Military News and Perspectives

Restore Honor defends Constitutional Honor in an era of oligarchic overreach. We propose a new Declaration of Independence and Organization for success.

Defending Constitutional Honor in an Era of Oligarchic Overreach

Authored by Ike Wilson

In the founding vision of our Republic, the Constitution was crafted as a living covenant — a contract not merely between government and governed, but between generations of Americans pledged to protect liberty, dignity, and shared self-rule.

Today, however, this covenant stands at grave risk. The forces of oligarchy — the collusion of wealth, power, and influence — threaten to hollow out the Republic from within, capturing institutions meant to serve all citizens and bending them to private will.

This "Constitutional Ethics and Oligarchy" page exists to reclaim the original promise of American democracy. It is a forum for shining light into the shadows where honor has been traded for expedience and power for profit. Here, we will expose:

  • Executive overreach and assaults on First Amendment freedoms,
  • Erosion of academic freedom and the rise of compelled conformity within military and civilian institutions,
  • The dangerous drift toward "self-censorship" and "preemptive compliance" — the slow, quiet death of intellectual and constitutional courage,
  • And the ways oligarchic forces are weaponizing governance, commerce, and even national security to serve narrow, undemocratic ends.

In the spirit of Duty, Honor, Country, we stand for a restored vision: one where free thought flourishes, ethical leadership endures, and the Constitution remains the supreme guide — not a relic to be subverted by the powerful few.

Our mission is urgent and unrelenting: to defend the integrity of both our Republic and the sacred professions — military and civilian — entrusted with its stewardship.

Join us as we expose, confront, and rebuild the architecture of honor for a nation in desperate need of renewal.

This is the battleground for constitutional fidelity — and the struggle for America's very soul.

Restore Honor

A DECLARATION OF (RENEWED) INDEPENDENCE

Authored by Ike Wilson

Out of every crisis, every tribulation, every disaster, mankind rises with some share of greater knowledge, of higher decency, of purer purpose. Today we shall have come through a period of loose thinking, descending morals, an era of selfishness, among individual men and women and among Nations. Blame not Governments alone for this. Blame ourselves in equal share. Let us be frank in acknowledgment of the truth that many amongst us have made obeisance to Mammon, that the profits of speculation, the easy road without toil, have lured us from the old barricades. To return to higher standards we must abandon the false prophets and seek new leaders of our own choosing. Never before in modern history have the essential differences between the two major American parties stood out in such striking contrast as they do today. [Our National Party] leaders not only have failed in material things, they have failed in national vision, because in disaster they have held out no hope, they have pointed out no path for the people below to climb back to places of security and of safety in our American life1

Our American republic is in distress, and We, The People, are responsible.

The mantle rests upon all of us, for together we must right the course, or face losing our democracy; our Republic. And if we still intend to save our republic, then we, The People, must take a hard look in the mirror. Is it worth saving?

Today, only about a third of Americans have a mix of conservative and liberal positions; in 2004, nearly half of Americans had mixed political values. That stance weakens us. Republicans and Democrats are now further apart ideologically than at any point in more than two decades. We have lost sight of our fellow Americans due to our differing politics, and we have allowed distance and distrust to replace reasonable discourse and healthy disagreement. A major cause of these rising “partisan wars” has been a drastic decline in civic engagement.2 The fog of partisan bias has smothered the clear course of our democracy.

The cancer threatening us all has a name: tyranny. We, all of us, have fallen prey to ‘tyrannical tendencies’ with a profile mirroring the rise, decline, and eventual ‘fall’ of the exemplary republics of western antiquity, Greece and Rome. As our standards slowly decay, we await the full destruction of our own democracy.

We have all defaulted, either by sins of commission or omission, and have abandoned the original hard-road we set for our country – toward a more perfect union – for the easier path of particularized interests, in our Selfie Nation, where our present politics reflect our personal hubris and plenary frailties.

For all those who clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, many more have ultimately been defeated by discrimination. The resulting anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial or so-called “cultural” lines, as the American heritage of structured inequality has become a strategic tool to win elections and cache power. Their actions have stoked black anger, fueled white resentment, and worsened warfare on gender and sexuality, all for no accountable or measurable benefit to the people. It’s… “a deliberate attempt to distract our attention from the real culprits of the middle- class squeeze — a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many.” 3 America is now a two-track economy, where the top 1/10th of the top 1% of wealthy Americans now hold more capital than the rest of Americans combined.

Americans need not align on all things, nor will we. Some values are absolute, however, or should be “self-evident” – but this too has drifted into the fog. Our ‘Causes and Grievances’ are persistent, in part, due to our failure to heed (or know well)

1Excerpt from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, New Deal speech, delivered July 2, 1932

2 In a groundbreaking and landmark study and book, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), Robert D. Putnam showed how Americans have become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and our democratic structures. In this work, Putnam warns that our country’s stock of social capital. (sentence fragment here)
3“Transcript: Barack Obama's Speech on Race,” NPR, 18 March 2008.

the Four Warnings4 given to us by our Founders and Framers. Out of an “ounce of prevention is a pound of cure” sense of preserving our liberty, we have yielded to the sins of absolute partisanship.

Our constitutional republic has suffered from a deliberate “capturing” of all that our Flag symbolizes - the safeguards of a healthy democracy through a sharing of the peoples’ power through separate institutions – or as James Madison called it, a set of auxiliary precautions – against the kinds of unwarranted aggregations of power that pose an existential threat to our collective security and liberty. These were the kinds of tyrannies of majorities, or minorities, that our Founders and Framers feared the most – those tendencies that had been the ultimate demise and destruction of republics past. Instead, We have allowed a “capturing” and degradation of our three “sorts of power” – The Executive, The Legislative, and The Judiciary – largely through a manipulation of the so-called “Fourth Estate,” The ‘Free’ Press.

Legiscide

Our Legislative Branch is intended to be the “First Branch”, but instead has committed legiscide.

