Fourth & Democracy | A State in Trump’s Image, and Distractions over Epstein Files – Are We in Purgatory or Hell?

Welcome to Fourth & Democracy, where the playbook meets the public square.

There’s been a long-running joke on social media – half kidding, half coping mechanism – that we all died during COVID and this is either purgatory or hell. Lately, things have gotten so dark that people are starting to wish it were true.

We’re not here to sell you doom and gloom. We’re here to tell you what we’re actually seeing as we head toward 2026. Republicans know they don’t have the votes or the narrative to win the midterms outright – so they’re going all in on authoritarianism instead.

Let’s get into it.

1st & 10: Honoring Dear Leader

Part of the authoritarian playbook is a deliberate use of public infrastructure to elevate the head of state into something more than a political figure – a permanent presence, a symbolic constant, a godlike embodiment of the nation itself. We have seen it with Mao in communist China, the Kim family in North Korea, and with Stalin in Russia.

This isn’t about vanity alone. It’s about power. Authoritarian movements have long understood that control isn’t sustained only through laws or force, but through environment. When a leader’s image appears on government buildings, cultural institutions, public passes, and national landmarks, the message is subtle but relentless: the state and the leader are inseparable. To criticize one is to betray the other.

History is full of examples. Fascist regimes didn’t just demand loyalty – they designed it into daily life. Streets, schools, art, architecture, and national symbols were repurposed to normalize reverence, flatline resistance, and psychologically condition the public to accept permanence. Over time, the leader stops feeling temporary. Elections feel ornamental. Opposition feels abnormal.

This is how authoritarianism moves from policy into identity. The goal isn’t persuasion, it’s saturation. When the leader’s face becomes part of the physical landscape, dissent begins to feel lonely, deviant, even dangerous. People stop asking whether this is legal or appropriate and start asking whether it’s inevitable.

What looks like branding is, in reality, a warning sign. When Donald Trump grafts his name onto institutions that already carry historic meaning – The Kennedy Center, the United States Institute of Peace – when his image appears on federal buildings, or alongside George Washington on National Parks passes, he isn’t honoring our state. He’s remaking it in his own image.

And this isn’t happening in a vacuum. Trump sees his own physical decline, just as he sees the limits of his MAGA movement heading into 2026. Republicans don’t have the policy record or narrative strength to persuade the American people to give them more time. So instead of winning consent, they’re working to replace it – relying on authoritarian tactics and fascist symbolism to tighten their grip on power.

2nd & 5: The Wait for the Actual Epstein Files

On Friday, Attorney General Pam Bondi committed the sin we all knew she would: sloth.

Not laziness in the cartoon sense, but acedia – the moral failure of will. The weariness that comes from choosing inertia over responsibility, avoidance over action, and procedural minimalism over moral charity. Faced with a legal and ethical obligation to fully disclose the Epstein files, the Justice Department opted for the path of least resistance: a release so heavily redacted it bordered on meaningless.

Yes, redactions can be justified to protect victims – but this went far beyond that. Entire pages were blacked out. Key context stripped away. Files were rendered unreadable. What was released was a mix of photographs we had already seen and selectively curated dumps to involve what the Trump regime believes are “Democrats.” What was promised as transparency became a bureaucratic, “fuck off” – not even legally compliant, but spiritually empty.

That’s what sloth looks like in power. Not refusal to work, but a refusal to do the work that matters. It’s the exhaustion of conscience. The quiet decision that confronting the truth – and the people it might implicate – simply isn’t worth the effort.

And in a case like Epstein’s, where justice was already delayed, denied, and buried under years of institutional failure, sloth isn’t neutral. It’s deadly. Because every act of deliberate inaction protects the powerful, retraumatizes the survivors, and reinforces the same system that allowed the abuse to continue unchecked in the first place.

This wasn’t just a bad release. It was a moral abdication – the government choosing comfort over courage, and silence over accountability. The American people wait impatiently to see whether their elected officials will take steps toward transparency, but this moment might demand more action.

“Holding, Bondi … 10 yard penalty – Third Down.”

3rd & 15: Baiting Maduro into a Distraction

If authoritarian governments have one reflex, it’s this: when the pressure closes in at home, manufacture a crisis abroad.

That’s the context for the Trump regime’s continuing escalation off the coast of Venezuela. Over the past two weeks, U.S. forces have intercepted multiple oil tankers linked to Caracas, with the Coast Guard and Navy now actively pursuing a third vessel in international waters. The regime has framed the operation as sanctions enforcement over countries like Iran. Venezuelan officials have called it piracy. What’s undeniable is that this represents a deliberate escalation.

