The Valley Forge Project

11/02/2024

11/01/2024

I’m enjoying the heck out of the United States of America this morning.

The polling place is PACKED.

It’s great to see.

10/27/2024

Author unknown, but perfect for an election year:

America is not a consumer price index.
Or a jobs report.
Or a gross domestic product.
If it was, any middling beancounter could be President.

America is not a defense budget.
Or a military-industrial complex.
Or a series of insider government contracts.
If it was, any mediocre general could be President.

America is not a stock price.
Or a balance sheet.
Or an earnings report.
If it was, any cutthroat CEO could be President.

America is not a church.
Or an exclusionary dogma.
Or a list of sins to keep the flock in line.
If it was, any charismatic pastor could be President.

America is not a conclave of partisan lawgivers.
Or a whip count.
Or a back-room pork barrel deal.
If it was, any slick politico could be President.

America is not a nation of witless rubes.
Or easily duped screen slaves.
Or wild-eyed strident simpletons.
If it was, any dishonest huckster could be President.

America is not a population of coin-operated drones.
Or self-obsessed loners.
Or materialistic isolationists.
If it was, anyone pledging to pad their wallets could be President.

America is not an oligarchy of wealthy titans and flush conglomerates.
Or a cabal of moguls who own the airwaves and the newspapers.
Or a shadow-funded PAC that can buy any candidate.
If it was, a small group of self-interested elites could pick the President.

America is the dream of freedom made real by generations who gave their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

America is a superpower born of a Great Depression and a war no one thought it could win, midwifed by a citizenry who defied expectations and united in common purpose.

America is a series of faults corrected by men and women who believed in our better angels and our unwavering commitment to unity and equality.

America is a country of compassion where neighbors put out fires and save lives and rebuild in calamity’s aftermath.

America is a builder and an innovator and a trailblazer, driven by the certainty that anything is possible for a people full of curiosity and vision.

America is a land of opportunity, where talent and hard work can pave the way to a better future for generations yet to come.

If it wasn’t, it wouldn’t matter who was President.

(Sample presidents shown below for clarity)

04/05/2024

There was a lot of cursing going on at Valley Forge in the winter of 1778, but for once it wasn't about no food, no shoes, and all the dysentery. The Swearer-in-Chief this time was Baron Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin Von Steuben. He had been a Prussian captain in the service of Frederick the Great until he got kicked out of the army.

He met Ben Franklin in Paris, who helped him fabricate a resume that would impress the Continental Congress and George Washington. By the time he got to America, the captain was now a former lieutenant general.

Whatever else you might say about Von Steuben, he was good enough to get Benjamin Franklin to lie for him.

He was given the job of turning independence-minded colonists into disciplined soldiers. The only English word he knew was “Goddamn.”

He was going to need it.

https://shows.acast.com/60a3be0e6196e1001b05895b/episodes/6602ceec54612f0017241211?

Von Steuben Takes Over

03/22/2024

Slimy Traitorous Cabal Safety Tip, Number Two Hundred Fifty Seven: If you’re going up against George Washington, you’d better bring your A-game. And then some.

Check out Valley Forge - Almost A Trainwreck - Part III

https://shows.acast.com/60a3be0e6196e1001b05895b/episodes/65f89c47fa04820015b0d774?

The Conway Cabal vs. George Washington

01/26/2024

My obsession with Valley Forge history continues, in podcast form...

https://shows.acast.com/60a3be0e6196e1001b05895b/episodes/65ae78082771ff0016398835?

Military Strategy And An Angry Prussian

01/17/2024

In keeping with my (and the nation's) obsession with Valley Forge, I've started a podcast series about that very thing:

The American Cause Faces Its End

01/13/2024

Valley Forge still resonates.

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-12-2024?r=as83y&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&fbclid=IwAR2a0yhTEDcMwlx4Z6eixo6DZ3IVJVZUi_6HBUgAO31tTAiB4rQrUYKOggk_aem_AYpL6RmwQSg1wmSVLDdPxM2TrX9IQFAf6-pYO8Yombzq7naSmpqgmQNhvMjTAA_Udv8

Last week, after President Joe Biden went to Valley Forge and then spoke in Pennsylvania, I got a chance to sit down with him to ask a few questions. What I wanted to hear from him illustrates the difference between journalists and historians. Journalists are trained to find breaking stories and to....

01/05/2024

You all know by now how much I love me a good train wreck, what with all the attendant self-inflicted calamity.

I found a story in American history that was nearly the biggest train wreck of them all, but then...wasn't.

It's a great story. And there's a contest! (Some of you could get some really cool stuff, if you guess the right answer...)

The American Cause Faces Its End

12/21/2023

Since I’m writing a podcast episode about this very thing….

11/22/2023

~ Seneca the Younger

10/30/2023

https://www.valleyforgeproject.org/

The Valley Forge Project is a grassroots political movement to amend the Constitution of the United States.