First, we have allowed a hyper-delegation of the people’s power and authority (express powers) by Congress, unwarrantedly, to the Executive. This has led to our current state of moral hazard by throwing off-kilter the weighted balance of citizens’ power from Legislative democratic process to Imperial Presidential rule by executive fiat.5 Second, we succumbed to a disregarding of Washington’s and Madison’s warnings to “avoid the bane of party politics” and “to avoid factionalism,” respectively - finding us now on a destructive slide into unprecedented hyper-partisanship. And third, we have wounded ourselves through a combination of (a) further “legiscide” surrounding the U.S. Electoral Process, coupled with (b) deliberate strategic plans to tilt the architecture of Federalism toward extreme partisan-interests, worsened further by (c) the abandonment of Regular Order.

We are facing The End of Liberalism, where the United States, the rule of law and the power of representative government have been displaced by an ascendant special interest group liberalism – a form of tyranny of the minority, that enables organized private interests to benefit from the expanding administrative state. This wound is best personified by our equating corporations with people (voters) in the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. Money now formally buys power and influence for corporations that exceeds the will of the general voters, or is oblivious to The People’s interests.

An Unbridling of The Executive & Judiciary Powers

We now face the extreme negative consequences of the precipitous growth of the institutional presidency. ‘Legiscide’6 on the part of Congress, and ‘politicide’ on the part of the courts, have allowed the presidency to become an office of tremendous personal power drawn from the People, through the acquiescence of our first and third branches.

Tragically, our ‘Third Branch’ has become an extension of the Executive Branch, by its undue influence. Our Founders and Framers deliberately departed from Greco-Roman traditions of combining these powers, splitting the judiciary set of powers as an added safeguard to the democratic process. Yet…

Over time, and with congressional legiscide as a contributing factor, several factors in combination— citizens’ growing expectations of government services, the weakening of the role of grassroots parties in the campaigns, and the increased capacity of modern presidents to use technology to communicate directly with the public—have giving rise to a “plebiscitary”7 character to the office, as presidents now generate

4In brief, the Four Warnings referred to here speak to: George Washington’s two warnings, against the ‘bane of party politics’ and ‘permanent alliances’; James Madison’s warning against single-issue ‘factional’ associations, and Dwight D. Eisenhower’s warnings against the ‘military-industrial(-congressional) complex’. Accessible at: https://app.box.com/s/s9rc9z2ip1dl04v0sdp3inyz28dfpb8

5Fiat (Latin for "let it be done") is a theoretical construct in policy debate—derived from the word should in the resolution—whereby the substance of the resolution is debated, rather than the political feasibility of enactment and enforcement of a given plan, allowing an affirmative team to "imagine" a plan into being ...

6A term coined by noted political scientist, Theodore J, Lowi, speaking to when Congress delegates broadly and then tries to take it back in bits and pieces. As Lowi sees it, “by giving broad grants of discretionary authority to the president, Congress fosters the growth of the presidency—and then found itself unable to check the ever-increasing powers of the office.” Referring to the War Powers Resolution (1973) as a specific example, he noted, “even when Americans looked to Congress to… get out of Vietnam, Congress was delegating new legislative powers to the presidency—some of the broadest powers ever delegated to Congress to the executive branch.” See, Lowi, The Personal Presidency.

7The plebiscitary presidency is a presidency that is accountable only during elections or impeachment, rather than daily to the Congress, the press, and the public.

ever-greater expectations among the electorate. Yet such hopes were inevitably dashed, as the limits of the office in the realm of domestic policy meant that presidents predictably failed to deliver on the scale of their promises. They would turn instead to their greater powers as “commander-in-chief,” engaging in high-risk overseas adventurism. Their approval ratings would in time plummet, and the public’s disillusionment with government generally would deepen.8

A Rising Hyper-militarization of Our American Republic

As our governmental institutions have for so long escaped serious external scrutiny, so has our military.

Rather than observe a 5-star Army general’s admonitions of the threat to democratic government that could come from a disastrous rise of misplaced power in an immense military establishment, coupled with a large arms industry and an absentee, or complicit, Congress9, we have all but fully embraced such authoritarian-corporatism. Ike warned us about the military industrial complex. We didn’t listen.

Outsiders treat the American Military both too reverently and too cavalierly, as if regarding its members as heroes makes up for committing them to unending, unwinnable missions and denying them the political mindshare we give to other major public undertakings. Our military, therefore, functions autonomously, without significant or consistent debate on the merits, despite commanding an outsized share of the people’s tax revenue. We have become a chicken-hawk nation preoccupied by futile war, rather than one that wrestles with long-term questions of effectiveness.

“… [A]nd the separation of the military from the public disrupts the process of learning from these defeats. And yet however much Americans “support” and “respect” their troops, they are not involved with them, and that disengagement inevitably leads to dangerous decisions the public barely notices.” (Fallows 2015).

It has become too easy to go to war, and far too easy to “bring war home” and “militarize” matters of domestic public policy by the “language” of warfare,10 and its practices, such as the para-militarization of our municipal and state level policing forces, armed and missioned more to destroy than to “protect and serve.”

Equally worrisome is our rote faith in the trustworthiness and good judgment of American military senior leadership. Where once it was possible for Americans to strike a rightful balance between “loving the warriors,” while still questioning or even “hating the wars,” today we are incapable of holding those two critical counterbalancing ideas equipoise in our minds. To regard such dangerous tyrannical tendencies as ‘Drift’, risks omission of the greatest danger of all: our acquiescence and culpability; not as much of having our liberal democracy taken away from us, as a giving or selling of it away.

The Decline, Capture, and ‘Fall’ of the American ‘Free Press’

Ours is now a tale of decline and degradation: from liberalism to illiberalism; from Americanism to un-Americanism. “In the worldwide movement away from democracy, perhaps the most vulnerable institution is the free press, and the most disposable people are journalists”11 We have witnessed an erosion of press neutrality, and thus, a paradox: we experience growing censorship in an era of turbulent elections, expanded private freedoms, and an onslaught of digital information.

