View this post on the web at [link removed]

“Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight
Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
An’ for each an’ every underdog soldier in the night
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing”
~ Bob Dylan, as performed by Warren Zevon
This weekend, the 2025 version of Republican “patriotism” will be on full display. Draped in Alligator Alcatraz T-shirts, waving, “Don’t Tread on Me” knockoffs from Chinese factories, and stuffing their faces with hot dogs, apple pie, hate, and grievance, they’ll scream about freedom while undermining its very foundation. They'll set off fireworks made more expensive by their mad king’s trade wars and toast America while actively rooting against it.
They’ll chant about liberty under skies lit by tariff-jacked pyrotechnics, imagining themselves heirs of 1776, all while worshiping a man and a movement that tried to overthrow the very government they pretend to honor. They’ll cosplay as patriots. But this isn’t patriotism — it’s idolatry.
Their love of country is performative. Their reverence for the Constitution is selective and transactional. Their loyalty isn’t to the republic — it’s to a twice-impeached, quadruply indicted, criminally convicted seditionist and sexual predator. This isn’t a political movement. It’s a cult. A minority cult. But one that’s winning.
Since I last wrote about the fraying of American democracy on July 4, 2021 [ [link removed] ], the descent hasn’t just continued — it’s accelerated. What was recently merely simmering and potentially dangerous has curdled into something openly hostile to democracy: a crusade that glorifies violence, exalts strongmen, and vows to finish what January 6 started.
In four years, they’ve transformed a failed coup into a mythic rebellion. The insurrection is now a blueprint. The Republican Party — too cowardly or complicit to resist — serves as the ride-share for retribution and authoritarian restoration.
We’re not teetering on the edge. We’re in the abyss.
They’ve purged truth, weaponized law, embraced stochastic terrorism, and turned cruelty into virtue. The rule of law is now a cudgel, used only against “the others.” They attack the press, vow to jail opponents, and pledge loyalty only to power.
Their brand of Christianity blesses vengeance. Their calls for “law and order” end where their own criminality begins. Their cries of “freedom” ring only for those who look, believe, and vote like them. The rest of us? We’re the enemy.
The Republican Party isn’t conservative. It’s a white supremacist, Christian nationalist, authoritarian death cult — orbiting a single man’s brittle ego, bottomless greed, and lust for revenge.
Truth is irrelevant when power is the only god.
The Supreme Court — now fully captured — has handed near-total immunity to a would-be autocrat. This wasn’t interpretation; it was incineration. Constitutional guardrails didn’t bend — they broke.
Trump and his enablers are not subtle. They are loud, proud, and deadly serious about retribution. They’re purging the civil service, politicizing the military and deploying it against us, neutering Congress, and dismantling checks and balances. Trump isn’t governing. He’s seizing control.
And the GOP roars in approval.
As we mark another Independence Day, we must do so clear-eyed. This is not normal. It is not over. And it is not survivable unless we act.
This isn’t about party politics. It’s about the survival of democracy, of truth, of the American experiment itself.
Let this be the year the majority wakes up — shakes off the fatigue, the numbness, the delusion that “it can’t happen here.” It is happening here. Right now.
If we fail to meet this moment — not just with votes, but with unflinching urgency — we will lose what remains of our republic.
There are more of us. But they are louder. More shameless. More willing to burn it all down for a taste of dominance. They dream of an America where liberty is ornamental — and freedom is for the few.
The chimes of freedom still echo — but faintly now, like a final warning.
If we don’t act — and act decisively — future Fourths of July will not be celebrations. They will be eulogies.
Let this not be the year the chimes fall silent.
Jeff Timmer is a political consultant, strategist, and Warren Zevon fan. He was Executive Director of the Michigan Republican Party and served as a Republican on the Michigan Board of State Canvassers. He is a Senior Advisor to the Lincoln Project.

Unsubscribe [link removed]?