Vines is the executive producer of the 2021 documentary “Dialogue Lab: America” and president/CEO of Ideos Institute. Molineaux is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and president/CEO of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.
What if our neurology is hard-wired to thwart our brightest dreams? What if the enemy is inside us?
The American ethos – the idea that we, the people, could self-govern – was radical in the 1770s. In drafting the U.S. Constitution, multiple forms of governance were studied, much of which was included in the final draft. Cultural influences were taken from commonly recognized Greek and Roman efforts, the English rule of law, and a dash of French philosophy. Less well-known, however, is the influence of the indignous people, specifically the Iroquois, Shawney, Cherokee and Mohawk in the separation of civilian and military powers plus individual rights. This amalgamation of ideas, codified in our Constitution, sparked both a political and social culture that celebrated the tackling of the unknown with aplomb and agency and the pursuit of new ideas about what it meant to be a progressive and diverse Republic.
So what has changed?
Today, we, the people, seem to push away from the unknown and uncomfortable to cling to promises of security and safety. We’ve discarded collective critical thinking to become critics of what we don’t like. We prefer the devil we know over the adventure of discovery, innovation and the creation of something new. We have lost our curiosity and empathy for others to tribal fears. This is the enemy inside us – our tribal tendencies to “other” those unfamiliar to ourselves, discount expertise we don’t agree with and surround ourselves with similar-minded people.
Overwhelming all of this is a burgeoning desire within the larger public for this level of progress to stop. To return to something more familiar, more stable. More than anything else, the desire for predictability continues to erode the ethos which once made America unique. That the pursuit of greatness, an end result that must and should always remain elusive, is the essence of our uniqueness. Even our self-proclaimed exceptionalism.
And so it is in this time of multiple crises – pandemic fallout, failing systems, inflation, climate crises, polarized media and politicians, et al – that we need our American ingenuity and experimentation more than ever. To delay in this effort is fraught with challenges, namely the ability for those who falsely promise a return to the familiar and the certain to assume positions of power and influence, all the while chipping away at the foundational DNA that defines who we are as a nation. And yes, this includes the nearly imperceptible deterioration of our democracy. Though today that which was once imperceptible has become abundantly clear, including that which the framers of the U.S. labeled “mob rule.” The mob mentality demanding predictability has short-changed our innovative tendencies. Physical violence is rising – all because we are afraid of an uncertain future and our roles in it. Yes, the enemy is indeed within us.
Contrast our current societal woes to a culture that is inherently empathic. A society where those who are curious, intellectually humble, progress-oriented and questioning in pursuit of the unknown are heralded as leaders and influencers. In the past, this is what has defined America. It’s how we tackled the Great Depression, recovered economically following World War II, motivated the civil rights movement and landed on the moon. All periods of incredible change and uncertainty. The leaders who shepherded us through these fragile periods must have also found great comfort in knowing that behind them lay fellow countrymen moved by courage and grit, and undergirded by the knowledge that a nation of fearless pilgrims were poised and ready to meet the challenges ahead.
What’s changed?
We must ask ourselves these questions: Will there be continued will to strive for an ever greater future? And is there equal will to disarm the enemy inside us, to pursue greatness once again?
If there is the will to face ourselves, we’ve compiled a list of principles and actions that can help get us back on track:
- First, set aside fear. It may or may not be real. It’s not helpful.
- Be curious – about others, about solutions, about failed attempts. Ask questions.
- Be humble – no one has the answers right now, but some people have studied the problem and others have proposed solutions.
- Be additive and iterative – doing the same thing over and over is not helpful, but an adaptation or iteration could be! Build upon, don’t tear down. Learn from failures.
- Be empathic with others, but not at your own expense. Help when you can and let go when you can’t help. We have enough collective trauma in the world, so take care of yourself in a way that prevents you from being traumatized by our world.
- Look for the helpers – many empathic people find safety and security in a time of chaos – leaning into the uncertainty and providing pathways to a brighter future and a path out of the chaos.
Without the American ethos that made our country great, where would we be today? It is our embrace of the unknown, of gathering input from stakeholders and iterating from failure to success that led to our unique, and arguably influential, place in the world. We can make America great – not in its actual greatness, but in our tireless pursuit of it.
Ben Droz
Ben Droz
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Pinnacle Bank Expo Center on the Nebraska State Fairgrounds on October 05, 2026 in Grand Island, Nebraska.
The President Invited Iran to Bomb My Home
I was driving home to San Diego from Los Angeles on Monday night when I heard that the President of the United States had offered both cities up to Iran as bomb targets. At a rally in Nebraska, defending his war, Trump told the crowd, “let [Iran] take out Los Angeles, let ‘em take out San Diego.” It was, he said, “a very small price to pay.”
I was coming from a Bernie Sanders rally for Proposition 40, the one-time tax on California billionaires that would send 90% of its revenue to healthcare. We desperately need it to pass because, in order to give tax breaks to billionaires, Trump signed a law that will strip health coverage from 10 million Americans; this tax will make sure we can still cover Californians. Call me crazy, but I think taxing billionaires one time so we can make sure kids in California get to see a doctor is a very small price to pay. I also think that even if Trump were joking, it is indefensible to make jokes about the potential destruction of so many lives. Human life is never a small price to pay. Human life is priceless.