Today, the press is held in perpetual low esteem, even when it does its job well. Most noticeably, we suffer from the loss of facts—a body of empirical information that American citizens can accept as a common starting point for public debate. All politics being local has run amok, unchecked for so long that we have allowed everything to become partisan to the absolutist degree. What happened to us? Democratic erosion takes many forms. The loss of a free press is among the worst.

Our Abandonment of the ‘Western-Democratic’ Compact

Americans have chosen to engage in these tribal battles – Democrat versus Republican… White versus Black and Brown… Corporation versus Worker… even warring between Men versus Women – for so long that WE have left ourselves open to

8Theodore J. Lowi, The Personal President: Power Invested, Promise Unfulfilled (1985).

9 Accessible at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/ike-was-right-all-along-the-danger-of-the-military-industrial-complex-2186133.html

10For example, the equating of our very electoral systems to battles and “campaigns” language, complete with “warring camps,” “war rooms,” and “troops, friendlies and enemies.”

11 George Packer, “Why the Press is Less Free Today,” The New Yorker, 13 November 2014.

real ‘barbarians at our gates’ and within our democratic institutional ‘heartlands’. “The Russians Are Coming!” … or rather, they have arrived…. and we have opened our doors and let them in.12

Russia is only one enemy of the American State that has successfully pushed against an increasingly open door, threatening order and stability “from within”… albeit they are the clearest and most present danger. The 2016 US presidential elections were infiltrated by Putin’s Russia and his non-state proxies. Gray zone warfare has come to the American homeland.

As we have allowed ourselves to fall prey to the tyranny of particularisms at home, we have also encouraged a dangerous ‘turn’ in international affairs away from western-democratic values and rules-based order. On the world stage we have begun a quitting of our commitment as the leading nation to collective security, and the “buying in” to an older, darker, ‘beggar-thy-neighbor’ style of authoritarian international relations. American interventionism itself seems to be a cause and a culprit. While it helped create and universalize the western-democratic traditions and values that have largely secured the rights and liberties of mankind, that same interventionism, turned more towards a heavy-handed economic and military “Americanism,” is now accelerating our demise.

The desire for freedom is in all human DNA. Yet, the preservation and universalization of freedom has been a unique responsibility (since 1945) and the special providence of the United States of America, whether by self-nomination or ubiquitous need. The threat of radical extremism, most readily identifiable in the form of violent Islamist jihadism, not only presents a warped alternative form of statehood to the western-liberal nation-state in physical forms, but now more sinisterly also in ideational forms. The “virtual” caliphate represents a counter western-liberal ideal, and an anti-American casus beli.

Today, Americans are not only “bowling alone,” but also tragically “bombing alone.” This moral relativistic, the-strong-do- as-they-will, the-weak-do-as-they-must approach to foreign affairs bleeds into American domestic policy, and gathers its fuel from increased tribalisms. Making America Great…Again inevitably comes at the cost of collective security-based philosophies that have preserved the unity of our own nation for nearly two centuries and a half, as well as the stability of the western-liberal order since World War II, when fascism last threatened the world.

By pursuing a new America First version of US foreign policy, we have forgotten how we got here. With distance from the fight, we have lost sight of the prize. The better parts of the Western world are now left to experiencing an identity crisis, at a time when the core of our ideals need a resurgence, not a regression. In this respect, we have all been ‘traitorous’ to a set of American ideals that may not have come from each of us, but must be held within all of us. While that is a serious charge, these are serious times.

Today’s grievances reflect similar complaints our Founders noted in 1776, upon which they built their claims not only for taking action to disconnect from an illegitimate governing regime, but also a moral imperative to do so, to secure the blessings of Liberty, for [themselves] and their Posterity. Starkly obvious are the similarities between our Founders’ hard choices in coping with the tyrannies of their times, with our challenges today in falling prey to tyrannical tendencies. The American apple has not fallen far enough from the tree of tyranny. It’s time to take another look. It’s time to act.

A ‘CALL TO ACTION’

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.13

12 See, “Russian Influence Reached 126 Million Through Facebook Alone,” The New York Times, accessible [online] at: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/technology/facebook-google-russia.html ,“Tech companies find more signs of Russian election activity,” The Chicago Tribune, accessible [online] at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-facebook-russia-posts-20171030-story.html and “Russian Hacking and Influence in the U.S. Election,” compilation of relevant articles, The New York Times, accessible [online] at: https://www.nytimes.com/news-event/russian-election-hacking

13From the Declaration of Independence, 1776.

When we stray from the path of our ideals, it is not democracy that has failed, but rather her protectors. To secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men. To re-secure these rights, our Government must be re-instituted. As democracies face new and serious threats, some have lost confidence in the valor of their founding principles, and we are no exception. It’s our turn for a reckoning.

America must continue its long journey toward becoming a more perfect union. It is time to take seriously those who seek to manipulate our democracy from abroad, a time to replenish our exhausted stores of moral capital and confidence at home, a time to remind ourselves of the ideals of our republic, and a time to help our politics better address the needs of the American public. It is, in other words, a time for civic seriousness, a time for a call to action.

These areas need immediate and on-going care, attention and action:

  1. We must re-strengthen the American citizen and civic engagement by focusing on these four public goods: (i) liberty; (ii) security; (iii) health; and (iv) education.
  2. We must harden our defenses by re-securing (i) our election infrastructure; and (ii) our free press professions and institutions. Let’s limit the over-weighted influence of money on politics, and protect our press from infiltration by foreign agents and misinformation.
  3. We must restore public trust in our democratic institutions by (i) revitalizing and restoring the purpose of our executive, legislative and judicial branches; (ii) rebalancing and returning a healthy intimacy to citizen’s relationships with their military and policing public servants; and (iii) restoring freedom, neutrality and fact-based investigative journalism to our free press. Let’s restore the checks and balances of power between the branches, and make the free press free, transparent and responsible.
  4. We must re-establish and project a ‘legitimate’ American leadership by (i) reforming and expanding trade and economic opportunities; and (ii) integrating values and interests in support of Let’s align with the new global economy while prioritizing the American worker within it, and inform our citizenry while increasing our safety and liberty in a complex global co-existence of peoples and ideas.

