Revolution Day
“Stand your ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.” - Captain John Parker
250 Years Ago Today
Two hundred and fifty years ago today, men stood up to tyranny.
My father’s ancestors were among them—documented militiamen who stood their ground against the most advanced and well-trained army on the face of the planet. Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration, is blood of his blood. This isn’t abstract history to my family. It’s real. It is personal. It is paid for in full.
These men did not “hope for change.” They did not “vote harder.” They did not “advocate” or “#spreadawareness.” They tried to reason with their king. Many times. They sent emissaries to plead with him. They bent over backward for peace.
After that failed, they made sure of their cause. They knelt before their God with their families, and then—they stood up and shot the tyrants in the face. Many never saw their families again.
History is often sanitized to a series of dates and places that fail to keep us awake in class. We gloss over the fear and the adrenaline. The smoke and the blood. It makes us feel more comfortable and enlightened.
We aren’t.
And now? There’s a dangerous foolishness growing—this idea that political violence is fun. That burning the property of strangers, in the name of other strangers, somehow counts as revolution. That lashing out at people we disagree with is justified—so long as we believe in it hard enough.
I see it in the smug romanticism of armchair radicals—people who quote revolution over lattes and talk tough about struggle, but have never watched a child die.
And I see it in the delusions of those who think owning a rifle makes them invincible—who laugh at their enemies as “purple-haired fatties” and think they’ll fold at the first sign of trouble.
They mistake comfort for clarity. Theory for courage. And they think fire can be aimed. They don’t know it, but they are children playing with matches.
These people have never seen violence. I pray they never do.
What they don’t understand is that the battle they seem to crave won’t happen in some distant corner of the country, where they can watch it unfold on their iPhones between bites of brunch. It won’t pause for lunch breaks, or stop when they’re tired and really need to sleep.
It’s coming to their neighborhood.
The “Nazis” they love to punch so badly? They’ll punch back—harder than anyone’s ready for.
Those “Deamoncrats” they mock from their bench rest - they are a hell of a lot more dangerous than they give them credit for.
There won’t be timeouts. There won’t be rules.
Study Spain. Study the Balkans. America is a hell of a lot better armed than either of those places ever were.
Do you really want this?
Once that fire starts, it will consume everything and everyone. It won’t matter who lit the match. Indiscriminate violence isn’t a bug—it’s a feature of this kind of fight.
We are now in what some call the Fourth Turning—the final phase of a great cycle. A time when institutions crumble, narratives fracture, and old orders are swept away by fire and force.
It’s not a theory anymore. It’s now.
In The Fate of Empires, Sir John Glubb observed that the average lifespan of a great empire is about 250 years. Today, we’re right on schedule.
Every prior turning has ended in conflict—revolution, civil war, global war. This one will be no different unless people wake up.
The American Revolution was the exception, not the rule. Most turnings end like the French.
History isn’t abstract. It’s real. It’s bloody. And it’s always closer than we think.
Every revolutionary dreams of a seat in the politburo—not a shovel in the field… and certainly not lined up against a wall at the end of it all.
And on the other side, there are those who think their victory is inevitable. That owning guns, waving flags, and quoting the Founders means they’ll walk away unscathed—while the cities burn and the bodies pile up somewhere else.
But it doesn’t have to end in fire.
There is still a way out.
It starts by understanding that as Americans, we have a hell of a lot more in common with each other than with the politicians and outrage merchants that gain power and make money by getting us to hate each other. THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT YOU.
Making peace with your brother countrymen is not weakness.
If we are serious about “Making America Great Again”, than the path forward cannot include domination. It cannot be about using the power of the State to reward our friends and punish our enemies. There is no justice in forcing one to pay for another’s comfort. There is no justice in destroying the lives of those we disagree with.
Greatness is about doing what is right, even if it does not benefit us personally.
Do you truly seek justice?
Or are you simply hoping that when the dust settles, you’ll be the one giving the orders?