Donald Trump has a long history of using foreign confrontation as political cover, and the timing here is impossible to ignore. As scrutiny intensifies after the “release” of the Epstein files – and the administration’s failure to deliver meaningful transparency – the White House is manufacturing a new headline cycle built around naval operations and national security. War, or even the threat of it, has a way of drowning out uncomfortable and growing domestic questions.

This is also a calculated gamble aimed directly at Nicolás Maduro. By seizing tankers and tightening a maritime blockade, the U.S. is daring Maduro to respond – to harass a U.S. vessel, to miscalculate, to give Washington the provocation it needs to escalate further. One strike, one confrontation, one simple flashpoint, and the story shifts overnight from Epstein, redactions, and accountability to flags, uniforms, and “defending American interests.” Congress gets bogged down in war powers resolutions and committees on the legality of going to war without their approval, rather than the suffering and survival of young boys and girls.

Don’t get us wrong, Trump and his cabinet would love a regime change where things are handed over to Maria Cornia Machado, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who dedicated her trophy to Trump. That would likely open up oil and rare earth mineral operations for the United States to a country with the world’s largest reported oil depository. But, authoritarian politics thrive on this pivot. Foreign enemies simplify narratives. They create urgency, justify secrecy, and rally support around power rather than principle. Accountability becomes unpatriotic. Transparency becomes a luxury. The question stops being what are you hiding? And becomes whose side are you on?

This isn’t a protection of the American people. It’s misdirection – a risky and cynical attempt to change the subject by raising the stakes and putting at risk the lives of our men and women in uniform. In a world already strained by instability, it’s a reminder that when leaders feel cornered, they don’t always look for solutions. Sometimes, they blow things up.

*Delay of Game … Trump – 4th Down.”

4th & Democracy: Our Country’s Mental Health

Recently, I wrote an article for Lincoln Square about my own mental health – and about the mental health of young Millennial and older Gen Z men – through the tragedy of the Reiner family. What that story exposed wasn’t just individual pain, but a deeper sickness running through this country.

That sickness is only going to worsen under the fascistic tendencies and authoritarian moves accelerating toward 2026. A society that glorifies strength while refusing to invest in care inevitably breaks its own people. And when it comes to young men – especially veterans, working-class men, and those already living on the edge – this country has made a clear choice: neglect instead of infrastructure and punishment instead of support.

Right now, I’m going through one of the most trying periods of my life. Even with a support system – friends, family, people checking in – it’s extremely difficult. I cannot imagine navigating this alone. Yet countless people in this country do exactly that every single day, without the safety net I’m fortunate enough to have. Those are the people who so often fall into worsening addiction, homelessness, or suicide – not because they’re weak, but because they were abandoned.

The holidays are here – a season that amplifies loneliness, grief, and unresolved pain – I can’t help but see my own struggle reflected in theirs. And it reinforces a truth we don’t say enough: if our country refuses to protect its people, then we must protect each other.

That means more than voting. More than protesting. More than fighting for our rights – though all of that matters. It means checking on the people we love. The people we worry about. The people who feel deeply and carry more than they let on. It means taking that step to overcome our own feelings of being uncomfortable and recognizing that they are too. It means making sure they are not fighting this battle alone.

Because we are going to need everyone in this fight – especially the ones who feel the most. Those are the people who carry the emotional weight of a nation. And if we prepare them, support them, and refuse to let them fall through the cracks, they will help carry us across the finish line – not just toward survival, but toward something better.

What to Watch

Stranger Things (Season 5 – Part II) – Netflix

We got the first half of the final season earlier this month and on Christmas Day, the second half will be released. Eleven, Will & the gang are battling Vecna for the fate of Hawkins and these last four episodes will decide their fate.

Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade – ABC

On Christmas morning, we’re all going to need to feel a bit normal, and there’s nothing more classic “normal” than a Christmas Day parade. Tune into the Disney parade on Christmas morning for holiday floats, characters, and an appearance by Santa.

Cowboys vs. Commanders (1 pm ET) & Lions vs. Vikings (4:30 pm ET) – Netflix

We’ve got Christmas Day football this year on Netflix. The Cowboys will be squaring off with the Commanders in the Nation’s Capitol in the first game and a late game featuring the Lions and the Vikings. Snoop Dogg will perform a halftime show in the late game.

What to Read

From everyone here at Lincoln Square, we hope you have a Happy Holidays and a Merry Christmas!

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