast quiet middle, regret is shifting—fast—into resolve.

Because the mask he sold us, the mask we ourselves hid behind—that mask born of weakness and worn by a tyrant—is cracking.

Can you hear it?

The gaping hole this war will blow in our deficit: crack.

His desperate attempts to rig the midterms: crack.

Cherished American norms ravaged: crack.

Due process shredded: crack.

Allies abused: crack.

Dissent demonized: crack.

Neighbor-vs.-neighbor hate-mongering: crack.

Crack, crack, crack.

Here’s the good news: each crack reveals more of America’s true face. With eyes unclouded, now we see.

Now we see that behind his false bravado, his faux-fierce mask, all that’s there is a fragile, petulant ego.

It leads us to admit a harsh truth about ourselves: that we were complicit. We let him pull that mask over our faces because it helped us hide our own fragilities—our own fears. Fear of change, fear of complexity, fear of those who look and think differently from us.

Maybe we fell for his version of “greatness” because it was easier to live off old glory than to do the hard work of renewal.

Maybe we bought the “we/they” scapegoating because hate felt easier than love.

No more. The reality we now see has evoked in us remembrance. We’ve begun to hear the echoes of our roots. Our heritage. Our truth.

“I have a dream…”

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all are created equal.”

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

“With malice toward none, with charity for all…”

“Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”

Do you feel the call, you who live in the vast quiet middle? Are you ready to rise to this duty of citizenship?

Now is your time.

NOW: To resist tyranny wherever it presents, in whatever ways your circumstances allow—by every peaceful means available.

NEAR: To win the midterms decisively, in a wave election for democracy—defeating every attempt to subvert the vote.

FAR: To do it again in the presidential—so that through sustained defeat the Republican Party might be broken of its authoritarian fever and returned to its rightful role as co-conservator of our constitutional republican democracy.

Let this be our pledge—the pledge of we in the middle:

“That we here highly resolve… that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” wrote George Santayana.

Remember this: more than 60 million people died in World War II.

Remember the evil of fascism.
Remember the price paid to defeat it.

We stand on the shoulders of the Greatest Generation, who loved America enough to know its system of government was worth fighting for. They understood themselves to be fighting not only for American survival, but for freedom, democracy, and a world not ruled by fascist tyranny.

They fought for “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” They understood that our constitutional democracy is our great national treasure, and they were willing to die to defend it.

Hitler’s early breakthrough came from many factors. But one of the most potent was propaganda. In Mein Kampf, he wrote:

“The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small… all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans… Its task is not to make an objective study of the truth… its task is to serve our own right, always and unflinchingly.”

Do you hear the echoes?

Sloganize. Scapegoat. Lie. Distract. Accuse. Dehumanize. Demand blind loyalty. Replace citizenship with obedience.

Here’s a simple test.

Review the following attributes of fascism. This list is a synthesis of widely cited scholarship on fascism, including Britannica’s summary of fascist movements, Robert Paxton’s The Anatomy of Fascism, and Umberto Eco’s “Ur-Fascism.”

Read them slowly.

Then ask whether you hear echoes in the actions of our current president, his administration, and his party.

Extreme Nationalism — The nation is treated as sacred, superior, and under threat.
National Decline and Rebirth — A story of lost greatness, betrayal, humiliation, and promised restoration.
Authoritarian Leadership — A strongman claims unique power to rescue the nation.
Contempt for Democracy — Elections, checks and balances, courts, and pluralism are treated as obstacles to power.
Scapegoating — Internal “others” are called enemies and blamed for the nation’s problems.
Purity Politics — The “true people” are defined against outsiders, minorities, immigrants, or dissenters.
Glorification of Violence — Force is romanticized as cleansing, heroic, or necessary.
Militarism — War, domination, discipline, and sacrifice are elevated as civic virtues.
Suppression of Dissent — Critics are treated as enemies, traitors, or threats to be silenced.
Propaganda Politics — Spectacle, slogans, myth, and repetition replace reasoned debate.
Disregard for Truth — Facts are subordinated to loyalty, power, and the movement’s narrative.
Anti-Intellectualism — Experts, journalists, scholars, and independent institutions are attacked.
Hierarchy and Domination — Equality is rejected in favor of rank, strength, loyalty, and control.
Fusion of Leader, Party, and State — The ruler’s will is equated with the nation’s will.
Extra-Legal Intimidation — Militias, mobs, or loyalists are used to threaten opponents outside normal law.

