A Strategy for the Resilience of Our Republic, Constitution and Freedoms

Ed Haugland

Guest Editorial

March 14, 2021

The Problem – a Real Existential Threat to Freedom –It is springtime, so what better time to plant a seed, to grow a new encompassing strategy to ensure the resiliency of our Republic, Constitution, and our Freedoms. We have a major problem in today’s America. It is truly an existential threat to our freedoms, constitution, and the great experiment of our republic. To address any problem, one must first define the problem.

The problem is we are in an ideological war, for absolute power – yet conservatives believe it is just politics as usual. Many can detect the problem, but they wrongly mistake the issues created by it are just the same old politics. They assume that those who are driving a radical political ideology believe in our republic, our freedoms, and our constitution. They assume the oath the radical and extreme politicians took is sacred to them, that their intentions are well-meaning, and that in the end, we will find a way to work together. And this is part of the problem, a major part because those assumptions are wrong. How do I know? When their plans are disrupted, they either create or use a crisis to circumvent that disruption. President Trump disrupted the establishment of both democrats and conservatives, and in doing so, he severely disrupted the radical left’s intentions and highlighted the naivete of the conservatives who (deceived or complicit) did not understand how big the problem had become.

So, what exactly is this problem, for which many are cognizant, but not fully aware?

The problem is that we have been in a Cognitive War for a millennium and more, a war that will continue well beyond our lifetimes. It is an age-old ideological battle. In simple terms, the Cognitive War is a war between those who seek to advance tyranny, control, and subjugation versus those who seek to advance freedom, humanity, and democracy. It is a war of ideas, ideology, and narratives – enabled by varied means, methods, and measures – to include at times violence, kinetics, and asymmetric warfare. It is a war in which deception, deceit, and dystopian views are crafted in a manner to be passed off as the truth and fact. And it is a war that is occurring globally and domestically.

The Cognitive War – Domestic and Global.

This Cognitive War has been ongoing for millennia and more. And once again, it is being fought in America. It is a war that occurs in the cognitive[1] domain. I have detailed several aspects of this problem in prior blogs[2] and editorials.[3] The purpose of this paper is to bring awareness of the ongoing Domestic Cognitive War. The objective of this paper is to put forth a strategy to counter and win the Domestic Cognitive War.

The current Domestic Cognitive War has been ongoing over the last sixteen decades – since the civil war. And over that time the radical left has greatly matured, learned now to maneuver, and has become extremely effective in advancing their efforts to usurp power, absolute power. And in doing so, to advance tyranny in ways that deceive real intent.

The focus of this paper is on winning and competing in the Domestic Cognitive War. It is an extremely dangerous war in which those who seek to maintain freedom, opportunity, and democracy are losing against the radical left. A few of many examples include:

advancing a massive unconstitutional campaign of election voting and ballot irregularities and fraud to successfully steal the 2020 election.
advancing extreme censorship by most media outlets, and concurrently their own propaganda or hiding facts to destroy people, their businesses or preclude their ability to communicate ideas.
overtaking our education system, from grade school to universities, and turning them into indoctrination centers
usurping the freedom of the press, to then abuse that privilege by advancing a now near totally compromised and biased media as they push propaganda in ways that China and Russia only wish.
misusing and fraudulent abuse of our national security apparatus to pursue fraudulent investigations and a likely coup (without any accountability to date) against a president.
applauding and enabling extremist violence and domestic terrorism by left-wing fascist/Marxist groups Antifa and BLM – fully supported by leftists (domestic terrorists’ enablers) in congress who also advocated intimidation, harassment, and destruction of the livelihood of conservatives – yet a sleeping justice system.
increasing and open demonization, dehumanization, and character assassination of over half of America as extreme and racist for their beliefs in freedom, opportunity, and democracy
advancing efforts to end the Senate filibuster, stack the SCOTUS, advance unverifiable mail-in voting, adding liberal states like DC, and confiscation measures for guns.
passing legislation burying America’s future generations in debt solely to pay off the extreme mayors and governors while concurrently advancing ever greater dependency on the government to sustain and grow an ever-expanding plantation of dependency.
ignoring America’s laws to open our borders to millions of new government dependents, despite multiple promises to protect our borders.
advancing the propaganda that racism is a systemic issue with police or in society while ignoring the reality of real racism in the progressive left’s failure to address the several thousand black murders occurring over the last seven decades in their cities, the destruction of black families, and the expansion of black dependency on government.

