The Chimes of Freedom Grow Faint
We’re not teetering on the edge. We’re in the abyss.
“Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight
Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
An’ for each an’ every underdog soldier in the night
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing”
~ Bob Dylan, as performed by Warren Zevon
This weekend, the 2025 version of Republican “patriotism” will be on full display. Draped in Alligator Alcatraz T-shirts, waving, “Don’t Tread on Me” knockoffs from Chinese factories, and stuffing their faces with hot dogs, apple pie, hate, and grievance, they’ll scream about freedom while undermining its very foundation. They'll set off fireworks made more expensive by their mad king’s trade wars and toast America while actively rooting against it.
They’ll chant about liberty under skies lit by tariff-jacked pyrotechnics, imagining themselves heirs of 1776, all while worshiping a man and a movement that tried to overthrow the very government they pretend to honor. They’ll cosplay as patriots. But this isn’t patriotism — it’s idolatry.
Their love of country is performative. Their reverence for the Constitution is selective and transactional. Their loyalty isn’t to the republic — it’s to a twice-impeached, quadruply indicted, criminally convicted seditionist and sexual predator. This isn’t a political movement. It’s a cult. A minority cult. But one that’s winning.
Since I last wrote about the fraying of American democracy on July 4, 2021, the descent hasn’t just continued — it’s accelerated. What was recently merely simmering and potentially dangerous has curdled into something openly hostile to democracy: a crusade that glorifies violence, exalts strongmen, and vows to finish what January 6 started.
In four years, they’ve transformed a failed coup into a mythic rebellion. The insurrection is now a blueprint. The Republican Party — too cowardly or complicit to resist — serves as the ride-share for retribution and authoritarian restoration.
We’re not teetering on the edge. We’re in the abyss.
They’ve purged truth, weaponized law, embraced stochastic terrorism, and turned cruelty into virtue. The rule of law is now a cudgel, used only against “the others.” They attack the press, vow to jail opponents, and pledge loyalty only to power.
Their brand of Christianity blesses vengeance. Their calls for “law and order” end where their own criminality begins. Their cries of “freedom” ring only for those who look, believe, and vote like them. The rest of us? We’re the enemy.
The Republican Party isn’t conservative. It’s a white supremacist, Christian nationalist, authoritarian death cult — orbiting a single man’s brittle ego, bottomless greed, and lust for revenge.
Truth is irrelevant when power is the only god.
The Supreme Court — now fully captured — has handed near-total immunity to a would-be autocrat. This wasn’t interpretation; it was incineration. Constitutional guardrails didn’t bend — they broke.
Anchors, Weighted Chains, and Incontinence
“You got me tied down with battleship chains Fifty foot long with a two-ton anchor Tied down with battleship chains Fifty foot long with a two-ton anchor”– Warren Zevon, “Battleship Chains,” 1990 cover
Trump and his enablers are not subtle. They are loud, proud, and deadly serious about retribution. They’re purging the civil service, politicizing the military and deploying it against us, neutering Congress, and dismantling checks and balances. Trump isn’t governing. He’s seizing control.
And the GOP roars in approval.
As we mark another Independence Day, we must do so clear-eyed. This is not normal. It is not over. And it is not survivable unless we act.
This isn’t about party politics. It’s about the survival of democracy, of truth, of the American experiment itself.
Let this be the year the majority wakes up — shakes off the fatigue, the numbness, the delusion that “it can’t happen here.” It is happening here. Right now.
If we fail to meet this moment — not just with votes, but with unflinching urgency — we will lose what remains of our republic.
There are more of us. But they are louder. More shameless. More willing to burn it all down for a taste of dominance. They dream of an America where liberty is ornamental — and freedom is for the few.
The chimes of freedom still echo — but faintly now, like a final warning.
If we don’t act — and act decisively — future Fourths of July will not be celebrations. They will be eulogies.
Let this not be the year the chimes fall silent.
Jeff Timmer is a political consultant, strategist, and Warren Zevon fan. He was Executive Director of the Michigan Republican Party and served as a Republican on the Michigan Board of State Canvassers. He is a Senior Advisor to the Lincoln Project.
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As Jon Stewart said back in 2010, "We live in dark times, not end times." The times have been growing darker since a backlash against our first Black president erupted in republican ranks and produced the proto-MAGA movement called the Tea Party - filled with the same sense of white grievance, coated in racism, dipped in white Christian Nationalism and wrapped in an American flag. Back then, many now NeverTrumpers were riding that wave nativist resentment. What emerged from that sewer was the filth we're dealing with now, led by an orange carnival barker who rose to prominence pushing a racist lie called birtherism. So, a little humility and self-examination wouldn't go amiss when talking about how we got where we are today. I believe people can change, and many of those who brought us to this place have done so. I welcome them to the ranks of those of us who never needed that lesson.
Things never looked darker than they did in the early days of the American Revolution when our rag-tag Continental Army suffered defeat after defeat and retreated into fields west of Philadelphia to overwinter at Valley Forge, knowing they were outmatched and outnumbered by British forces. During that bleak winter, Thomas Paine produced the first of a number of pamphlets called The American Crisis which jolted a dispirited country to stiffen its resolve. He began by saying this:
"THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated."
This is MY country, and I love it. I will not surrender what our ancestors fought for to a bunch of phony, performative patriots who only love the show of patriotism but not the work of it. Happy Independence Day, fellow pro-democracy patriots! Today, we remember and celebrate what our founding generation gave us. Tomorrow, we resume the fight. Until we win!
STOP with the doom! Your words are no help. As Judge Luttig has said, "the republic was lost on 6 January 2021." The situation now requires real courage, facing reality, and organizing for the long struggle that will eventually reclaim Independence and our Constitutional Republic. We as a nation have been sliding for a long time. So it will take a long time to rebuild what has been left to take care of itself. So, yes. The gop is full throated fascist. The oligarchs have their hands on the government. But the story of this time is still being written and lived. The language of defeatism, which is what I hear in your words, never serves anyone but the very forces that intend to win by sapping the courage of the people standing up for freedom, democracy, and the constitution. Get on the right side of history. This crowd will not succeed unless We the People let them succeed.