Maybe the top ones; but in the rank-and-file, are they all? Are all Republicans MAGA? I hope not because we need all voices to help us rise above what Trump has inflicted on us.
Definitely metaphorically bloody. We need to be large but peaceful. In fact, I think standing strong and silent would be more effective than violence. Picture 10,000 people standing outside the capitol building in complete silence, punctuated with the occasional firm pronouncement by someone noteworthy. and maybe the occasional unified call-and-response. Chills.
Peaceful is essential. Peaceful protest is historically much more successful than violent protest. If you see violence break out at the upcoming protests it's probably being started by the extreme right wing.
A course in proper CHARACTER needs to be given to the Supreme Court, Law firms, Universities, Republican politicians and the rest (Trump, Musk, MAGA) are all unfixable.
Many crossed over this weekend, and many more are sitting at home as their realities and positions shift. This is an ongoing process that will take some time. There are plenty of center-right people we can reach, so long as we welcome them and don't shame them. Remember: We're the big tent party.
If it is important for them to show that they are not the same, then they need to come out of hiding. I know it's scary - many of us are scared. I know they are afraid of their leadership - all the more reason to challenge it now rather than wait and pretend it might go away. We have examples of Adam here and Liz Cheney that it IS possible to stand up and oppose this monstrosity. So... if Republicans are not doing any of those things - then it doesn't matter enough to them.
Maybe I am just unlucky, but most of my interactions with Republicans have been of the kind where they basically say "Cry harder - we won."
Sounds like these are the MAGA people who may be irredeemable, so if it's me I don't worry about winning them over, but they might have friends who are listening, so good on you for hanging in. And yet, you have to protect yourself too. It's okay to not engage, and more important that you show up and still protect your soul. The Republicans I'm interested in are the ones at home wondering WTF happened and how and when do they get off this rollercoaster. My dad's in the camp, though he left the rollercoaster on Jan 6 and didn't vote last time. I think there are lots of conservatives out there like him, quiet ones, who could come around. But those picking fights probably aren't worth your time.
Don Bacon at least keeps speaking out at least about Ukraine, Signalgate, and the tariffs. So not all and there have been efforts in the Senate against the tariffs with several. I am an independent who is left leaning (former democratic, green party) but I still want to notice and encourage where there are these little rays of sanity. I agree it is much too little. But I believe it will grow I hope so.
My fraternity had a similar code, and it was emphasized enough that I started getting it, and it fit with my family and spiritual values as well. One of the biggest problems I have with the President is that his primary value, as shown by his actions, are get as much as you can for yourself and if that means stepping on someone else, or lots of someone else’s, too bad for them. It is this mind set that sets people against each other instead of building community, and ultimately can lead to war. You don’t have to look far in today’s world to see that manifesting. I have a phrase I just remembered, “The only things I really have are my honesty and integrity.” Seems a bit quaint in today’s world, but I stand by it.
Good stuff Adam. It's always equally important to share what we stand for along with what we stand against. Although I was never a fraternity kind of guy, there is a nobility in this creed that is definitely admirable and most often missing in current politics.
But you know, if this American crisis gets us and others who may have rarely, or ever, thought about what it means to be honorable to exercise that honor, then maybe this is our chance to "begin the world over again" as Thomas Paine stated in 1775 in "Common Sense." Perhaps this surfeit of selfishness, disrespect and intolerance that is not oozing but really exploding out of the trump regime will be the wake-up call to us that things must change and that we are the arbiters, like it or not, of that change. This is our time, our mantle to take, to effectuate action and a new commitment to doing what is right and best for our people.
So well said Michele. Let’s hope that many, many others will sense that change is needed and actually take actions towards that. It can be infectious if enough people engage.
Thank you, Adam. As a society we have forgotten what that really means and needs. You have stated it clearly. Respect, civility and compassion are a commodity when they should be essential. We are at each other's throats when we should have each other's backs. When our society was like that, that's when America was great. That's where we need to be.
This bought tears , reminded me of my dad who very much this code. He would tells us you can tell a true character of a man in the way he treats the elderly, children and animals , as they cannot speak for themselves. As his daughter I live by that , thank you for sharing, and the memory and the hope that there are many others who hold this code.