This Call to Action aims to rouse the American people to the defense of free society and the vision of the good that undergirds it. The better future of the world depends on us finding a unified-by-common denominator purpose: the retaking of our republic from present-day tyrannical tendencies and threats, and a hearty return to our founding principles.

[We pledge ourselves] … to a [renewed] deal for the American people. Let us all here assembled [re]constitute ourselves prophets of a [renewed] order of competence and of courage. This is more than a political campaign; it is [a call to action], a call to arms. Give [us] your help, not to win votes [….], but to win in this crusade to restore America to its own people.14

December 7, 2017

BY OUR SIGNATURES, WE SO PLEDGE:

14 Excerpted and adjusted, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, New Deal speech, delivered July 2, 1932.

MISSION STATEMENT PROJECT S.O.A.R., INC.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.1

Our American republic is in distress, and We, The People, are responsible. The better future of the world depends on us finding a unified-by-common denominator purpose: To retake and recover our republic from present-day tyrannical tendencies, and to lead and inspire a hearty return to our founding principles.

Americans need not align on all things, nor will we. Some values are absolute, however, or should be “self-evident”. Out of an “ounce of prevention is a pound of cure” sense of preserving our liberty, we have yielded to the sins of absolute partisanship. The preservation and universalization of freedom has been a unique responsibility (since 1945) and the special providence of the United States of America, whether by self-nomination or ubiquitous need.

Today’s grievances reflect similar complaints our Founders noted in 1776, upon which they built their claims not only for taking action to disconnect from what had become an illegitimate governing regime, but also a moral imperative to do so, to secure the blessings of Liberty. Starkly obvious are the similarities between our Founders’ hard choices in coping with the tyrannies of their times, with our own challenges today falling prey to tyrannical tendencies. The American apple has not fallen far enough from the tree of tyranny. It’s time to take another look. It’s time to act.

America must continue its long journey toward becoming a more perfect union, and rise to the defense of free society and the vision of the good that undergirds it.

We must:

  1. Strengthen the American citizen and civic engagement by focusing on public liberty, public security, public health and public education;
  2. Secure our election infrastructure and our free press;
  3. Restore trust in our democratic institutions; and
  4. Project a legitimate, trustworthy American leadership at home and

Our purpose is to: tirelessly uphold the ideals set out by our Founders; think and act in a bi-partisan manner; put country first; and reclaim America’s democracy for her people – for ourselves and our Posterity.

1 From the Declaration of Independence, 1776.

PLAN OF ACTION

The purpose of The America Project is to represent The People in several key policy-making areas, where major course-correction is urgently needed in American life, in order to fix our broken politics, recover our collective faith as citizens in American Institutions, save our republic from present-day tyrannical tendencies, and champion a hearty return to America’s founding principles.

The Core Group of The America Project serves as a “Secretariat,” being comprised of distinguished public leaders across a wide range of disciplines including government, health, education, science, art, business, and military who affirm the following, and dedicate themselves to leading efforts aimed at reform and recovery of the same:

  • that America faces crises in the intersection both between security and liberty, and between the priorities of the marketplace and those of a democracy;
  • that these conditions have been developing for decades but are now presenting unprecedented perils on a national, international, and planetary level;
  • that standard patterns of operation in Washington are failing to address these perils and their root causes in a fashion appropriate to their urgency;
  • that the hyper-partisan and hyper-corporatized character of American politics and public affairs toward divisiveness have only exacerbated these standard patterns, worsening an already dangerous situation; and
  • that an organized blue-ribbon body of public leaders with impeccable credentials across disciplines can produce unified purpose from otherwise disparate efforts, exerting vital pressure on both legislators and public opinion to encourage achievable and amenable course-corrections with measurable results.

The important first step in the conversion of our vision into a practical plan of action is to identify and clearly articulate our Project’s ultimate goals, or End-State, which is to realize four (4) mutually-reinforcing effects:

  1. Our Civic Engagement........................................ Re-ignited
  2. Our ‘Defenses’…............ Re-formed and Strengthened
  3. Our trust in governing institutions...................... Re-built
  4. Perceptions of Americans and American Leadership, at home and abroad........... Re-stored 

America must continue its long journey toward becoming a more perfect union. It is time to take seriously those who seek to manipulate our democracy from abroad, a time to replenish our exhausted stores of moral capital and confidence at home, a time to remind ourselves of the ideals of our republic, and a time to help our politics better address the needs of the American public. It is, in other words, a time for civic seriousness - a time for action.

Our First main task in converting our “call” into an executable “plan” of action is to designate and define specific “actionable” missions per each of our lines of operation.

These major defining Lines of Operation will be guided and measured upon S.M.A.R.T.* Goals1 – specific, measurable, achievable and “Holistically American” (i.e., cross-partisan), results-focused, and time-bound.

Secondly, identify and vet “best of breed” existing organized initiatives already doing ‘good works’ along the essential designated lines of operations, and integrate these ongoing efforts into the collective consortium of The AMERICA Project.

1 “Writing S.M.A.R.T. Goals, accessible [online] at: http://www.hr.virginia.edu/uploads/documents/media/Writing_SMART_Goals.pdf

Once formally affiliated with our umbrella Project, these initiatives will receive seed and strategic funding and resourcing support (including integrative mission and event planning support), with the aim of producing “flywheel” momentum along all lines of efforts, leading toward transformational change across our selected public policy arenas.

Thirdly, the Core Group of The America Project (working in conjunction with our Circle of Advisors, and with the counsel of the leadership of affiliated organizations and programs) will identify “gaps” in initiatives – i.e., issues and areas of concern receiving too little or no reform actions and support – and will workshop to develop candidate “new growth initiatives.”

