Good friends don’t stand by and watch a loved one being abused.

Sometimes it's hard to face a truth that you can see, but don't want to believe. However, it's time to wake up now, because failure to do so would be terminal

There’s a song you may know, written by Paul McCartney, credited, though, to Lennon & McCartney:

When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be.

And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me speaking words of wisdom, let it be.

Consider me your ‘Mary’.

Have you ever been in that position where a good friend is the victim of abuse and you want desperately to help rescue them? Finding a sustainable path out of an abusive relationship is NEVER as easy as just walking away.

It’s often complicated and requires careful planning to ensure that when you put your rescue plan into play, the victim is not constantly living in fear of the abuser hunting them down and seeking retribution.

There has to be a plan to ensure that the victim is protected by the law and that the perpetrator is held accountable for the abuse suffered by the victim. Life is often made more complicated when the perpetrator holds a position of power. Power that enables the abuser to undermine the story of the victim.

This is precisely where democracy stands in the United States today. Good people who stand for the values on which America was built. People who don’t want to whitewash difficult moments in history. People who recognise that diversity and immigration are the foundations on which the American Dream were built, find themselves in the fight of their lives to preserve their values.

I am that friend prepared to invest whatever time it takes to help devise an escape plan. This is about trust and a willingness to listen. I don’t come to this mission with the party political baggage that I believe is currently hindering progress. I approach this from the perspective of a friend delivering some uncomfortable truths, in an attempt to help find a solution.

What I can tell you is that every word comes from a place of love and yearning to see the America I have had a love affair with for decades. I have lived through the Rodney King riots and the 9/11 tragedy. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The election of the first black president, along with the subsequent political earthquake that ensued.

I have been the poster child for ‘The special relationship’ between the former colonial masters and their runaway child. I have an in-depth understanding of the American political system and the Constitution, dare I say, better than some Americans.

Let me say off the bat that I know the ‘Special relationship’ has never meant the same to American politicians as it has to UK leaders, who still see it through rose-coloured spectacles to this day, especially in the new age of Mad King Don.

This is one of those moments when trust matters as much as truth. I would like you to be prepared to put your faith in me to provide a proposition based on a left-leaning set of values that are fully displayed in my writing and social media presence.

One thing is sure: if my social media feeds were examined as part of any attempted entry into the U.S., I might find myself requiring a good lawyer. Fortunately, I do have a barrister daughter and son-in-law who might step up to help, I hope.

The obvious question is, why do I care? I’ve been asked that question many times in the last 6 years. You know the kind of thing “F*ck off and keep your nose out of our affairs” or “You should take care of your own Muslim run shit hole country, you communist”

The reason I got involved was sparked by the murder of George Floyd, but I had been closely following US politics from the day Trump got elected in 2016, which I predicted, I might add. I have been involved in UK politics all my life, but I saw the danger Trump presented to Europe if, as usual, we followed closely behind.

I planned to help address the problem at its source, and 200+ political Ads and 70,000 Substack subscribers later, here I am, with a unique perspective of outside objectivity, along with an in-depth understanding of politics and messaging.

Consider these free words of advice for you to do with as you wish. The first hurdle to negotiate is to recognise that you have a problem, and this is where the Democratic leadership and I have a problem. It’s also a problem, sadly, echoed by more than a few Democratic activists. The belief that the loss in November was not their fault, but the fault of stupid voters who didn’t listen to the warnings being delivered by Democrats, is a problem. I am on record as saying Democrats failed the American people in the 2024 election, and have taken some significant incoming as a result. My statement is often seen as a criticism of Kamala Harris; however, that is not the case. I want you to watch the ad I created to support the campaign. I included all the key selling points, but voters had already made up their minds.

While she would not have been my natural choice, she did an outstanding job given the cards she was dealt. Indeed, I did a number of Ads in support of her campaign. It was NOT the candidate; it was the catastrophic result of hubris from a man who had achieved remarkable and transformative progress since 2020, but did not have the good grace to admit to himself and his party that he had passed his sell-by date after the 2022 midterms. He found himself in the age-old situation of listening to those around him who were encouraging him to run again, not because it was the right thing to do, but because it would be their passport to another four years.