Fascism spits at America’s founding promise:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all are created equal.”

It destroys due process.

The rule of law.
Free speech.
Free press.
Free religion.
Free and fair elections.

Do we not hold these dear?

It does not destroy them all at once.

It corrodes.

First come the slogans.
Then the scapegoats.
Then the attacks on truth.
Then the weakening of institutions.
Then the capture of courts.
Then the intimidation of opponents.
Then the normalization of state power against citizens.
Then fear.

Just fear.

We still have time to act.

But let us be honest: democracy is not winning.

So rise. Speak. Organize. Vote.

America needs you.

The foiled attack on our president at the White House Correspondents Dinner demands exactly that.

No conspiracy theories.
No jokes.
No minimization.

Violence is never acceptable. No matter who is its target. We in the middle who have joined the resistance have a special duty in this moment: to condemn violence with piercing clarity.

We joined this resistance because we believe our president is attacking core pillars of our constitutional republican democracy. But if we are to remain true to that cause, we must reject political violence without hesitation and without exception.

We will not mirror the hatred we oppose. Never. And we will condemn all who do.

Our purpose is to defend democracy.
And with it, truth. Liberty. The equal dignity of every person.

If we are ever to return America to civility, we must model civility. Which, at its most basic, requires that we speak out against violence towards our opponents.

No evasions. No indulgence. No excuses.

We see the fault of that now. Keep the peace? That would be to acquiesce to tyranny.

No: we must choose truth over peace.

In this hour of peril to America’s birthright, the call of citizenship is clear: speak the uncomfortable truth. Crack the complacency. Make good trouble. Force the reckoning.

This is the cost of resistance.

This is what I believe:

I oppose authoritarianism in every form. ICE surges. Wars of impulse. Threats to free speech, free press, and free and fair elections.

As someone who is center-right and voted Republican for most of my adult life, I believe our current president, his administration, and today’s Republican Party are systematically attacking core pillars of our constitutional republican democracy.

When those pillars are under assault, silence is not neutrality. It is acquiescence.

And so I write.

On Facebook. On LinkedIn. At my new Substack, WeTheMiddleVote.substack.com. I’ll post anywhere I can. I don’t matter, but the message does. And I want it to reach as many as possible.

I write to call forth the vast quiet middle—those neither deep Red nor deep Blue—who know something precious is being lost and want a clearer path forward:

To understand the threat.
To name it.
To resist it.
To vote against it.

If this work speaks to you, join me.

If this work ruffles feathers, so be it.

You in the middle, I implore you: don’t acquiesce. Don’t let pleasantry trump principle.

If ever there were a time to crack the complacency, make good trouble, and force the reckoning, that time is now.

American democracy is in crisis, and I cannot in good conscience look away—nor ignore the calling of my faith.

Jesus commanded us to love God and love our neighbor. These are His greatest commandments. They are meant to guide not only our private lives, but also our life together.

If love of neighbor is the organizing principle of a just society, then the character of our government matters profoundly.

A society shaped by dignity, justice, mercy, honesty, compassion, equality, peace, service, responsibility, and love will strengthen and enrich its people. A society shaped by cruelty, lies, corruption, dehumanization, oppression, exploitation, domination, propaganda, lawlessness, contempt for the vulnerable, and worship of power will weaken and diminish its people.

This is why America’s constitutional republican democracy matters so much to me. It is the form of government most shaped by what love of neighbor requires: equal dignity, bounded power, protected rights, and a voice for the governed.

America’s democracy is not sacred in itself. But because it is ordered toward protecting the God-given dignity, freedom, and equal standing of all people, its purpose is sacred.

I can’t wish away the bitter truth: that purpose is being diminished before our eyes.

I see it in our current president’s reckless attraction to war, his contempt for the courts, and his attacks on the rule of law. I see it in immigration actions so sweeping and disproportionate that due process itself is cast aside. I see it in threats of devastation hurled across the world. And in the weakening of the alliance of free nations. And in the normalization of lies, the styling of cruelty as strength, and the lust for unchecked power.