Like I’ve said several times before here on your Substack Adam, how can these Republicans (most of them) and even some of the Democrats look at themselves in the mirror everyday and give themselves a thumbs up like their stance is ok? This bending over to kiss the ring and then the ass is unthinkable, at least 15 years ago it was. This gentleman’s (gentlewoman’s) creed contains many of the attributes and actions of Jesus. Yet the Christian nationalists exhibit none of these traits. Such hypocrisy!
However, you Adam, do possess many of these qualities which is why so many read and listen to your words. Thank you for sharing your perspective. We need to start teaching civility and honor in schools again.
You are so right ! I think it has to be observed to be even more sinister than just not gentlemanly. My
cases in point are 1. Trump fired Vice
Admiral Shoshana Chatfield - a top
officer at NATO . Ostensibly for the
“ offense “ of delivering a talk at the
Naval War College about diversity
- about 5 years ago. 2. The United States Naval Academy removed books about MLK jr. and Jackie Robinson from the shelves of the library. It seems to me that the forces at work here are leaving no stone unturned to shape our military
service into something very different from the oath I took many decades ago . How many other examples do we need to see that
A military force that's no longer loyal to the Constitution and does not follow traits as expressed in The Creed is a military force ready to follow the orders of a dictator.
From what I can see - they are doing everything from removing books from the library to removing Admirals & Generals from top command posts . The ultimate goal
I do have to wonder what the hazing rituals were and are in that fraternity, though.
I read about abuses in that process fairly regularly, at many fraternities and sororities.
At NYU, in my day, a sorority required its pledges to measure the circumference of Washington Square Park at dawn with their arms. Security would "arrest" them for "disorderly conduct," while the women in charge laughed their heads off and took photos.
Hearing of this from one of the pledges, I told her she could get the figure from copies of city records at the Bobst Library. She and her pals did. The ambush failed.
Next morning, my pal tossed a slip of paper with the precise figure on the boss's desk. The boss fumed. She could do nothing...the girls had met the assignment.
More serious was the hazing event in my father's day, in 1945. His classmate had been a commando in Burma in the 5,307th Provisional Task Group, better-known as "Merrill's Marauders," for their CO. The last one recently died. They fought in the stinking, malarial, jungles of Burma (Myanmar) against the Japanese, to seize a town, taking heavy casualties from enemy bullets, diseases, and rotten food. Now he wanted to make up for lost time and get that accounting degree.
Our hero pledged the fraternity for accountants, and went through all the nonsense. Then came the last event...he was ushered into a dark room with very little light. Inside was a ewe. He was told to drop his pants and make love to the sheep.
That was it. Our man spun around on his tormentors and sent all the frat guys to St. Vincent's Hospital with "lacerations and abrasions." Former commandos from Myanmar did not take abuse from snotnoses.
A day or two later, one of the frat guys approached our man on West 4th Street and said, "You were not actually supposed to make it with the sheep...we would just take a photo of you with your pants off and put it on the board with all the other photos. We did not mean to upset you in that way. Do you still want to join the fraternity?"
No, our hero said. "You guys are children, and I'm a man."
Glad to hear it…we also had an incident here in New Jersey where a kid died of alcohol poisoning in a frat ritual where he had to basically keep drinking.
He passed out…and died.
Your essay was brilliant…I re-stacked it on my Substack page, where I write my own version of similar sentiments to you.
I won't speak for my son, but I do think SAE had some issues in various places. Communal groups are good as long as they keep their creeds in mind and do not become so self-important that they have to torture people to prove their 'worth'. That can be said for any group.
The fraternities at NYU were not good folks, in my day. Aside from being bastions of conservatism, that is.
One ran the best meth lab in Greenwich Village.
Another rigged the student elections.
A third pimped out the girls in its associated sisterhood to other fraternities, so that frat members had an expedient means of losing their virginity with minimum embarrassment and even less emotional involvement.
Two Asian-American based fraternities were ordered by their Chinese gang buddies to let them in to a big party. The gangs were rivals. When they found each other over the DJ, beer, and chips, they decided this was a territorial issue, and adjourned to the dormitory laundry to duke it out. There, one of them pulled his .38 and blasted his enemy into the next world.
The NYU security guards, all being shell-shocked WW2 veterans and only good for checking IDs, begged the gangbangers, “Be a good boy…put the gun down!”