ADDITIONAL IMMEDIATE NEXT STEPS

  1. IDENTIFY & DESIGNATE FACES FOR THE PROJECT
    1. Highly and widely respected citizens (recognized “statespersons”) who are cross-partisan or party ‘agnostic’ altogether; needs to be at least two (2), to doubly-ensure a ‘partisan/ideological balance’
    2. Proven leaders and capable ‘Servants to Nation’
  1. IDENTIFY OUR PROJECT’S KEY SUPPORT LINES (FUNDERS)
    1. Luminaries… super-empowered people, foundations,
    2. Must strike an absolute “perfect balance,” ideologically and partisan-politically
  1. IDENTIFY OUR ‘FOCUSED AUDIENCES’
    1. Cross-partisan
    2. Will likely need to write multiple variants of our ‘Declaration’ and other supporting documents, each for different levels of publics of interests and concerns
  1. IDENTIFY THE MAJOR ‘FUNCTIONS’ OF OUR PROJECT
    1. Administrative functions (internal) -> project management; fundraising; communications
    2. Operational functions (external) -> four (4) major public policy “arenas”

SOME “BIG IDEAS”

  • “S.M.A.R.T.”* approach to goals
    • Specific – and simply written
    • Measurable – tangible evidence of progress
    • Achievable and “Holistically American” – cross-partisan and of the public will
    • Results-focused – outcomes over activities
    • Time-bound – and urgent
  • National Service approach to restoration of America’s “pure public goods”

    • Just like national defense and national security, Public Education is a natural “market failure” by its subject, and its constitution.

    Consequently, nothing less than at least a public-private partnership approach is sufficient for realizing effective-costs solutions to our country’s public education challenges.

    Moreover, because of the inherent pure public good character and nature of Public Education, without a pure public good approach, we will continue to fall short of realizing the full empowerment potential in this arena.

    The “at bottom” problem with our current national approach to Public Education is our treatment of it more

    as a “luxury good” than a pure public good. Consequently, the costs and burdens of pursuing an advanced education for what is a pure public good, is deferred onto the American people, in effect excusing the federal government from its responsibilities for “covering” the negative externalities inherent to all pure public goods.

    The consequences of this? Regular citizens who falter and fail under the extreme burdens of paying for public education…. and a Nation falling short of receiving the full-benefits, for the ‘General Will’ of the country, that a healthy Public Education system can provide.

    A “new” approach to providing an affordable Universal Public Education for all Americans could be found and realized through incorporation of a full-spectrum, and tiered, National Public Service “Option” …. call it the “Public Option” … where citizens are given “options” ranging from the choice of private-payer options for their education to scaled choices of partial-to-full government and public-private partnership-provided “barter-by-service” options for achieving their advanced education goals.

    The “side benefits” of such a program to “All of Us” could include (but not be limited to): dramatic lowering of defaults on school loans; infusion of increased numbers of well-educated human talent to the improvements of public sector institutions and infrastructures typically under-resourced and under-served (e.g., health care services in under-developed urban and rural communities; etc.). Such potential “side benefits” abound across multiple public policy and good and services sectors.

    A long-term grand public benefit to our Nation would be an enhanced “public-mindedness” and character of public leadership infused across ALL sectors, public and private.

  • New Media

    • The America Project offers a three-stage developmental model and approach for “emancipating” ourselves from the tyranny of today’s hyper-partisan “Info Wars” and eventually, freeing our once American ‘Free Press’ from those tyrannical tendencies that have over time captured it and distracted it from its original public service purpose: to report fact-based truth, with candor, to all forms of Power, and to serve as the public’s ‘watchdog’ on all forms of aggregated power.

    Stage One.  Establish a comprehensive repository of factual cross-partisan information, accessible by all.

    Stage Two. Establish a new competitive social media system of public awareness platforms.

    Stage Three. Establish a new multi-medium ‘Network’ that is the new leader for reliable, trusted, facts-based cross- partisan / nonpartisan “news”.

  • Term & Conditions-Limited Representative Government

    • We might call this, Washingtonian Representative Democracy…. A return to a sensibility of American representative government, exemplified through the example of George Washington. Today, we enjoy the two-term limits placed on presidential tenures based principally on the personal example of our first leader.

    Advocate for initiatives aimed at embracing “term limits” within congress and the executive branch, all on behalf of returning a peoples’ “bridle” on the powers of our representatives. One policy change idea ripe for advocacy is the limiting of the presidency to one single six-year term of office, and a formal renunciation of all party affiliations and leadership representations once sworn in as president.

    The America Project will also explore opportunities for limiting and conditioning the role, reach, and power of moneyed influences over our electoral and public policymaking mechanisms and processes.

Enclosure 1. ~ OUTLINE OF OUR FOUR LINES OF ACTION

Here is a list of proposed paths towards solutions to America’s current hardships.