Plus, the reality is: here in San Diego, we’re already paying the price for Trump’s actions, and it’s not small at all. He has gutted FEMA, tried to kill climate resiliency programs, and destroyed public health standards, while his signature law is set to cut off health insurance and food support for hundreds of thousands of San Diegans. Like plenty of American cities, San Diego is already busy finding local solutions to respond to the problems this president has recklessly created.
Not to mention, at least 19 American service members have been killed in this war already. Human rights monitors have documented more than 3,600 dead in Iran by April alone. Here at home, gas is sitting just pennies below its all-time record. Taxpayers have already spent more than $45 billion on the war, while Trump’s oil and gas portfolio has grown by roughly $15.5 million this year alone. Of course anything is a “small price” to someone paying free.99 for this war, and profiting from it. Meanwhile, We the People are paying twice: first for the war, and then for the consequences of that war. But now he wants San Diego to pay a third time, flippantly offering us up to Iran.
It is worth noticing which cities he thought to name. Were San Diego and Los Angeles strategically chosen to signify something to his audience, or were they simply the first cities that came to mind as expendable places? Either way, the effect is to normalize—-and to gauge a crowd’s reaction to–the idea of massive violence in major California cities, suitable targets because of their perceived liberal lean. So what if Iran needs to bomb a little bit of America before the war can be over? Who cares, says Trump, if they target Los Angeles and San Diego?
By the way, why didn’t he offer up San Francisco, the free-love hippie-town MAGA loves to hate (and also my birthplace)? Could it be because that’s where the tech titans live? The same ones who joined Trump for Xi Jinping’s state dinner, a guest list worth a combined $2.4 trillion?
San Diego may have fewer billionaires, but it is home to more than 115,000 active-duty service members and 230,000 veterans. One in six active-duty sailors–in the entire Navy–is stationed here. So is one in four Marines. You cannot throw a rock in this county without hitting a military family: brats and spouses and veterans are among us. I got out of the Navy last year after ten years, and eight of those were here in San Diego. When Trump says “let ‘em take out San Diego,” he’s talking about the backbone of the United States military. He’s also talking about the people fighting his war.
San Diego has not been watching this war from the sidelines. Today, the USS Abraham Lincoln returns to North Island after an almost yearlong deployment to the Middle East that featured food shortages, broken toilets, and mold in the showers after 286 days at sea without a single port call. Eight sailors in the Lincoln’s strike group attempted suicide, but in August, when a reporter asked whether the deployment had gone on too long, Trump said “not nearly long enough.” Now he has told a crowd in Nebraska that we should let Iran take out the city those sailors call home. These are sociopathic sentiments.
Last week at Quantico, Pete Hegseth closed his address to the force by telling them, “President Trump has your back and so do I.” To the contrary, President Trump has put one of the biggest military towns in the country forward as a target for our adversaries. With friends like these, the “domestic” in “against all enemies, foreign and domestic” starts to sound a lot less hypothetical.
San Diego is home to Naval Air Station North Island, Naval Base San Diego, Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, the Point Loma submarine base, Camp Pendleton, and Miramar (and I have been permanently stationed at or trained at all of them). If Iran bombed San Diego and Los Angeles, aside from the devastating loss of life, it would cripple an immense share of our national security readiness.
And for what, exactly? Trump says the war is “essentially almost over with.” This is the same man who claimed in June 2025 that Iran’s nuclear program had been “obliterated,” then launched a war over it anyway on February 28. More than seven months later, he wants us to believe two things at once: that we’ve basically won, and that we might need to sacrifice an American city or two to finish winning. If the war is almost over, why does anybody need to take out San Diego?
I wonder if Trump’s endorsed candidate for California’s 48th District here in San Diego County will respond to these remarks. He recently said “no pain, no gain,” when referring to the gas prices San Diegans are paying. Jim Desmond, would you apply that same mindset if we were bombed? Or do you have the moral courage to stand up for the people you’re running to represent?
Last November, six Democratic members of Congress, all veterans, including Senator Mark Kelly, recorded a video reminding troops of their duty to disobey unlawful orders, restating the law that says so. Trump called it “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH,” and then his Justice Department went looking for an indictment, which a grand jury refused. The president treated reading the law out loud to the troops as a capital offense, but then he himself invited a foreign enemy to destroy two American cities, possibly as a punchline. Is anyone calling the latter sedition? Who is demanding accountability?
Calling our lives a small price to pay affirms a moral bankruptcy, as well as an obvious dereliction of duty to the office he holds. While we can’t impeach him or invoke the 25th Amendment ourselves, we must stop being so quiet about what we’re paying already. We can make our voices heard by calling our representatives, writing op-eds, knocking doors, phone banking, and voting in defiance of the man who threatens the safety of our city. Ballots are already arriving in mailboxes. Vote, and vote yes on 40 (and no on 41 and 42).
Trump has been harming our cities for a while, but now he is inviting our military adversaries to join him in the harm. If we have any self-respect as Americans, we must not tolerate our leaders disregarding the dignity of lives in this way. We must fight for our home.
Julie Roland was a Naval Officer for ten years, deploying to both the South China Sea and the Persian Gulf as a helicopter pilot before separating in June 2025 as a Lieutenant Commander. She has a law degree from the University of San Diego, a Master of Laws from Columbia University, and is a member of the Truman National Security Project.