Which leads me to ask, in prayerful reflection:

Where is the Church’s prophetic voice? Why does so much silence hang over a moment that seems to call for moral clarity? Where are our religious leaders?

Pope Leo has stepped up to this moment. So too a few others. But far too few.

I believe we followers of Jesus are called to boldly bring our faith into this fraught moment in America. I believe our Church must be challenged to speak with unwavering courage and clarity about justice, truth, mercy, and human dignity. Its role is not to become a party instrument or tell people how to vote. But it must never lose the courage to bear witness to love, and to name hatred, injustice, and tyranny for what they are.

Our nation is diverse. The Christian voice is just one part of this great choir called America. But we too must sing. By God’s grace, may our voices drown out the discordant voices of hate. May we join with other voices of love in a hopeful chorus:

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years,
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!

America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!

America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And every gain divine!

The “this-isn’t-normal-politics” troubling of my heart had already begun: the darkening rhetoric, the assaults on democratic institutions, the militia buildup, the surge, the cruelty and violence. Then came the shot. Then Kristi Noem: “She’s a domestic terrorist.”

Sitting in our family room with my wife and daughter, watching Noem on television, I shouted four swear words I almost never say. Not under my breath. Out loud. Very loud.

In the days that followed, poet Mary Oliver’s question floated in the forefront of my consciousness:

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

And I knew.

Right then.

I would become a foot soldier in the fight for democracy.

I’m not deep Red. I’m not deep Blue. I’m in the middle. Part of the vast quiet middle.

I would seek to mobilize the middle.

For most of human history, tyrants ruled. Kings. Emperors. Warlords. Whole societies organized around force. The strong dominated the weak. Religion used to sanctify power. Ordinary people: pawns in the power plays of kings.

Then came America.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.”

How words can change the world.

Here was a staggering idea: that power might flow up from the people, not down from the throne. That a nation might be governed not by fear alone, but by moral principle. That citizens themselves would be the guardians of liberty. This was– and is– the promise of American democracy.

We have never fully lived up to those words. But across the arc of our history, they have called us higher.

They stirred Washington in the fight for independence. Lincoln in the fight against slavery. Susan B. Anthony in the fight for women’s rights. Martin Luther King Jr. in the fight for civil rights. They echoed in FDR’s struggle to lift average Americans and defend democracy against fascism abroad.

All along the way, however, in the shadows of the American story, an old lie has lurked: the lie of tyranny.

Tyranny has its own words.

Words that divide people by blood and tribe.
Words that rank human worth.
Words that make the cruelty of a strongman sound like strength.
Words that turn fear into hate’s permission.

Again and again, America has faced down the lie. With slavery. With the Klan. With Jim Crow. With our fascist sympathies, rising up from our skin in the 1920s and 30s like a cyst. Again and again, the better angels of our nature have been called to the duty of citizenship: to rise and fight back.

Now again we face the test.

Because Trump is not just another partisan figure. He is the latest face of that defect– that tyrannical fever – that still lurks in our American national character. He’s the latest to land upon the secret words— the ones most custom-fit to evoke fear and hate.

In Trumpian tyranny, words are weapons. Lies are tools.

See it in the weaponry:

“Real Americans.”
“Make America Great Again.”
“Law and order.”

“Illegal immigration.”
“Thugs.”
“Murderers.”
“Rapists.”
“Scum.”
“Animals.”

See the tool in the lie of fraudulent noncitizen voting– tooling the fight for voter suppression laws.

See the tool in the lie of undocumented immigrant crime– tooling the draconian militarized measures to expel long-standing, upstanding residents not yet with full legal status.

This is the language that tills the soil for tyranny.

See it? See how he wraps his tyranny in the emperor’s clothes of Christian nationalism, as if domination could borrow the moral authority of Jesus. It cannot. There is nothing Christian about bigotry, cruelty, or the lust for power. There is nothing patriotic about undermining the very democratic ideals that made America worth loving in the first place.

America’s moral standing in the world as a beacon of liberty is nothing to him. His America is First. The Winner. A strongman nation in a brutal world—unbound by moral obligation, loyal only to its own advantage.