This act of pure self-interest dealt a fatal blow to the perceived credibility of the Democratic message. It blows my mind to think that they likely knew of his medical crisis, but still felt it was right to run again. At best, it was misguided; at worst, it was a breach of trust with the American people and an act of deliberate deception. Whatever the reason, that is for those involved and their conscience. The result, however, was that the delay in the transition left Kamala Harris with little time to develop a cohesive proposition to the American people. As I have said, she did a great job in very difficult circumstances, but it was simply not enough.

The campaign had some glaring holes in that it hung its hat on ‘the other guy is a fascist’, so vote for me. Call me old-fashioned, but calling their guy a fascist day in, day out simply further motivated his base and clearly some in the middle who hate all politicians, but want to make a point. Add to that, what was for me the cause of death. Total focus on the middle class with little to no mention of the working class. These were the very Democrats that were still struggling with grocery prices at a time when Trump was running a campaign on lowering prices and telling his usual lies. Given that lies sell better than the truth, this was a gift to Trump, who was on a roll with immigration, for which Kamala had no convincing counter argument.

The Heritage Foundation had been planning this for four years, and Kamala Harris had to devise a plan within 100 days. In American politics, that’s a massive ask, as was demonstrated by the result. After Election Day, Democratic leadership should have been prepared with a plan to counter Trump from Inauguration Day. After all Republicans had published Project 2025, so their plans were very clear. Instead, they told voters in not-so-many words to get ready, because they now deserved everything they got after voting for Trump. What they should have done is hold a televised event to make a public apology for having failed far too many Americans by not offering them a vision for a better tomorrow. A missed opportunity in my view.

Instead, they went silent and left it to a handful of Democratic warriors to fight on their own, while they focused on insider stock dealing and their plans for self-preservation. There was an abject failure to take responsibility for the loss, which only opened the door to the implementation of Project 2025 and much more. The party was left rudderless, while the public was being told that the former president had hidden his cancer diagnosis. In the eyes of the public, this was an admission that Biden was prepared to run the country while battling stage four cancer and that Trump was right. To many, it is an inconceivable act of betrayal, and that is why polling indicates Democrats’ favourability numbers are in the toilet.

We find ourselves in the dreadful position that the only person who can beat Trump is Trump by his acts of economic suicide, impending inflation and the implementation of his social welfare cuts. When you are forced to run a campaign hoping the other guy will face-plant, you have a serious problem.

It makes me smile a lot that people think 12 million people out on the streets for a DAY will move the needle. Come back and speak to me when you get 12 million people on the street every weekend. We live in a world where instant results are king, but sadly, that’s not how real resistance works. How nice it would have been if John Lewis and MLK had a weekend out in Washington, and that saw the end to voter rights and segregation. Resistance is not a sprint; it’s a marathon, and marathons are gruelling, with many falling by the wayside long before the finishing line.

You can try to convince yourself all day, every day that America is not yet in a constitutional crisis, but the truth is, you’ve been there now for a couple of months at least. Some would argue for years now. America is no longer a functioning Democracy. There it is, I’ve said it for you because it’s the truth. It’s already on life support, and Trump is just waiting to hold a pillow over her face. I know this may be difficult to hear, but until you can say it out loud, you are in no position to fight back. I know many are already aware of most of this, and for those people, consider this affirmation of your assessment.

For those who have not yet seen my posts on the real architects of what Trump is merely a delivery mechanism for. I’d direct you here and here. Be in no doubt: we are facing a formidable enemy with a meticulous, long-term plan to completely reimagine America.

I don’t want this series of posts to be doomsday shit posting, I want you to help you understand the threat, then understand the challenges and finally offer a feasible solution. Rest assured, this keeps me awake at night as I’m sure it does you. I have thought long and hard about it, and while I would never be so arrogant as to suggest I have the answers, I certainly have some building blocks which can be used to fight back. In part two, tomorrow, we will look at the challenges.

This footnote will appear on each of my posts moving forward, to encourage those who can afford it to consider becoming paid subscribers. THIS IS NOT A GUILT TRIP for those who can’t afford it. My content will ALWAYS remain free regardless of your ability to contribute. Your support and engagement with my work are just as important, so please feel no pressure because there is none. This campaign requires mission-critical visual messaging, such as my short film on Peter Thiel and those in the shadows who are running the show. These are expensive to create and can only be produced with the help of funding derived from paid subscribers. I view it as an opportunity to become a stakeholder in the fight to preserve democracy, and I hope you will too.

Martin