  1. Strengthen The American Citizen & Civic Engagement
    1. Public Liberty, focused namely on….
      1. Secure our elections infrastructure
        1. Limit the weight of moneyed interests in our electoral politics
        2. Eliminate the influence of foreign money in American politics
        3. Increase transparency in online political advertising
      2. Secure our free press professions and institutions
        1. Enlist social media, responsibly, in the fight
        2. Help Americans become better consumers of news and information
        3. Promote innovation and technology, and appropriate public regulation of the same
      3. Secure Workers’ Rights
        1. Establish “Living Wage” policies and practices
        2. Establish M.A.R.T. Labor-Business relations policies
      4. Restore the Bill of Rights
        1. Make applicable to the “information age”
        2. Special focus on the 4th Amendment
        3. Freedom from searches interpreted to include freedom from searches by private actors, principally among them, corporations
      5. Public Education, focused namely on….
        1. Arrival on a “common core” compromised solution path toward an American-style Public Education System
        2. Establish an array of “affordable options” for ALL, via a 21st century appropriate philosophy and plan for Selective National Service
        3. Higher Education
          1. Adopt the Chicago Principles of Freedom of Expression
          2. Endorse the American Association of University Professors’ views on academic freedom and trigger warnings
        4. Civic Learning & Civic Engagement
          1. Encourage state and local policymakers to put a renewed focus on civics
          2. Assess civics attainment more frequently
          3. Encourage bipartisan efforts to prioritize civic education
  1. Harden Our Defenses, at Home…. Reestablish balance between our interests in ‘security’ and ‘order’
    1. Public Safety & Security, focused namely on….
      1. Rebalancing of the National Defense and Security ‘Enterprise’
      2. Rebalancing of the Nation’s juridical and policing powers and enterprises
      3. Rebalancing of the Nation’s legal and normative ‘regulation’ of competing interests and ideas on:
        1. environmental protection and energy and labor security;
        2. rights to bear arms and responsibilities to equal protections under the law;
        3. freedom of expression and freedoms from persecutions of extreme expressions;
        4. freedom “of” and “from” religion
      4. Public Health, focused namely on….
        1. Arrival on a “common core” compromised solution path toward an American-style Universal Health Care System
        2. Establishment of a Nation-wide universal health care and insurance system that is fair, egalitarian, and affordable… the “same plans” for ALL that our federal representatives enjoy.
  1. Restore Trust In Democratic Institutions
    1. The ‘Executive’ “sort of power”
      1. Reconsider ‘term limits’… move to a 6-year single term of office, where presidents are freed from party politics?
      2. Add new “auxiliary precautions” (firewalls) separating executive power from command /control of DOJ agencies?
  1. Rebalancing Americans’ vested powers in their military… renewing American “Civilian-Military Relations
  1. The ‘Legislative’ “sort of power”
    1. Term limitations?
    2. Secure “Regular Order” rules via legislation?
    3. Reconsider the ‘War Powers Act’ and congressional-executive ‘war powers’ more generally
  2. The ‘Judicial’ “sort of power”
    1. Revoke Citizens
    2. Reinstate and renew the power of the Filibuster in the Senate
  1. Reestablish and Project a ‘Legitimate’ American Leadership
    1. Reforming and Expanding Trade and Economic Opportunity
      1. Make a concerted and compelling case for the benefits of global trade
      2. Update NAFTA, Revive ratification of TPP, and Finalize negotiation of TTIP
    2. Integrating Values and Interests
      1. Help the public see how democratic allies help make America safer; Sustain the infrastructure to support democratic advancement
      2. Adequately finance America’s diplomacy and development assistance; Appoint ambassadors who are knowledgeable and articulate defenders of American values
      3. Compete more effectively in the so-called ‘war of ideas’

This Call to Action suggests an enormously diverse and varied collection of recommendations. But in fact, its proposals are all of a piece. They aim to rouse the American people to the defense of free society and the vision of the good that undergirds it. America cannot afford to lose its confidence and hope. The better future of the world depends on it.

Organizing for Success

PROJECT S.O.A.R.

FORMS AND FUNCTIONS OF THE ‘SECRETARIAT'

Our “Declaration” Mission Statement, in summary

We Americans have lost our religion…. our “Civic Religion,” that is. Of the five enduring and once ’self-evident’ credos defining of Americanism (liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, populism, and laissez-faire), today Americans are divided on nearly all five; and clearly polarized on the three “isms” of egalitarianism, populism, and individualism. Where in the past though Americans have always argued and disagreed, and at times even fought over differences of opinions on the “hows” of reaching these destinations of the American Dream, we as a nation have rarely if ever disagreed to such a distressing degree on the “what and why” of our Creed as we do today. Americans are now less united on the grounding core “ideas” upon which our very country — a republic — was originally intended and founded.

We are also polar divided on core national “interests.” America is now divided along four lines, each one reinforcing the others. The first line now separating rather than uniting us is the imbalance in American capitalism. There was a time when the American economy moved in tandem with its middle class. As the economy grew, so did middle class employment and wages. But over the last few decades that link has been broken. While the economy has generally risen, today it enriches mostly those with education, training, and capital. The ‘rest of us’ Americans have been left behind. The second divide is about culture and race. In recent decades, we've seen large-scale immigration; African-Americans and Hispanics rising to a more central place in society; and gays being accorded equal rights. All of this has meant new cultures and narratives have received national attention. And it has worried a segment of the white population, which fears that the national culture they grew up with is fading. “Fears of cultural displacement” among white Americans is a perception that now, once again, threatens to become “9/10th of the rule” in America. The third divide in America today is about class — we now see acts of class rebellion nearly every day, typified by a working class revolt against know-it-all elites who run the country. The final divisive line in this story, and one that worsens all others, is communication. We have gone from an America where people once watched three networks that provided a more uniform and unifying view of the world to one where everyone can pick their own channel, message, and now even pick and choose their own facts. The degradation of the American ‘free press’ is now contributing, in effect, to a return to the bad old days of flawed and falsified notions of an egalitarianism and individualism dividend from separateness… a modern day tragedy of “separate but equal.”

How did we get here? Simply put, our institutions have failed us - largely a consequence of our neglect, as American citizens, to fulfill our obligations as members of a constitutional democracy to hold our institutions accountable and in balance. Our “First Branch” of government, the legislative branch, we’ve allowed to commit a precipitous “legiscide,” abdicating the peoples’ power over policymaking and law-making to such degrees as to have provisioned what is today an unbridled imperial power in the executive branch. And the compromise of our third branch, the judiciary, succumbing to what have been years

and years of constant partisan-politicized bombardments from the extreme right and the extreme left, has left us with a justice system that is grossly “out- of-sorts,”…. more in the service and whims of the ‘State', at the expense of the ’Nation’. The capture of the ‘press powers’ and the 'military powers’ to these illiberal tendencies now risks the former becoming a propaganda arm of the State, and the latter, its praetorian guard.

The loss, or rather the “giving away,” of our constitutional command and control of the powers of the American State has left us dangerously perilous to the wants and whims of the State, today more a “market-state” than a nation-state. To reverse these trends, and begin to ’take back’ our Republic, we must begin with recapturing the very Institutions we have neglected, and allowed to fall prey to particularism and illiberalism. This becomes both our Call to Action, and now our Plan of Action.

A Nested, Layered, “Team of Teams” Architecture and Approach

A diagram showing layers of the 'Commitments Group' structure.