No, Trumpism is not a vision of ordered liberty. It is, quite simply, a vision of tyranny. Power over opponents. Power over institutions. Power over truth. Power over the weak. In his world, morality is for suckers. Only might makes right.

Which is why he is so determined to tear down our constitutional republican democracy. It stands as the absolute antithesis of his entire tyrannical vision.

These have the power to destroy him, and he knows it:

Equal vote.
Equal justice.
Free speech.
Free press.
Freedom of conscience.
The rule of law.

Separation of powers.
Truth.

He attacks these because they are the moral architecture of a free people. Tyranny hates morality.

We the middle see it now.

We hear our call to citizenship. .

We know Red will not lead this fight.
Blue cannot do it alone.

And so we rise.

NOW: We will resist—peacefully, courageously, and persistently—in every way our circumstances allow.

NEAR: We will mobilize the middle and join with others to deliver Trump and the Republican Party a crushing defeat in the midterms—not simply as a vote for policy, but as a vote for democracy itself.

FAR: We will do it again in the presidential election, delivering so decisive a defeat that the fever of this movement might finally break—and the Republican Party, in the humility of defeat, might yet reckon with what it has become and return to its rightful role as a co-conservator of our constitutional republican democracy.

And as we take up this fight, we do so with this solemn pledge:

“That we here highly resolve… that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

We are the vast quiet middle.

Do you hear the cry of our beloved country?

Our nation is under assault. An assault directed at our constitutional republican democracy. Regardless of whether you are Red or Blue, this should knock you to your core.

In just the past couple of weeks, we’ve witnessed:

War unconstitutionally initiated without Congress’s approval.

Desperate attempts to pass a voter-suppression bill built on lies, with dismantling the filibuster on the table as a means to achieve it.

An FCC chair threatening to revoke licenses from broadcasters who don’t portray the war favorably.

Continued mass deportations, disregarding due process.

Major media channels consolidating under billionaires aligned with Trump.

And that’s just the tip. This threat is a clear and present danger to the character of our nation. Where does it come from? Our president. His party.

And yes, his supporters.

Red America, listen.

We see your pain—there’s no mockery here. The economic strain, cultural upheaval, and history of being overlooked are real. Yet your outrage, so understandable, has morphed into a dangerous cycle. It’s been building for some time, reflected in your daily spikes of righteous indignation and the dopamine hits they deliver. We notice it in those “we’re the good guys, you’re the enemy” narratives you promote online and amplify on podcasts.

Yes, Blue America has mimicked the cycle. And yes, Trump has had your loyalty. He was the first to truly see you. We understand that. He spoke to your pain—that’s how he broke through.

But over time, he has begun– more and more– to take advantage of you.

I know you may not see that right now. But he has.

He’s learned how to exploit your struggles and feed your cravings, offering a quick fix of outrage. His tactics—the norm-breaking behavior, the cruelty as entertainment, the promises to make “them” pay—are all crafted to give you that fix.

But here’s the hard truth: your fix feeds his fix.

He needs to manufacture your outrage every day. It’s the only way he can keep you engaged, which sustains his power.

You see, Trump is addicted too—addicted to power. And like any drug, once power becomes your addiction, you need ever larger doses to feel normal. That’s how addiction works.

But now it is spiraling out of control.

See his attacks on elections.

See his attacks on the press.

See his attacks on dissent.

Each day Trump takes more steps to dismantle democracy’s boundaries. Our constitutional republic was designed to restrain power. That’s its greatest gift. In its checks and balances, it ensures our fiercest debates are settled peacefully.

With every guardrail he breaks, he does real harm to you. And us. And yes, Blue America too— all equally.

It’s not to say Trump’s every action has been malicious. He’s advanced your policy agenda too. He was elected; he gets to do that. If that was all he was doing, we’d never be here with you.

But that’s not all he’s done.

In his first term, Trump tested democracy’s constraints–but they held. Barely. This time he’s come prepared, supported by allies. Attacks are underway against democracy’s most precious pillars: free and fair elections, free speech, a free press, separation of powers, protection of dissent, the rule of law, and due process. Each day, more cracks appear on every one of these pillars.

And if we allow democracy to fail– what’s left?

Tyranny.

Tyranny weakens. Tyranny kills. It’s the opposite of freedom.

It’s what we rose up against when our forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago. What is patriotism if not to defend against tyranny?