The rest of this paper briefly covers the radical lefts’ means and methods, expansion of control, proactive use of narratives, tied to dogmatic unity while broadcasting intentions to gain absolute power. The paper concludes with a path to compete and win the Cognitive War by offering a four-point strategy that will be expanded upon in future articles. If we fail to win the Domestic Cognitive War – secure our freedoms, constitution, and republic – we fail the world.

Means and Methods – The means and methods being used, have long roots, but were honed by the Bolsheviks, and then the Nazis and subsequently refined over the last one hundred years – since the 1918 Russian Revolution, and the founding of the American Communist Party. The Russians used the same basic tactics throughout Eastern Europe to place an Iron Curtain around their Soviet empire. They took over the classrooms, the local police, the ministries of defense, justice and interior, and the national security organizations – slowly but surely – until they held all the reins of power. In parallel, they also took hold of all forms of media to control the narrative as well. The fall of the Soviet Union and subsequent velvet revolutions and US dominance led Communist Russia, China, and others to relook their head-on approach to hegemony. They took stock of their tactics, their allies, and put in action a long-term strategy to retake world dominance. Concurrently, the American left did the same. They realized they needed to engage, imbed, usurp, then dominate – and that’s exactly what they’ve done with a long-term strategy that’s been in play since the late 1960s.

The radical left has leveraged crises and deceit of advancing the rights, privileges, and opportunities of individual groups, to divide and conquer. They leverage the use of government power when they have it to expand dependency, not advance opportunity. They advance their own amongst the bureaucracy, to advance their control. And they gradually subsume the key elements of true power – education, security, and governance to not enable, but to subjugate.

We saw these tactics in the communist revolution and subsequent red curtain overcome eastern Europe, spreading worldwide to the Far East, Latin America, etc. And in the end, they enabled sustained control by controlling. We saw this same type of growth in radicalism and extremism in 1918 with the Russian communist revolution, in the 1930s with the Social Democratic Party (aka Nazi party), in the 1960s with similar extremes, and again today. It is persistent, pervasive, and prolonged – it is a Cognitive War.

The radical left uses a variety of means, methods, and narratives that include identity politics to advance division, hate, and indoctrinate our grade school, high schools, colleges/universities, and concurrently subsume control of the local city, state, and federal government levers of power – where they can.

Expanding Dependency & Control – For decades Conservatives have been outmaneuvered and outsmarted. The Civil Rights Act passed by Republicans is viewed as a win by Democrats. The social welfare policies that destroyed black American families are tactics used to place ever-increasing numbers of all Americans on the radical left’s expanding plantation of dependency and concurrently use that dependency to bludgeon conservatives as racists if they try to change (provide a real opportunity for the poor) the racist system. The left’s use of teachers’ unions and local elections to usurp them and warp education to indoctrinate in pre-schools, high schools, colleges is now near-total. We see this today, as the unions and the left ignore the science, to control not enable students, parents, and society while advancing the unions controls. The same with our local school, county, and governance boards. Then there are the media, once referred to as a “free press,” the fourth estate there to oversee the bureaucracy, which is now just a propaganda arm of the left.

To add to their means of control, the left opened our borders every time they obtained power. They ignore the laws, and provided access to 20 million prior to Regan’s amnesty, and then 20-30 million post that amnesty. There are not just eleven million illegals, it is more like thirty-to-fifty million – as during the decade’s families have expanded while waiting in America for a solution – and those born here are now dependent on the government – and US citizens. Abridging your voting rights by enabling tens of millions of new voters via illegal means. Most Americans do not realize the impact – it equates to adding 30-to-50 new cities of 20,000 people, to each state of our union. Think about that for a moment. Look at your state and count the number of cities with 20,000 – and it will hopefully sink in as to how truly effective the radical left is in the ongoing Domestic Cognitive War. So, for the last four decades since Regan’s amnesty, the radical left expanded plantation of government dependency, with the children of the illegal now sustaining the lefts’ power and policies of dependency.