IMMEDIATE (“Phase-1”) ACTIONS

  1. Draft Secretariat Mission Statement (this is our “Declaration”)
  2. Create additional materials for use in the recruitment process
  3. Examine on-going progressive movements; selectively include in our materials
  4. Determine how and when to meet targeted initial allies
  5. Move from initial allies to next concentric circle: funders

The SECRETARIAT Rationalizing IDEAS, INTERESTS, & INSTITUTIONS

Diagram showing the Knowledge and Innovation System with its components.

OUR “D3A-I” PROCESS (“DECIDE-DETECT-DELIVER-ASSESS & INTEGRATE”)

THE SECRETARIAT

Basic Functions

A flowchart of a secretariat and its functions.

A Multi-Phase ‘Campaigning’ Approach

DRAFTING A
‘DECLARATION’… defining core grievances
Establishing Vision and Intent, i.e., our Call to Action

PHASE ZERO
Defining the Problem and the “Call to Action”

PHASE ONE
Organizing For Success
Establishing the ‘Secretariat’
Establishing “circle of Advisors”
Establishing Core Funding Lines
Establishing “core” Cross- Action Teams (CATs)
Establishing basic Business Practices (i.e., the “D3I-A”)

“Pilot” Testing

  • Formal Launch of THE AMERICA PROJECT
  • Measuring Progress and Regression… producing “report cards”
  • All-Media/Mediums Promotional Campaigns
A basic flowchart with two connected blue boxes and arrows on a gradient background.

Strategic Concept Behind ‘Project S.O.A.R.’

A red banner with white text about developing policy change.

SOME RESOURCES Mission Statement, in summary

    • References

    • Declaration of Independence & Constitution
    • Federalist Papers (table of contents – what were debates about then?)
    • The New Deal - Third Revolution: post-depression era and WWII
    • Nixon era began the devolution of our democracy
    • The Spirit of Liberty: At Home, In The World (Pete Wehner and Tom Melia)
    • Reflections on the Framer’s Four Warnings
    • The True Tragedy of American Power
    • KEY COURT CASES
      • Bush Gore (2000) – stopped the recount of contested FL ballots, votes along strictly partisan lines
      • Exxon Shipping Baker (2008) – limited penalties for the Valdez oil spill, disastrous for environment but great for Exxon stock price, consumers saw corporate favoritism
      • Citizens United FEC (2010) – political donations are protected speech and thus may not be limited when to super PACs
    • Source List

    • George Bush speech on 10/19/17 in NYC
    • Obama speeches 10/19/17 in Richmond, VA and Newark, NJ
    • McCain speech 10/16/17 at Liberty Medal Award Ceremony
    • James Fallows article “The Tragedy of the American Military” (The Atlantic, Jan/Feb ’17)

SOME RESOURCES Mission Statement, in summary

    • References

    • Declaration of Independence & Constitution
    • Federalist Papers (table of contents – what were debates about then?)
    • The New Deal - Third Revolution: post-depression era and WWII
    • Nixon era began the devolution of our democracy
    • The Spirit of Liberty: At Home, In The World (Pete Wehner and Tom Melia)
    • Reflections on the Framer’s Four Warnings
    • The True Tragedy of American Power
    • KEY COURT CASES
      • Bush Gore (2000) – stopped the recount of contested FL ballots, votes along strictly partisan lines
      • Exxon Shipping Baker (2008) – limited penalties for the Valdez oil spill, disastrous for environment but great for Exxon stock price, consumers saw corporate favoritism
      • Citizens United FEC (2010) – political donations are protected speech and thus may not be limited when to super PACs
    • Source List

    • George Bush speech on 10/19/17 in NYC
    • Obama speeches 10/19/17 in Richmond, VA and Newark, NJ
    • McCain speech 10/16/17 at Liberty Medal Award Ceremony
    • James Fallows article “The Tragedy of the American Military” (The Atlantic, Jan/Feb ’17)
A section of a colorful diagram with yellow blocks and colored lines.

PHASE THREE “ENACTMENT & ENHANCEMENT” (INTERMEDIATE OBJECTIVES)

  • Selected “Policy Change” agendas are being enacted
  • The America Project begins to achieve legislative and legal “wins” along its 12-objectives lines of action
  1. CIVIC ENGAGEMENT… STRENGTHENED?
    1. Elections è cross-party monitoring… reform primaries/caucuses… term limits
    2. Free Press è “Just The Facts” repository… “JtF” online and print… “JtF” broadcast
    3. Public Education è cross-partisan town halls… legislative reform… ‘National Service’
  2. DEFENSES… HARDENED?
    1. National Security & Defense è public awareness… DOD-DOS reform… New “UCP”
    2. Policing Powers è cross-party monitoring … “pop-centric COIN footprint”
    3. Gun Rights & Public Safety è cross-party town halls … cross-party legislations …”Smart

Control”

  1. TRUST IN GOVT INSTITUTIONS… RESTORED?
    1. Our Presidency è cross-party town halls… regulate ‘War Powers’… Term Limited (1 x 6 year term)
    2. Our Congress è cross-party town halls… enhance bipartisan bill sponsorships… terms limits
    3. Our Courts è cross-party town halls… incorporation of “Peoples’ Committees” into nominative processes
  2. LEGITIMACY IN AMERICAN LEADERSHIP… REESTABLISHED?
    1. Political è cross-party town halls… reengagement with International Orgs… UN Reforms
    2. Economic è cross-party town halls … advocate for ‘Smart Trade’ legislation… WB Reforms
    3. Social è cross-party town halls… advocate for security assistance and foreign assistance reform

Converting Our Call to Action into an Viable Plan of Action

Four “clarion calls” to action: [1] Strengthen The American Citizen & Civic Engagement; [2] Harden Our Defenses; [3] Restore Trust In Democratic Institutions; [4] Reestablish and Project a ‘Legitimate’ American Leadership.

