#boiling frog

It would be so damn easy to stop this madness. We have the mechanisms—Congressional and military oaths, the UCMJ, constitutional authority—all of it designed for precisely this kind of moment: when a clear and present danger to the Republic emerges. And yet, what do we get? Nothing. Spineless platitudes, endless hearings that amount to nothing, and a collective shrug from those in power who have sworn an oath to protect this country. They have the ability—no, the duty—to act, but instead, they tiptoe around the edges, pretending the fire consuming our democracy is just another bad season of political theater.

The military, the politicians, the courts—they all cling to this farce of procedural propriety as if following the rules matters when the rulebook itself is being set ablaze. These are the same people who proudly invoke the Founding Fathers while utterly ignoring the revolutionary spirit of those men who risked their lives to create a system that wouldn’t be beholden to tyrants. They act like the mere suggestion of extreme measures is taboo, as if waiting for a magic moment of unanimous consent will suddenly fix everything. Newsflash: that moment isn’t coming. We’re already past it. The water is boiling, and instead of leaping out, we’re sitting here like morons, seasoning ourselves with denial and cowardice.

Let’s be clear: this isn’t just about one man or one movement. It’s about the absolute abdication of responsibility by everyone—the lawmakers who sit in chambers and bicker about decorum while the Constitution they claim to revere gets shredded; the judges who hide behind technicalities instead of delivering justice; the military brass who have forgotten that their oath isn’t just to follow orders but to defend the nation against all enemies, foreign and domestic. They know the stakes. They’ve seen the lines crossed, the norms obliterated. And still, they wait. For what? Permission? Consensus? A fucking parade?

Meanwhile, the citizenry is fed this endless, suffocating narrative that we must “avoid conflict” at all costs, as if conflict isn’t already here. It’s here in the erosion of our institutions, in the normalization of corruption, in the relentless assault on truth itself. This country was built on conflict when it was necessary to preserve freedom. Now, we cower in the face of it, deluding ourselves into thinking that restraint is virtue while the very fabric of our democracy frays to the point of no return.

At what point do we stop pretending this is business as usual? How much more blatant does it have to get? Do we need it in neon lights? Do we need a literal dictator standing on the Capitol steps declaring martial law before we acknowledge what’s happening? The fact that so many in positions of authority, with the power and the mandate to act, are choosing inaction isn’t just cowardice—it’s complicity. They are complicit in this decay, complicit in the destruction of the ideals they swore to defend. Their inaction is a betrayal—not just of their oaths, but of the people they serve and the generations yet to come.

So-called president tRUmp perfectly represents the frog in the boiling frog fable:     The premise is that if a frog is put suddenly into boiling water, it will jump out — but if the frog is put in tepid water which is then brought to a boil slowly, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death.