Lastly, let us not forget the national security apparatus, where over the decades, we saw the CIA constantly abuse leaks to destroy conservatives, and as the DNI was created – seeded miscreants deep into the apparatus such that we saw a nearly successful coup against our president. The same occurred in the Department of Justice, State, and Defense, etc. as the left embedded their own across the Executive Branch – as the conservatives ignored reality. It took decades, but the left has truly succeeded in tilting an apolitical bureaucracy to an enabling bureaucracy.

Then came Trump, who not only upended the left’s establishment, but he also upended the conservative’s appeasing establishment, and the deep state, that then with the media, miscreants in the bureaucracy, etc. conducted an extensive propaganda and disinformation campaign, outright fraud, and a coup to unseat Trump. They stood ready with their legions of BLM, Antifa, and other domestic terrorists to torch America and bring extreme levels of civil unrest when Trump was re-elected to disable his second term. But they are smart, well planned, with a strategy, that we saw executed in the chaos of the 2020 election. And they sealed that “win” by seizing and controlling the narrative.

Controlling the Narrative – What is consistent in these efforts? A continued proactive effort to control the narrative, and drive others to react. The left uses that strategy effectively and did so on multiple fronts with a complicit and compliant biased media, an army of educators to indoctrinate, and liars like Obama to deceive and hide their real intentions. Remember, Reid, Obama, Pelosi, Schumer, and others never denounced the radical left socialist-communist goals and objectives, but only noted to their fellow democrats to not be so direct in stating their goals.

And that is where Trump derailed their efforts temporarily. He used their same tactics against them by driving the narrative, the media gladly supporting him as they thought he was a temporary anomaly. But Trump’s ability to not only proactively drive the narrative, push his opponents to react, and successfully connect with the average American was a surprise attack against left-wing hegemony. And a massive threat, such that even before he was elected, they seeded the grounds with a fraudulent investigation, a massive deep state of left-wing miscreants, and igniting the biased media to counter. The left’s burrowing in, and seeding the miscreants throughout our national security organizations, were then used as a weapon to conduct a coup. The left used age-old tactics in usurping the power of government organizations to attack, investigate, undermine, assassinate the character of those opposing their efforts, etc. Now that the left is back in power, they will quickly bury evidence of election fraud or subjugation by controlling the narrative, abusing the power of government, and extending their reach in unconstitutional ways.

The strategy of Dogmatic Unity – The key point being, the left persisted and persevered in their efforts, using a well-thought-out strategy, working in dogmatic unity (even when caught red-handed in their lies before, during and after the Stalinist show trials called impeachment). The left succeeded in controlling the narrative, outmaneuvering conservatives, and doing so using extreme tactics like anarchy, looting, riots with tools like BLM, Antifa, and others. As we have seen, the left unites, and closes ranks quickly, even for egregious abuses of power or extreme measures. They are guided by a broad and encompassing strategy that follows prior examples in history – whereby they have slowly gained access to and now control critical pieces of our education, justice, national security, media, and financial institutions. And if they cannot control it, they undermine it. Hence, governance from the local to the federal level, education from pre-school to college indoctrination, are gained by installing, inserting, and embedding “like” minded leftists into the bureaucracy of education, the federal government, judicial system, the legal system, our intelligence, and national security apparatus, and in the last decade defense and other areas. The subtle take over remains unnoticed by most, until they try to voice their concerns.

