Voices for Change

This is the most important midterm election in American history. If the Democratic Party leadership splits the party and the Republicans win, Democrats will go the way of the Whig and the Tory.

It is also a vote for the inspiring possibility of a progressive challenger in 2024.

Now 120 years later, a national tribute to a narcissistic, paternalistic, brutalistic 19th-century robber baron—George Pullman—will soon be built in Chicago. And we, the taxpayers, are footing the bill for his greed.

In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s killing, centrist liberals have lionized the white supremacist, paving the way for a greater assault from authoritarian bullies.

We waded into conflicts in the Middle East we did not understand, propelled forward by fantasy. And our folly spawned a death spiral of political, social and economic collapse, widespread poverty, massive displacement, misery and radical jihadism.

If the American people and the world can find the political will, this U.S. and Israeli defeat by Iran presents us with a chance to move U.S. foreign policy in a more peaceful direction.

Leaving military insularity, unit loyalty, and the pressure of combat aside, however, here are seven other factors I’ve witnessed, which combine to inhibit dissent within military circles.

The civic, patriotic and political language we use to describe ourselves remains unchanged. But the America we celebrate is an illusion.

The truce in Lebanon and the evolving diplomacy that is reshaping the Middle East in response to the genocide in Gaza as the threat of a major regional war is ever growing.

The 25/8 news cycle is already rolling, but the looting of America hasn’t really begun.