The NYPD Emergency Services Unit arrived in short order and battle order and quickly restored order, hauling off all and sundry.
Sometime later, some drunken friends and I went down to the laundry with an OUIJA board to communicate with the dead kid, to see if we could find his stash. Instead — we thought — we got the last King of Bulgaria, Boris III, who told us to “go away.”
Thank you for this reflection, so fitting. I don’t know how most Republicans in Congress look themselves in the mirror or face their families around the dinner table.
Thanks for sharing this reminder of ourselves. I’ll add it to my two sources on the same subject, Rules for a Knight by Ethan hawke and Rules of Civility by Amor towles. My husband was the epitome of a gentleman and I’m blest that so is my son and son-in-law.
Let those words ring in the ears of civilians of all persuasion. Man and woman, each live the code of honor intention. Why has society slid into the gutter? Thanks, Adam, for replaying those words. From my view, you are a living example of the code.
When I was reading through it, I thought of how he had to brag to the reporter Sunday about winning in golf right after an important question was asked.
Finally, glad you said gentlewoman because MTG is the female version of him.
Wasted on todays Republican party. They're all cowards, thieves and traitors.
Maybe the top ones; but in the rank-and-file, are they all? Are all Republicans MAGA? I hope not because we need all voices to help us rise above what Trump has inflicted on us.
To remain quiet the same. There are no redeemable party members left. I think Adam and Cheney were the last.
You might be right. But whatever the party, or no party at all, we will need to be banded together and strong to save the nation.
Agreed. Mass protests and Dem leaders willing to get bloody. Metaphorically for now.
Definitely metaphorically bloody. We need to be large but peaceful. In fact, I think standing strong and silent would be more effective than violence. Picture 10,000 people standing outside the capitol building in complete silence, punctuated with the occasional firm pronouncement by someone noteworthy. and maybe the occasional unified call-and-response. Chills.
Peaceful is essential. Peaceful protest is historically much more successful than violent protest. If you see violence break out at the upcoming protests it's probably being started by the extreme right wing.
I love this idea!
Indeed.
A course in proper CHARACTER needs to be given to the Supreme Court, Law firms, Universities, Republican politicians and the rest (Trump, Musk, MAGA) are all unfixable.
🚨 Next up: April 19 Join the Movement > fiftyfifty.one, Handsoff2025.com, https://indivisible.org/
Tesla Takedown: check your city https://www.teslatakedown.com/
Many crossed over this weekend, and many more are sitting at home as their realities and positions shift. This is an ongoing process that will take some time. There are plenty of center-right people we can reach, so long as we welcome them and don't shame them. Remember: We're the big tent party.
If it is important for them to show that they are not the same, then they need to come out of hiding. I know it's scary - many of us are scared. I know they are afraid of their leadership - all the more reason to challenge it now rather than wait and pretend it might go away. We have examples of Adam here and Liz Cheney that it IS possible to stand up and oppose this monstrosity. So... if Republicans are not doing any of those things - then it doesn't matter enough to them.
Maybe I am just unlucky, but most of my interactions with Republicans have been of the kind where they basically say "Cry harder - we won."
Sounds like these are the MAGA people who may be irredeemable, so if it's me I don't worry about winning them over, but they might have friends who are listening, so good on you for hanging in. And yet, you have to protect yourself too. It's okay to not engage, and more important that you show up and still protect your soul. The Republicans I'm interested in are the ones at home wondering WTF happened and how and when do they get off this rollercoaster. My dad's in the camp, though he left the rollercoaster on Jan 6 and didn't vote last time. I think there are lots of conservatives out there like him, quiet ones, who could come around. But those picking fights probably aren't worth your time.
Good for you Linda. I will try and take a page. It is my knee jerk reaction to strongly point out the lies. Trying for calmly correct. 😉
Don Bacon at least keeps speaking out at least about Ukraine, Signalgate, and the tariffs. So not all and there have been efforts in the Senate against the tariffs with several. I am an independent who is left leaning (former democratic, green party) but I still want to notice and encourage where there are these little rays of sanity. I agree it is much too little. But I believe it will grow I hope so.
From your mouth to the ear of all that is divine in the universe, that it may be so.
I agree...for every one fuming on Truth Social and Twitter on being betrayed by the Bloated Yam, 30 more are defending him on the same sites.