Broadcasting Intentions – The left through all this constantly broadcast their intentions well ahead of time. The was exemplified well when they forecast the use of mail-in and other unconstitutional ballot measures. They drove a narrative that any efforts to fight those measures were racist, white supremacist, and disenfranchised minorities. While it may be hard to watch or read the biased media – they frequently telegraph their next move, narrative, and actions. But typically, conservatives are focused on the tactical and therefore sit silent, as they are time and again caught flat-footed. Nothing exemplifies this more than the 2020 election. America watched, as the most fraudulent election in American history, was staged in front of our eyes. Conservatives watched in horror as the number of irregularities soared. They sat in disbelief, as they were outmaneuvered yet once again in the dead of night. Then it was over. Since the left controlled the narrative, the media, and the radicals – and time was short – they knew it was over.

The left states their intentions publicly. Biden’s call to forcefully take your guns. Schumer’s call to “change America forever” by stacking States (adding Puerto Rico and DC as States) and the SCOTUS. Single-payer healthcare, the new green deal, globalism, and multiple examples not to advance America, but to gain absolute power. Any student of Marxist, Soviet or Communist tactics can tell you the left employs age-old and effective tactics – refining them for present-day use. These include active and ongoing support for anarchy, looting, physical attacks on the unarmed by mobs, character assassination, misuse of our national security for a coup, ignoring laws to advance agendas, demeaning authority, misusing authority against the opposition, Stalinist show trials, etc. to usurp power. Detract, deflect, attack in a merciless manner.

What we witnessed in the last decades was America being effectively manipulated by false narratives and fraudulent activities leading our Republic down the path to a utopian world– but which in true form is more authoritarian mixed with socialism and communism. The left drives proactive narratives, causing conservatives into a fetal position and perpetually reactive posture – a losing posture.

Seeking Absolute Power – We must understand this is a real war. It may not be kinetic – but it is just or more deadly. It is a war of ideas, blurred by fiction, pandering, and misperceptions, and well-planned propaganda campaigns executed in unison but orchestrated by a few self-proclaimed elites, oligarchs of the left.

The bottom line – the left seeks absolute power at any cost to control, dictate and subjugate a majority of Americans to conform to a view of a tyrannical and ever increasingly violent and dictatorial minority that seeks to subjugate, control, create dependency, and dictate the values and norms of America to enable opportunity, independence, and freedom. The shining light called America is dimming, as many try to turn the lights off on democracy and our republic.

Stopping Tyranny – So how do we compete in such a weakened position? How do we stop our slide towards communism? How do we stop the radical left from gaining absolute power? And how do we move from a perpetually reactive posture to a proactive posture and seize the all-important narrative?

It starts with an understanding of the problem, means and methods, and success of the left and realizing that we are in an ideological war, a Cognitive War, that requires not band-aids or short-term fixes, but a well thought out, long-term strategy to ensure the resiliency, freedom, and survival of our Republic, our Constitution, our freedoms, and our independence.

It is an effort that must leverage what political power we can wield, but not relying on that. As such, it must be a grassroots effort that leverages the real power in our country, the power of the people. Nearly eighty million-plus Americans stand ready. We must advance a positive, proactive narrative, via well-planned engagements of the people, at all levels to broaden our tent further – using facts, peaceful demonstrations, and peaceful but forceful, persistent engagement at all levels of society. And we must stand ready to compete and highlight the false narratives of the left and their messengers in a manner that disrupts their narrative and causes them to react.

An Army of One, Some and None – Trump’s efforts no matter how effective, remained a challenge, as he in many cases had few allies in fighting an army. I honestly believe he didn’t realize the full scope and scale of the ongoing Domestic Cognitive War, despite the coup attempt, until he witnessed not only the scale of violence and tyranny from domestic terrorists across 140 US cities, but the massive efforts to tilt the election to his opponent via varied unconstitutional, fraudulent, and other active measures in the 2020 election to include his being censored and removed from Twitter and the onslaught of censorship that silenced half of America.

The shock wave from the China Flu (covid), the election, and the immediate and radial policies and legislation being put forth by the “installed” administration – speak to the magnitude of the Cognitive War and the reality that this problem is truly an existential threat.

