Political Thoughts of Timothy A. Raty

This blog has been inactive for most of this year due to paternity leave. New content will be published within the coming weeks, including a follow-up on the Iran War, why the alt-right is finding success worldwide, and what to look for in the U.S. midterm elections.

  At the time of this writing, news of the death of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have been confirmed by Iranian government-run news.  And it is well past time.  And it may cost Americans their liberty.   Legitimacy of the Islamic Republic I have written about this topic before in the context of the Israel-Hamas War; a summary should be sufficient in re-applying it to this new war. Legitimate governments only exist with the consent of those it governs. To be so established, the governed must have the means to peacefully replace their governments, whether structurally or in composition. At a bare minimum, this requires: 1. Freedom of political speech (no censorship); 2. Freedom of political assembly (two or more political parties); 3. A legislative branch in which at least one chamber is directly elected by the governed; and 4. A judiciary which can independently apply the laws established by the legislative branch. A failure to meet these minimum r...

  The many violations of individual rights and attacks against the U.S. Constitution by the second Trump administration, compounded recently by the blatant murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, have led many in “the Resistance” to question whether the time to transition from peaceful protests to violence is now justified.  It is not. Not yet. A common formal framework to structure the moral justification for revolution can be found in the words of America’s Declaration of Independence: “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends [protecting inalienable rights], it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience h...

  I had originally considered entitling this article “The Death of Liberalism”, but it would be in bad taste while the patient is still technically alive on its deathbed. It did not take long for it to be sent there from its pinnacle at the end of the Cold War some thirty-four years ago. Ironically, this was partly caused by remnants of 20 th century collectivist ideologies ( e.g. , Islamic fundamentalism and communism) or variations thereof ( e.g. , Putin’s and Trump’s nationalism bear striking resemblances to those of the Axis Powers of the 1930s); ideologies which liberalism had mostly defeated by 1992. Even Nazism, which should have been dead and buried after instigating the bloodiest conflict in human history, has made a comeback.  Liberal democracies are under a threat no less existential than those of World War II, but now are in a more precarious position. Unlike then, the British Empire no longer exists (and several of the key nations composing it, such as Egypt an...

 The 22 nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states the following:  “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice . . .” (emphasis added) This provision seemingly prohibits President Donald Trump from being elected to the office of President again. From selling 2028 campaign merchandise, to restructuring the White House to his personal preferences, to open mulling, to consolidating Federal power in himself, it is clear that he has every intention of staying in office past his current term. The key term (and weakness) in the 22 nd Amendment is the term “elected”. Speculation has been raised as to ways he could stay in office past 2029 without being elected. The most popular theory on the internet is to run some lackey ( e.g. , Vice President J.D. Vance [R] or Donald Trump, Jr.) as the Republican Presidential Nominee in 2028 with President Trump as his runningmate. Once they are inaugurated, the lackey will promptly resign and Trump will a...

This article was originally intended to be a continuation of my “Autopsy” series on last year’s Presidential election, in which I would outline ways for the Democratic Party to win the midterm elections in 2026. Painfully I must conclude that the Republican’s brazen and unmitigated destruction of the U.S. Constitution (see “ The Day of Coronation ”, which is eerily prophetic) has led me to conclude that the 2024 Presidential election was the last truly free one under the U.S. Constitutional form of government.  It is highly likely at this stage that, if the Republicans do lose at the ballot box next year, President Trump will again claim that the results were “rigged” in the closest races necessary to tip the balance of scale back in favor of the Republicans. He may then instruct his increasingly docile “Department of War” to seize the voting apparatus and/or ballots in these races to, allegedly, perform an “independent audit.”  If this occurs, he has several choices. He m...

It is unquestionable that the agenda of President Donald J. Trump (R) is to vest all fundamental government powers in the office of the President. It is also unquestionable that he is using such power to dictate the actions of others, whether they be universities, law firms, media companies, state and local governments, or foreign governments. As the magnanimous felon famously stated, “ I run the country and the world. ” His efforts have largely been successful and there is a lesson therein which should be learned by the Left. In America, for well over a century (since at least the beginning of the Progressive Era in the 1890s), the Left (with the cooperation of the moderates) have pushed for the expansion of government influence into nearly all aspects of life: education, healthcare, social welfare, business and labor, agriculture, manufacturing, banking, transportation, etc. This expansion fell well short of the pure socialism of annihilating the concept of private property, as ...

The following article appeared in the " DP International Newsletter " (Vol. 1, Issue 1; 2 June 2025) . It is re-published here (with minor edits) because, while it focuses on Luxembourgish politics, the underlying message is applicable to all democratically-based societies. More accurately, why should anyone be involved in politics? What is the purpose and is the purpose motivation enough? Most people will make the case that the premise of the prime purpose is a duty that is owed to someone else (for example, “it is your civic duty”). I wish to make the case purely from a selfish perspective, leaving aside arguments from duty and focusing exclusively on why politics is of value to you, the individual. Chances are extremely high that if you are reading this, you live in a country. A country is comprised of individuals who interact with each other on a daily basis in a wide variety of activities which, ideally, are based on mutually agreeable terms. We buy and sell goods and se...

The combination of the facts that almost all segments of the American public desire authoritarianism and that President Donald J. Trump (R) is giving these segments what they want by being a few steps shy of terminating the U.S. Constitution, presents a daunting challenge to those opposed to MAGAism. Despite all the warning signs of the dangers of MAGA and Trump, despite having the explicit support of some of the leading Never Trump Republican leaders, and despite record-breaking, good economic indicators, the Democratic Presidential ticket lost by a solid margin in 2024. Unlike European countries, the United States has a front-ended political system; various political factions coalesce around a broad ideology (forming a political party) prior to elections (in back-ended systems, like in Europe, the various factions form their own parties with their own ideologies, then coalesce with each other after elections in the form of governing and opposing coalitions). As is want after ever...

Two family medical emergencies have occurred over the past two months which have rendered my ability to write anything (here on this blog on in my books) impossible. One of the emergencies, unfortunately, ended with the passing of a member of my family. The other is requiring my girlfriend to be bedridden for an extended period of time - which, in turn, requires me to be carrying more of the day-to-day work to take care of her. This being the case, I will not be posting anything new on this site for a while, at least not until April, 2025. Politically, this could not have happened at a worse time, but it is what it is. The Trump Administration is largely moving along the path I wrote about on how Trump could become a dictator, though there are some positive signs of pushback from the courts and from the Republicans in Congress . . . but the emphasis must be placed on the word "some".  The most critical sign to watch for at this point is whether SCOTUS pushes back on the Trump...

(Author’s Note: Due to health and a family emergency, I have been unable to complete as yet my planned series diagnosing the 2024 election. I still plan on finishing each part, but with political events unfolding as they are, this article is more timely.) Today, former President Donald J. Trump (R) will become current President in what will be the first coronation ceremony after the position was transformed by the U.S. Supreme Court into a pseudo-monarchy, by holding that a sitting President is practically inviolable. In 2022, Trump publicly called for the termination of the U.S. Constitution and he is well on his way in doing so. Months ago, I was asked by a relative as to how he could do this and provided her with the following short list of simultaneous political moves he would need to execute, in order to undermine the political and cultural underpinnings of American society to the point where termination would be feasible: ·        Packing the Ex...