“No state, no matter how advanced, is immune from flawed leadership, the erosion of political checks and balances, and the degradation of its institutions.”
Fiona Hill
The establishment of Be|Spoke as a 501(c)4 PAC was predicated on an observation of an erosion of constitutional guardrails protecting our inalienable right to EXIST in a just society where freedom to SPEAK truth to power is enshrined in our Bill of Rights. All over the world, the alarming rise of authoritarianism is eroding democracies. Turkey, Hungary, India, Poland, Israel… Vulnerable populations are targeted by destabilizing active measures of aggressive foreign dictatorships that conspire with corrupted leaders who stand to gain wealth and power pushing fascist agendas.
America is not immune.
Revered as the stalwart defender of democracy worldwide, the U.S. was named on the Freedom House list of declining democracies in 2021 for the first time in history. Eurasia Group issued a more ominous warning in its 2024 Top Risks Forecast:
“Three wars will dominate world affairs: Russia vs. Ukraine… Israel vs. Hamas… and United States vs. itself… None of these three conflicts have adequate guardrails preventing them from getting worse. Most problematically, none of the belligerents know what they are fighting over.”
Eurasia Group Top Risks Forecast 2024
The dark underworld of political ratfuckery unveiled by Lev Parnas in Shadow Diplomacy is a harbinger of our dystopian future should Trump regain power: corruption perpetuated by authority figures; fascist ideologies enshrined into law by his sycophants; political rivals persecuted; critical journalists silenced; and lies deliberately repeated by his media surrogates to brainwash, demoralize and oppress masses into submission. Anyone who thinks this can’t happen in America is in the dark or in denial — like masses caught off guard in the 1930s. It’s already happening. Sadly, too few Americans acknowledge it.
While pro-democracy activists, journalists and public officials sound alarms about what’s at stake in November, their counterparts on the right shamelessly repeat pro-Kremlin lies. Complicit media shield faithful audiences from truth while reinforcing irrational beliefs with obdurate punditry or outlandish conspiracy theories that keep believers in a perpetual state of cognitive dissonance, like a waking dream in which the absurd appears normal. This is not normal. Nor is it acceptable.
What’s next for America?
We are at an inflection point facing the most consequential election since the Civil War. If we sleep through the alarming warnings, we will eventually wake up to a dystopian nightmare, ruing the day we let the American Dream die because we failed to speak out or mitigate threats of fascism in time.
This era of American democracy is frighteningly similar to the rise of Nazi fascism in pre-World War II Germany. People there did too little too late to stop what would come. So did America when it failed to aid Great Britain in time and we wound up with boots on the ground. We don’t have to repeat history. We mustn’t. There’s too much at stake for any of us to ignore these overt threats to our liberties lest we be reviled by the next generation when they look back at ours as ask, “Why did you not stop it?”
Unfortunately, people won’t seek facts they aren’t aware exist. Too many have been sequestered in echo chambers where they are shielded from truth about perils they could face if they do nothing. Be|Spoke sees an opportunity to bring these critical issues into focus in neighborhood conversations, outside of the polarizing social mediascape, and vice versa — bring community issues to the attention of elected representatives by providing the safe space for these conversations to take place.
Providing open forums for conversations to take place without the insidious noise could very well be then panacea we need to build consensus and finally reclaim our power to stop the alarming rise of fascism. After all, it was the bombardment of lies got us in this mess, so it stands to reason that unbridled truth may get us out of it. If those deceived online won’t seek truth elsewhere, we can — and must — take it to them, where they are. Stories that shed light on truth to expose corruption MUST BE TOLD.
Be|Spoke EXISTS to ensure every American understands what’s at stake by elevating the voices of those who courageously SPEAK truth to power.