No one knew the magnitude of this problem. As such, the establishment on both sides of the aisle continued to engage in what they were comfortable with, day-to-day politics. Most conservatives sat idle, or worse began fighting the new administration, as the old and weak establishment members did not see the left’s unified insurgency being trained to drive massive civil unrest and anarchy should Trump win a second term. Rather than understand this existential threat, conservatives broke ranks, the establishment attacked viciously with their ‘civil language’ and morality via existing but useless think tanks and conservative bastions. Although Trump advanced conservative causes more than any or all combined, many establishment conservatives sat idle in their ivory towers, noses up, waiting for a ‘civil’ discourse with the radical left. They did not appreciate it will never come. As Lenin noted, these are the useful idiots who pontificated on high, while our schools, universities, national security apparatus, etc. were overtaken by a left-leaning set of ideologies.

What most conservatives never learned, is that this is not a simple political battle, it is a blood sport for absolute power. So, in my opinion, their so-called “morality” and false hope for civil discourse not only sucks but reflect their cognitive dissonance. They failed their oath and our nation.

To compete and win this Domestic Cognitive War requires a legion of many, united in advancing a real long-term strategy that drives our adversaries to react, throw them off their strategy and game, and drive a truthful and factual set of narratives to educate, inform and advance awareness to ensure our republic, constitution, and freedoms.

As we stand today, we are losing this war badly, as our republic, freedoms, and constitution are being undermined, subverted, and destroyed. We are being constantly outmaneuvered by false narratives of the radical left, who continues to put forth disinformation and propaganda campaigns, policies, and active measures to undermine our freedoms, constitution, and republic. This requires a renewed effort to fight for the shining light on the hill, not just for Americans, but for the free world. It requires we stop the insanity, of doing the same we have been and expecting a different outcome. It requires the silent majority to speak, to act, to unify, and engage via a common strategy that is enduring, as future generations will be required to understand, compete and win – as the Cognitive War is timeless. It is a war between evil (tyranny and despots) and good (freedom, opportunity, humanity).

Competing and Winning the Domestic Cognitive War

To compete and win this war requires a strategy, one that is truly strategic in nature. As this is a perpetual, persistent, and timeless war it requires a strategy that is encompassing. And it requires a positive focus for tens of millions of Americans to advance freedom, opportunity, and democracy by ensuring they are informed, empowering them to use all their rights, and enabling the silent majority to act, vice being intimidated or canceled by the violent and extreme minority, to take back their government, education, national security, and save our Republic.