Let this break through: to support Trump’s authoritarian agenda is the antithesis of patriotism.

Red America, you have legitimate needs. They deserve real solutions—ones delivered within the boundaries of our constitution. But your leader has broken those sacred boundaries and, in doing so, broken faith with America’s fundamental values.

We in the vast quiet middle will not stay quiet. To be quiet would be to be complicit. We rise together to defend our country in its hour of need. We hope you’ll join us.

So consider this our intervention.

Stop. Stop giving Trump his fix by fueling his power with your outrage. This isn’t treason against your beliefs; it’s an act of courage and your responsibility as a citizen. Withdraw your support until he agrees to rule within constitutional boundaries.

By taking this path, you enter your own recovery—you support the recovery of other Americans–and help heal America itself.

Let me be specific: vote for democracy.

Yes, this means voting for Democrats—even though doing so will clash with your policy beliefs. You’re not doing it to support their policies. You’re doing it so that the Republican Party faces overwhelming defeat. How else to purge it of the authoritarian fever brought upon it by its leader?

Whether you join us or not, we in the middle will fight. We will fight for democracy with actions taken in the now, the near and the far:

NOW: We will resist every anti-democratic act—in whatever ways our circumstances allow.

NEAR: In the midterms, we will work to deliver such a significant defeat to Republicans that it compels a real reckoning.

FAR: We will strive to do it again in the presidential elections—until the fever breaks and the Republican Party returns to its rightful role as a co-conservator of our constitutional republic.

Red America—you are our brethren. If you truly love America, you love the thing that most makes America great: its democratic system of government. That sacred system is under attack. Rise to your patriotic duty. Demand that your leader respect the flag—and the republic for which it stands—or step aside.

Just one word to Blue America:

One day, you too will hold the seats of power. Know this: we in the vast quiet middle will then demand the same from you. That you never succumb to power’s temptations. Respect and defend the blessed constraints our democracy has established–no matter what.

Because they are for all of us.

And so let us unite in our resolve: that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from this earth.

Read our President’s words and weep. Don’t look away.

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” he said just today.

“Open the F___’n Straight, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell—JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah,” he posted Sunday—his Easter message to the nation and world.

America, will you join me? Fall to your knees. Acknowledge with me the chaos we have wrought.

For he was our choice—despite all we knew. Some fault line in our national character led us to invite him back. Now we suffer in a purgatory of our own creation. And we will remain in this suffering until, through our votes, we begin penitence—and the long journey of return.

It beggars belief how utterly our president has shattered America’s standing in the world. No sworn enemy could have done more. It’s as if each day he throws America against the wall of the West Wing dining room and watches as we slide downward toward the floor.

Vast quiet middle, this is your moment.

By God’s grace, your grip on false hope has finally been released. You now see the horrific truth. All across our beloved nation, we see you rising to the duty of citizenship.

It is good. Because now is your moment to join the resistance. You have a vital role to play—now, near, and far.

NOW:

Peacefully resist every authoritarian, world-order-shattering, norm-destroying act of this president, his party, and his administration—by whatever lawful means are available to you.

If you are an officer in the military and you are given an unlawful order, refuse it. You must follow lawful orders—but you also have a duty to refuse what is clearly unlawful under the UCMJ and the Constitution.

If you are a lawyer, volunteer your time to fight this administration’s violations of the rule of law in the courts.

If you are retired, walk the streets in your neighborhood. Hand out flyers calling upon good people to come to the aid of their country. Help Republicans and Independents in the middle recognize the magnitude of our crisis—and their duty to rise as patriots and act.

All of us—within the circumstances of our lives, and blessed with gifts uniquely our own—can make some difference somewhere.

NEAR:

Mobilize the vote. We have just seven months until the midterms.

Reach out to friends and associates everywhere. Make the case that this is not the time to vote for favored policies—whether abortion, immigration, taxation, gender and sexual orientation issues, or anything else. Save those fights for later.

Because something more fundamental is at stake now: our American way of life. Our constitutional republican democracy—the source of all the good America has ever done. For it’s all in grave danger.

The way we first begin to save democracy is to vote for democracy in the midterms. That means voting for the Democratic Party—the party most committed to saving and rebuilding our clinging-to-the-ledge-by-our-fingernails democracy.