"Honor is not transactional."
Bumper stickers, t-shirts, buttons--
and could work just as well for truth.
My fraternity had a similar code, and it was emphasized enough that I started getting it, and it fit with my family and spiritual values as well. One of the biggest problems I have with the President is that his primary value, as shown by his actions, are get as much as you can for yourself and if that means stepping on someone else, or lots of someone else’s, too bad for them. It is this mind set that sets people against each other instead of building community, and ultimately can lead to war. You don’t have to look far in today’s world to see that manifesting. I have a phrase I just remembered, “The only things I really have are my honesty and integrity.” Seems a bit quaint in today’s world, but I stand by it.
I just printed this to have a family discussion around it tonight at dinner. Thank you. Spot on.
Great idea! Good bedtime read for my grandsons.
My son was in SAE at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. I recognized this as soon as I glanced at it. I found this piece inspiring. Thank you.
CC
Good stuff Adam. It's always equally important to share what we stand for along with what we stand against. Although I was never a fraternity kind of guy, there is a nobility in this creed that is definitely admirable and most often missing in current politics.
It’s not only missing in current politics but in our society as a whole.
But you know, if this American crisis gets us and others who may have rarely, or ever, thought about what it means to be honorable to exercise that honor, then maybe this is our chance to "begin the world over again" as Thomas Paine stated in 1775 in "Common Sense." Perhaps this surfeit of selfishness, disrespect and intolerance that is not oozing but really exploding out of the trump regime will be the wake-up call to us that things must change and that we are the arbiters, like it or not, of that change. This is our time, our mantle to take, to effectuate action and a new commitment to doing what is right and best for our people.
So well said Michele. Let’s hope that many, many others will sense that change is needed and actually take actions towards that. It can be infectious if enough people engage.
Thank you, Adam. As a society we have forgotten what that really means and needs. You have stated it clearly. Respect, civility and compassion are a commodity when they should be essential. We are at each other's throats when we should have each other's backs. When our society was like that, that's when America was great. That's where we need to be.
This bought tears , reminded me of my dad who very much this code. He would tells us you can tell a true character of a man in the way he treats the elderly, children and animals , as they cannot speak for themselves. As his daughter I live by that , thank you for sharing, and the memory and the hope that there are many others who hold this code.
Like I’ve said several times before here on your Substack Adam, how can these Republicans (most of them) and even some of the Democrats look at themselves in the mirror everyday and give themselves a thumbs up like their stance is ok? This bending over to kiss the ring and then the ass is unthinkable, at least 15 years ago it was. This gentleman’s (gentlewoman’s) creed contains many of the attributes and actions of Jesus. Yet the Christian nationalists exhibit none of these traits. Such hypocrisy!
However, you Adam, do possess many of these qualities which is why so many read and listen to your words. Thank you for sharing your perspective. We need to start teaching civility and honor in schools again.
thank you
Joan ,
You are so right ! I think it has to be observed to be even more sinister than just not gentlemanly. My
cases in point are 1. Trump fired Vice
Admiral Shoshana Chatfield - a top
officer at NATO . Ostensibly for the
“ offense “ of delivering a talk at the
Naval War College about diversity
- about 5 years ago. 2. The United States Naval Academy removed books about MLK jr. and Jackie Robinson from the shelves of the library. It seems to me that the forces at work here are leaving no stone unturned to shape our military
service into something very different from the oath I took many decades ago . How many other examples do we need to see that
commandant Big Brother plans to
stick around and stick it to us ?
A military force that's no longer loyal to the Constitution and does not follow traits as expressed in The Creed is a military force ready to follow the orders of a dictator.
Wayne ,
From what I can see - they are doing everything from removing books from the library to removing Admirals & Generals from top command posts . The ultimate goal
would be the nightmare you alluded
to .
Great words of wisdom.
I do have to wonder what the hazing rituals were and are in that fraternity, though.
I read about abuses in that process fairly regularly, at many fraternities and sororities.
At NYU, in my day, a sorority required its pledges to measure the circumference of Washington Square Park at dawn with their arms. Security would "arrest" them for "disorderly conduct," while the women in charge laughed their heads off and took photos.