A Four-Point Strategy for Resilience, Freedom, and our Republic

Seize the Narrative – Drive others to react. President Trump taught us how to fight, using proactive actions and controlling key parts of the narrative to advance conservative policies, gain public support while causing others to react. He did so by effectively using the radical left’s tactics against them. Trump’s ability to do so is why they viewed him as such a great threat. It is also why they censored him via social media and continue to seek ways to preclude him from communicating to the public. Trump did the same against China and Russia, and used this approach to engage and advance real, trusted but at times challenging relations with our allies – but which were highly effective. While we can hopefully leverage the key abilities and skills of Trump, to win this war requires that we leverage and drive the proactive engagement of the tens of millions of Americans (the silent majority) who believe in our republic, constitution, and freedoms to actively engage in the battle of narratives.
Proactive & Positive Legislative Agenda – To gain position, we must not only seize the narrative, advancing truth but drive real, valued policy and legislative solutions. We must drive for real social justice and health care by leveraging our Senate and House members to layout the facts during various hearings (nominations, legislative, etc.) and to broadcast the facts using alternative means of communication, available media, etc. We must begin to layout, display the facts, and hold Democrats to account for their six-plus decades of pandering, ignoring, and implementing failed policies that have divided America, destroyed minority families, denied minorities equal education or employment, advanced and widened a new plantation of a dependency across all races. The two key issues the democrats believe they hold the upper hand on are social justice and healthcare. But both are weak and losing positions if the right strategy is undertaken to use their “strategy and narrative” to undermine their plans.
Ensure the Resiliency of our Republic, Constitution, and Freedoms – Long-term resiliency requires grass root efforts that include bringing civics 101 back into our classrooms from pre-school, through high-school, and including our universities. When I hear one in four Americans can name all three branches of government – we have lost not only an understanding of America’s basic governance – but along with it, the ability to understand how to engage peacefully in advancing ideas, policy, freedoms, American values, and how to preclude and defeat the ills of communism to advance the benefits of our republic and democracy. We must undertake a massive grassroots effort and scale activities to reinforce those values and retake our education system, colleges, local governance, state, and federal offices via a massive grassroots insurgency, legislative action (including outlawing socialism and communism) by leveraging the energy and voices of the silent majority. This requires perpetual hearings focused on exposing the election fraud, identifying secure solutions, and delegitimizing those elected using such tactics. Actions such a proposing to outlaw socialism and communism drive a proactive narrative – one that requires the radical left to react, defend and explain why they would not support restricting bankrupt, murderous, and tyrannical ideologies
Overhaul National Security – We must overhaul our old factory floor, with failing cultures and structures that operate as “titanium cylinders of sub-excellence” to compete and win in the cognitive domain – as the real battle is of ideas and ideology that pit tyranny against freedom. If we fail to provide the president additional tools in the cognitive domain, the default becomes the kinetic hammer. And, as we have seen in Afghanistan, where we have consistently won the kinetic war, we have also consistently lost the Cognitive War. To avoid a major kinetic war, we must overhaul our national security apparatus – moving it from the industrial to the information age – to compete with our adversaries in the cognitive domain and win both the Domestic and Global Cognitive wars. Being perpetually reactive, playing solely defense, is a losing proposition. We have lost trillions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of dead and dying, and tyranny is expanding domestically and globally. Slow changes on the fringes are not adequate – we must drive rapid, disruptive change before we are surprised yet once again. This requires an immediate overhaul of the old factory floor[1], advancing a new integrated whole of government functionality, and ensuring the president has more options than kinetics. As we overhaul the national security apparatus, we must ensure a truly apolitical bureaucracy (not a legion of passive-aggressive unelected obstructionist bureaucrats) that serves every president with consistent apolitical professionalism.
[1] Future Military Intelligence: CONOPS and S&T Investment Roadmap 2035-2050 (The Cognitive War) | NSI (nsiteam.com)
Strategic, Proactive, and Resilient – In short, we must leverage a strategy that is strategic in nature (50-100 years), perpetually proactive, one that causes others to react to our efforts using means, methods, and tactics borrowed from our left-wing adversaries while creating new capabilities, capacity, and redundancy at every level of effort, communications, and engagement.

We must realize this is not normal politics, but a true ideological war between tyranny and freedom. A war being fought, both domestically and globally, against radical leftists who seek absolute power to subjugate the majority to the will of the minority.

If we fail to adjust our strategy, if we fail to driver others to react, and if we fail to hold to account the failed policies, false narratives, abuse of our national security system, or fraudulent elections – then we will fail the millions who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for freedom.

Freedom is not free. Ignoring the ongoing cognitive war between tyranny and freedom – ignores history, reality, and will result in the death of democracy, our republic, and our constitution. These examples are but the tip of a massive, proactive, asymmetric campaign that must be supported and undertaken by all conservatives – as a united force. This strategy is a call to arms, and a call to action, to ensure overmatch for freedom, drive a proactive narrative of resiliency for freedom, our republic, and the constitution.

Released and Distributed by the Stand Up America US Foundation

Contact: www.standupamericaus.org

[1] Cognition is defined as ‘the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.’ What Is Cognition & Cognitive Behavior – Cambridge Cognition | Cambridge Cognition

[2] The Cognitive Domain – and Cognitive Warfare and Cognitive Dissonance (theinformationequilibrium.blogspot.com)

[3] Extremists and Domestic Terrorists | Stand up America US Foundation

[4] Future Military Intelligence: CONOPS and S&T Investment Roadmap 2035-2050 (The Cognitive War) | NSI (nsiteam.com)

A Strategy for the Resilience of Our Republic, Constitution and Freedoms

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