We must win. We must win big—by a margin so decisive that no meddling, and no false claims of fraud, can gain purchase. It’s on you, vast quiet middle, to lead us to victory.

FAR:

And then, in the presidential election, we must do it again.

Let we in the middle join forces with those who already vote Blue to become a vast and mighty force for righteousness. Let us unify around our love for America, and carry the Democratic candidate to decisive victory– and the Republican candidate to a crushing defeat.

The sad truth is this: the Republican Party has become a breeding ground for tyranny. This party I once called my own will only be reformed by sustained defeat. Only defeat will produce the self-reflection that leads to surrender and repentance and renewal—like the alcoholic who finally hits rock bottom.

Tyranny has caught America by the neck. But we in the vast quiet middle are prying the claws off. We will defeat the force of tyranny with a force even more powerful: Love. The fierce kind– the kind that forms our patriotism. The kind that hears the call of our heritage. The kind of love that cries out: “We defy—we will defeat—all those who seek to slaughter our birthright.”

Let no one doubt our determination.

Rise up, vast quiet middle. Join with Blue and go save America.

Don’t vote policy.

Don’t vote party.

Vote democracy.

Guided always by this pledge:

“That we here highly resolve… that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

You see it now: that crack in the bell. Can you see how it’s grown? Our treasured bell of liberty is on the verge of splitting in half.

So much has been lost. Each day brings fresh dread as we first check the news. And the fear is, worse is coming.

Still—stubbornly—we cling to hope: that beneath the chaos, the flame of liberty still flickers, and that someday, somehow, America will rise again.

We will soon find out.

In seven short months, we vote in the midterms. Then, in 2028, we vote for president. These two elections will decide whether America remains a constitutional republican democracy.

Here is the hard truth: the road to those elections will be tumultuous.

Expect multi-point pressure on election administration.

He has pushed the lie of noncitizen voting to advance the SAVE Act.

He’s called to “nationalize” elections.

His administration has sought voter-roll data and intervened in election records and voting systems in multiple jurisdictions.

Expect a flood of “fraud” claims.

These claims will be made to poison trust in the outcome.

Expect diverse efforts—before and after Election Day—to delegitimize results.

That is why these midterms must be decided in a landslide—so decisively that the outcome lies beyond the reach of procedural sabotage and conspiracy noise.

How?

Only if you make it so.

You—the vast quiet middle.

Let me be plain.

For years, you have lived your life outside the Red/Blue cage fight. But now your conscience has been shaken by the recklessness—and the authoritarian tilt—of this president, his administration, and his party.

You in the middle are diverse.

Your life experiences have formed your convictions.

Just as mine have formed mine.

My Catholic faith and seventy years of life have shaped me—against abortion, for universal health care, wary of business overregulation, for a fair tax system and a strong safety net. Your convictions may well differ sharply from mine.

In a healthy democracy, that is not a flaw. That is the point.

But none of those policy fights matter if democracy fails.

Policy can only be contested inside a functioning constitutional order—where elections are trusted, the rule of law binds rulers, courts are independent, the press is free, and power can be transferred peacefully.

If those guardrails fail—if authority becomes unaccountable—then what remains is raw power. Policy becomes whatever the strongman says it is.

So for the next two election cycles, I implore you: listen to John F. Kennedy—“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”

Then do not let policy get in the way of your vote.

Vote democracy.

What does it mean to vote democracy?

It means voting for free and fair elections, the peaceful transfer of power, the rule of law, a free press, and constitutional limits that keep leaders from becoming kings.

And yes—this time, in practice, it means voting the Democratic ticket: the party most committed to retrieving and repairing our democracy.

By voting Blue, many of us will vote against policies we cherish. Republicans and independents, I get it. I too was once counted in your number.

But in 2026 and 2028, our vote is a moral act: a sacrifice of personal preference in service of a greater love—our love for America and its birthright.

The future of America rests on you—the millions in the middle who can still see political opponents as neighbors. You who love America enough to endure policies you dislike in order to save the system that lets us disagree without violence.

So, vast quiet middle:

Don’t vote policy.

Don’t vote party.

Vote democracy.

Love of country demands nothing less.

“That we here highly resolve… that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”