Hearing of this from one of the pledges, I told her she could get the figure from copies of city records at the Bobst Library. She and her pals did. The ambush failed.
Next morning, my pal tossed a slip of paper with the precise figure on the boss's desk. The boss fumed. She could do nothing...the girls had met the assignment.
More serious was the hazing event in my father's day, in 1945. His classmate had been a commando in Burma in the 5,307th Provisional Task Group, better-known as "Merrill's Marauders," for their CO. The last one recently died. They fought in the stinking, malarial, jungles of Burma (Myanmar) against the Japanese, to seize a town, taking heavy casualties from enemy bullets, diseases, and rotten food. Now he wanted to make up for lost time and get that accounting degree.
Our hero pledged the fraternity for accountants, and went through all the nonsense. Then came the last event...he was ushered into a dark room with very little light. Inside was a ewe. He was told to drop his pants and make love to the sheep.
That was it. Our man spun around on his tormentors and sent all the frat guys to St. Vincent's Hospital with "lacerations and abrasions." Former commandos from Myanmar did not take abuse from snotnoses.
A day or two later, one of the frat guys approached our man on West 4th Street and said, "You were not actually supposed to make it with the sheep...we would just take a photo of you with your pants off and put it on the board with all the other photos. We did not mean to upset you in that way. Do you still want to join the fraternity?"
No, our hero said. "You guys are children, and I'm a man."
Nah ours were fine when I went through
Glad to hear it…we also had an incident here in New Jersey where a kid died of alcohol poisoning in a frat ritual where he had to basically keep drinking.
He passed out…and died.
Your essay was brilliant…I re-stacked it on my Substack page, where I write my own version of similar sentiments to you.
I won't speak for my son, but I do think SAE had some issues in various places. Communal groups are good as long as they keep their creeds in mind and do not become so self-important that they have to torture people to prove their 'worth'. That can be said for any group.
I just don’t like hazing.
The fraternities at NYU were not good folks, in my day. Aside from being bastions of conservatism, that is.
One ran the best meth lab in Greenwich Village.
Another rigged the student elections.
A third pimped out the girls in its associated sisterhood to other fraternities, so that frat members had an expedient means of losing their virginity with minimum embarrassment and even less emotional involvement.
Two Asian-American based fraternities were ordered by their Chinese gang buddies to let them in to a big party. The gangs were rivals. When they found each other over the DJ, beer, and chips, they decided this was a territorial issue, and adjourned to the dormitory laundry to duke it out. There, one of them pulled his .38 and blasted his enemy into the next world.
The NYU security guards, all being shell-shocked WW2 veterans and only good for checking IDs, begged the gangbangers, “Be a good boy…put the gun down!”
The NYPD Emergency Services Unit arrived in short order and battle order and quickly restored order, hauling off all and sundry.
Sometime later, some drunken friends and I went down to the laundry with an OUIJA board to communicate with the dead kid, to see if we could find his stash. Instead — we thought — we got the last King of Bulgaria, Boris III, who told us to “go away.”
Wow. Wonderful story. Maybe the children grew up a notch as a result.
I hope so.
And I subscribed to you!
Thank you for this reflection, so fitting. I don’t know how most Republicans in Congress look themselves in the mirror or face their families around the dinner table.
So agree with this, Julia.
‘goodwill’ / ‘rights of others’ - some meaningful thoughts and words that jumped out - - - sadly, these have been displaced by self-interest
Thanks for sharing - and for your tireless efforts
Such a timely piece and a good reminder to us all. Thank you.
Thanks Adam for these thoughts that we all once were and by hard work we will be again. Never back down from a bully, they’re all cowards!
Thanks for sharing this reminder of ourselves. I’ll add it to my two sources on the same subject, Rules for a Knight by Ethan hawke and Rules of Civility by Amor towles. My husband was the epitome of a gentleman and I’m blest that so is my son and son-in-law.
You made my day 🙏🏻💕🙏🏻
Let those words ring in the ears of civilians of all persuasion. Man and woman, each live the code of honor intention. Why has society slid into the gutter? Thanks, Adam, for replaying those words. From my view, you are a living example of the code.
I call him uncouth.
When I was reading through it, I thought of how he had to brag to the reporter Sunday about winning in golf right after an important question was asked.
Finally, glad you said gentlewoman because MTG is the female version of him.