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The Faux-Moral Hustle of the Modern Book Burners

​Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick is just the latest political pundit to hop on the bandwagon of Trailer-Park Tories queued up to burn books in the public square. ​I personally lay this at the feet of Ron DeSantis. The common-sense solution to reading material has always been simple: if you don’t like a book, don’t read it. If you believe a specific title is inappropriate for your child, go down to the school, have an adult conversation with their teacher, and request an alternative assignment. But attempting to dictate intellectual access for every single child, parent, and individual in an entire community isn’t just heavy-handed authoritarianism, it is fundamentally un-American. ​Do you want to know what one of the most explicitly rated, raw, and graphic texts in circulation actually is? It’s the Bible. There is a very specific reason you have almost certainly never heard certain chapters preached from the pulpit on a sunny Sunday morning. That omission was deliberate. But bo...
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Five Years Later, the Graveyard Still Wins

  Five Years Later, the Graveyard Still Wins ​Look, you don’t need a high-priced foreign policy fellowship inside the Beltway to figure out what happened in Afghanistan. You just need basic historical literacy and the common sense God gave a mule. ​As a college political science student watching the tanks roll in decades ago, the math was painfully obvious on day one: if the Soviet Union, with all their brutal, scorched-earth military machinery, couldn't bend Afghanistan to their will in ten bloody years, what on earth made our Washington establishment think we were going to pull it off? ​We didn’t. We spent twenty years, trillions of dollars, and thousands of American lives trying to build a modern democracy out of thin air, only to watch the entire paper-mache apparatus collapse in a weekend. ​Now, five years after the chaotic withdrawal from Kabul, we get the latest dispatch from the New York Times: the Taliban is marking its five-year anniversary in power, parading captured ha...
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The Reckoning

The Florida Democratic Party has a once-in-a-lifetime political gift sitting right on its doorstep, and if history is any guide, they are five minutes away from leaving the package in the rain. Let’s not sugarcoat three decades of history: the current administration in Tallahassee has been an unmitigated disaster from day one, preceded by eight years of Rick Scott running the state like a predatory equity firm. Much like neighboring states across the South, Florida has spent thirty continuous years under unchecked Republican rule. What does the state have to show for it? An education system being dismantled for ideological trophies, rising violent crime, crumbling infrastructure, and asphalt-choked urban heat islands that turn entire zip codes into unlivable griddles. In any sane political environment, the Florida Democratic Party would smell blood in the water, pounce on this vulnerability just like Georgia Democrats did, and claw back some dignity. Instead, take a hard, sober look at...
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The Weight of Silence

  There is an ancient maxim of Roman canon law that has echoed through centuries of jurisprudence and political philosophy: Qui tacet consentire videtur, ubi loqui debuit ac potuit. "He who is silent is taken to agree, when he ought to speak and could." It is a legal principle, but at its core, it is an inescapable moral sentence. It posits that silence is never neutral. Silence is not an absence of action; it is a explicit statement of endorsement. When a system, a policy, or a politician moves to strip away human rights, consolidate unaccountable power, or abandon the vulnerable, the individual who stays quiet does not stand on high moral ground. They simply sign their name to the outcome. As we approach the defining midterm elections, this Latin maxim ceases to be a dusty academic phrase. It becomes a sharp mirror held up to the conscience of every citizen. The Personal Politics of Silence In our personal lives, we understand the cowardice of silence. We know what it looks...
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The Ghost of 1955: Why the "Golden Era" is a Lie

​I understand the impulse. I really do. And as someone who believes deeply in the progress of our communities, that is a hard thing to admit. ​When you look at the grinding fatigue of the modern economy, why shouldn’t this generation crave an Eisenhower-esque lifestyle? Who wouldn't want the version of America we see on old television reruns? The dream of a single income easily supporting an entire household. The predictable annual vacation. The neighborhood where everyone knows your name, where crime doesn't cross the property line, and where you don't spend every waking hour worrying about your kids. ​It sounds beautiful. The problem is that it is complete and utter bullshit. ​The idea that the 1950s was a flawless, conflict-free paradise of domestic bliss is a historical hallucination. Every single problem we are wrestling with today existed then. The reason older Boomers, including the President, who constantly heralds a return to a "Golden Age", honestly beli...
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The Day the Leash Snapped

  Good evening, America. For three months, we have been forced to watch the most expensive, most predictable, and most profoundly absurd theater production in modern history: a war built on nothing but executive ego, managed by a spreadsheet, and fought with your children’s lives. But this afternoon on Capitol Hill, the unthinkable happened. The lawmakers in the House finally remembered that they don't work for the King; they work for the Constitution. In a historic 215-208 vote, a bipartisan majority of the House passed a War Powers Resolution to force Donald Trump to end his unauthorized, unilateral war in Iran. After months of feckless floor speeches and procedural cowardice, four Republicans finally grew a spine, broke ranks, and joined the Democrats to put a padlock on the Commander-in-Chief’s playground. Make no mistake: this is the single most significant constitutional rebuke an American President has faced since the Vietnam War. The sycophants in leadership will tell you t...
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Questions?

It’s a heavy thing to carry, the feeling that the ground beneath your feet is shifting. Since the world changed a few years ago, many people are looking around their neighborhoods and realizing the "neighbor" part feels a bit different than it used to. Being a "live and let live" soul is a virtue; it’s the quiet grace of a chaplain. But even a chaplain knows when a sanctuary is no longer providing peace. Pragmatism tells us that life is too short to be unhappy, and optimism tells us that a better life is actually possible. If you’re wondering whether to pack the boxes or stay put, let’s look at these questions with a clear head and a kind heart. Do I feel like I'm in danger because of the current political climate in my community? Our homes should be the place where we feel the safest to be exactly who we are. Mr. Rogers used to say, "Deep down, we know that what matters most is who we are." If the atmosphere in your town has turned from a "beauti...
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