Breaks over...back on your heads!

But seriously...let's get to work

I am not one to wallow

I have had some very tough moments in this life. Lost two men in combat and then a year and a half later lost my pregnant wife to a car accident. I’ve known grief and recovery…or failure to recover most of my adult life.

So…here we are.

I get that a lot of folks are grieving and in shock. Many are absolutely scared for their lives, wellbeing and safety. I know I am in the crosshairs of these folks thanks to my work at the Lincoln Project and continued efforts. There is a reason that Mike Flynn targeted me with a stand alone $150,000,000 lawsuit over a single tweet.

First stop in Iraq in 1991

But I am also an old helicopter pilot and Army planner. I was trained from the age of 17 to fight back. When you lost a firefight or even a battle you had to be trained for years to be ready to assess your situation, figure out the assets you have available, and get back on the mission. It’s just an inherent part of my nature now.

We just took a bad loss. I don’t have the answers why or how we got it so wrong but I don’t have time to wallow in blame games or pointing fingers. We will figure out what happened but we have to do multiple things at once.

They are ready for Day 1

Since leaving office the MAGA movement has been planning for their second chance. They built Project 2025 with millions of dollars and over a hundred far right organizations. They have been recruiting people to take over jobs in the federal government after enacting Schedule F.

Trump just announced that is his first job on Inauguration Day along with his long promised mass deportations, budget cuts, and a long list of truly diabolical plans. They are ready and they are already at work setting up the execution of the plan.

We don’t have time

So, we need to get to work. Even in authoritarian leaning democracies like we are about to find ourselves in, local and state elections matter. We have to start taking back the country one vote, one city, one county, and one state at a time.

Here’s the best part…you don’t have to wait. Thirty states will have local and statewide elections in 2025. You read that right…next year. Oklahoma has primaries for their local elections on February 11th. Virginia and New Jersey are always bellwether states for the first year of a new President. Who can forget the shockwaves that Glenn Youngkin’s win in Virginia sent across the political landscape?

I’d love to go and disappear into the woods or something else. But, you know that’s not my jam. It’s just not who I am at all. We dust ourselves off…and we get back to work.

My new episode of On Democracy with FPWellman highlights this position and the stakes we face. We have incredible progressive governors already stepping up. We have a fight for the House remaining and there is a lame duck session still ahead of us.

We have time to get to work. So…are you in?

I will be reaching out with tangible things you can do but I need you to take a little bit of a break then get back in the fight. Our future depends on it.

I will be significantly more active on this platform. Twitter is a cesspool and frankly more dangerous now that Elon has removed the block button essentially. For my safety and my family I can’t manage that along with the actual threats against us.

I will tell you that we got doxxed for a third time the week before the election. While we have plans and security in place it is still disconcerting to get that call from a security firm that you are at risk.

But, we drive on. The fight is worth it. Your support means the world to me and if you can afford a paid subscription I would be forever grateful. One note…it bills as “UPEND Collective” which is my firm in case you are confused.

Let’s get to work.