Foundation of our Plan of Action:

1.   Public Liberty

  1. Emancipating our Free Press
  2. Reestablishing ‘Fair and Balanced’ Representation for The People
  3. Recovering Consumer, Worker, and Voter Protections
  4. Reforming of Our Criminal Justice System

2.   Public Safety & Security

  1. Rebalancing our National Security & Defense Enterprise
  2. Rebalancing Competing Concerns over Environmental Protections & Concerns with Energy Economy and Labor Security
  3. Rebalancing Rights and Responsibilities of Bearing Arms and Equal Protections
  4. Rebalancing Rights and Responsibilities of Freedom of Expression and Protections from Hate Expressions
  5. Reestablishing Freedoms "of" and "from" Religion

3.   Public Health

  1. Mandating Elected Representatives Maintain Same Health Care Plans as their Constituents
  2. Developing a Minimum “Agreeable" Universal Affordable Care Program
  3. Reconceiving Health Care for America’s Veterans (could serve as a potential “model” for the “rest of US”)

4.   Public Education

  1. Developing a "Common Core" Public Education .. Affordable Education Program(s)
  2. Embracing and Establishing a National Service Program
  3. Fully Incorporating the Chicago Principles of Freedom of Expression
  4. Establishing a National Civics Education and Engagement Program
  1. Focus Line of Action: PUBLIC LIBERTY, by way of five sub-lines of efforts

①     Elections
②     Free Press
③     Public Health
④     Public Education
⑤     Restore the Bill of Rights to the realities of the modern age
Goal: Civic Engagement & “The Citizen”… re-strengthened

  1. Focus Line of Action: PUBLIC SAFETY & SECURITY, by way of three sub-lines of efforts

①     National Security & Defense
②     Policing Powers
③     Gun Rights & Public Safety
Goal: Public Defenses… re-hardened

  1. Focus Line of Action: GOVERNMENTAL REFORM, by way of three sub-lines of efforts

①     Our Presidency
②     Our Congress
③     Our Courts
Goal: Trust in Governmental Institutions… re-built

  1. Focus Line of Action: AMERICAN LEADERSHIP, At Home and Abroad, by way of three sub-lines of efforts

①     Political
②     Economic
③     Social
Goal: Legitimacy of American Leadership… re-stored

CIRCLE OF ADVISORS PROJECT S.O.A.R., INC.

Our American republic is in distress, and We, The People, are responsible. The better future of the world depends on us finding a unified-by-common denominator purpose: the retaking of our republic from present-day tyrannical tendencies and threats, and a hearty return to our founding principles.

Candidates, whom if they accept, will sign the pledge in our Declaration:

1. George Soros
2. Colin Powell
3. Bill Gates
4. Warren Buffett
5. Elon Musk
6. Susan Rice
7. George W. Bush
8. Barack Obama
9. Mark Zuckerberg
10. Michael Bloomberg
11. Sandra Day O’Connor
12. Oprah Winfrey
13. Mary Barra (CEO,GM)
14. Beyoncé Knowles
15. Taylor Swift
16. Marian Wright Edelman
17. LeBron James
18. John Kasich
19. John McCain
20. Cory Booker
21. Theo Epstein
22. Joe Biden
23. Chance the Rapper
24. Madeleine Albright
25. James Baker
26. Susan Eisenhower
27. Condoleezza Rice
28. Hillary Clinton
29. George Schultz
30. Mitt Romney
31. Bernie Sanders
32. Al Gore
33. Jimmy Carter
34. George H.W. Bush
35. Bill Clinton
36. Brent Scowcroft
37. Jeff Bezos
38. Bill Moyers
39. Dan Rather
40. Tom Brokaw
41. ** Small
Representation of Assorted Retired Military Officers (GOFOs) XX. TBD.

CONTACT LIST PROJECT S.O.A.R., INC.

Our American republic is in distress, and We, The People, are responsible. The better future of the world depends on us finding a unified-by-common denominator purpose: the retaking of our republic from present-day tyrannical tendencies and threats, and a hearty return to our founding principles.

Silicon Valley Big 5 Tech market cap is $3 trillion +

  1. Alphabet (Google parent)
  2. Apple
  3. Amazon
  4. Microsoft
  5. Facebook

Hedge funds

  1. Bridgewater Associates (Ray Dalio) $122B
  2. AQR Capital Management (Cliff Asness) $70B
  3. JPMorgan Asset Management (Mary Callahan Erdoes) $45B
  4. Renaissance Technologies (James Simons) $42B
  5. Two Sigma (David Siegel) $39B
  6. DE Shaw & Co (David Shaw) $35B
  7. Millennium Management (Israel Englander) $34B
  8. Man Group (Luke Ellis) $34B
  9. Och-Ziff Capital Management (Daniel Och) $34B
  10. Winton Group (David Harding) $32B
  11. Elliot Management (Paul Singer) $31B

Foundations

  1. Open Society Foundation
  2. Ford Foundation
  3. MacArthur Foundation
  4. Kellogg Foundation

Individuals

  1. George Soros
  2. Warren Buffett
  3. Bill Gates
  4. Elon Musk
  5. Mark Zuckerberg
  6. Larry Ellison
  7. Michael Bloomberg
  8. Steve Ballmer
  9. Anne Cox Chambers
  10. Jeff Bezos
  11. Phil Knight (Nike)
  12. Paul Allen
  13. Larry Page
  14. Sergey Brin
  15. Laurene Powell Jobs
  16. Dustin Moskovitz
  17. Sean Parker
  18. George Lucas
  19. Oprah Winfrey
  20. Martha Stewart
  21. Jay Z
  22. Beyoncé Knowles
  23. Mary Barra (CEO, GM)
  24. Marillyn Hewson (CEO, Lockheed Martin)
  25. Lisa Davis (CEO, Siemens)
  26. LeBron James

Other considerations

  1. Patriotic Millionaires
  2. Veterans For Peace
  3. Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
  4. Center for American Progress
  5. Aspen Institute
  6. Koch Industries
  7. Cato Institute
  8. Vera Institute
  9. Hoover Institute
  10. AEI
  11. Heritage
  12. https://casefoundation.org/blog/startup-america-partnership-moving/

We emphasize bipartisanship as a core value.