By Sean Dempsey
5/12/26
STRATHAM, NH
J’Accuse the inept, incompetent, corrupt political cowards of New Hampshire!
Yes, even here in our beloved Granite State, where nearly every politician wraps himself in “Live Free or Die” like a warm blanket… at least right up until Washington inevitably demands another holy war, another intervention, another “urgent military action” that somehow arrives without a declaration of war from Congress.
Then suddenly the supposed defenders of liberty transform into nervous interns awaiting approval from Pentagon bureaucrats and defense contractors. A sad story of the butterfly reverting back into the worm.
One minute these feckless NH bureaucrats quote the Founders in a Portsmouth brewery. The next they explain why constitutional limits are simply too “complicated” during the latest foreign policy panic manufactured by CNN, Fox News, crony leaches, and emotionally- incontinent warmongers and boomers incoherently pounding their desks demanding the blood of brown babies abroad.
Funny how the Constitution always becomes optional precisely when it matters most. Yet Article I, Section 8 is not vague. Congress declares war. Hear that? CONGRESS!
Not presidents. Not intelligence agencies. Not Lockheed Martin shareholders foaming at the mouth for another quarterly earnings bump. Congress! Yet America now drifts from conflict to conflict like a drunken empire stumbling through history with a cruise missile in one hand and a bumbling, incoherent press release in the other.
And here in New Hampshire (supposedly the ‘cradle of independent thought and constitutional grit’) far, far too many lawmakers still kneel obediently before the federal power-teet the second Bibi Netanyahu or his acolyte, our very own toddler-president, waves a foreign flag on television and vainly screams “our democracy is under attack!”
One of the few efforts in New Hampshire that actually attempted to restore constitutional sanity was HB 229, the “Defend the Guard Act.” The bill sought to prohibit deployment of the New Hampshire National Guard into active combat overseas absent a formal declaration of war by Congress.
Imagine that: following the Constitution. Truly extremist behavior. And how did the political establishment in NH react? Like frightened accountants discovering a tax audit, that’s how.
Immediately came the endless excuses:
– “But … federal funding!”
– “But … relationships in Washington!”
– “But … military readiness!”
– “But … but … optics!” 🙄
Yes, yes, of course. Because every generation produces feckless men and women who explain why NOW is simply not the proper time to defend constitutional principles. There were, similarly, loyalists in 1775 whining that resisting British overreach might negatively impact the price of tea and crumpets.
What NH HB 229 exposed was something ugly about modern politics. Many politicians who scream constantly about liberty do not actually believe in freedom once it becomes inconvenient. Their courage extends precisely as far as Facebook memes, campaign mailers, and flag pins attached to tailored jackets. After that? Complete and total submission.
And New Hampshire citizens should be ashamed if we continue tolerating it. Because here is the uncomfortable truth: the federal government behaves this way because Americans allow it. Because citizens have become spectators instead of participants. Because far too many idiots who claim to love this beautiful state and this country spend more time arguing online than confronting local lawmakers face to face.
New Hampshire is not powerless. Quite the opposite. Presidential candidates crawl through our New Hampshire diners every four years begging retirees in flannel jackets for approval. National media hangs on every primary result like Roman priests reading omens.
Yes, this state actually matters. Which means YOU matter! You there, yes you: the person reading this dumb op-ed!
If enough New Hampshire citizens like you demanded constitutional restraint, demanded an end to undeclared wars, demanded support for legislation like Defend the Guard, then the political conversation nationally would begin to shift.
That is precisely why establishment figures fear these movements. Because constitutional resistance spreads. One state becomes five. Five become fifteen. And before you know it, suddenly real Americans like us here in New Hampshire begin remembering that Congress exists for something beyond insider trading and applauding foreign wars while pretending inflation is caused by your neighbor owning a pickup truck.
So stop waiting for Washington to save itself. It will not. It’s beyond redemption, my friends. Empires never voluntarily restrain themselves.
What can you do? Well, show up at hearings. Call your local legislators. Primary weak cowards who treat the Constitution like decorative wallpaper. Demand public answers from every candidate seeking office in this state:
“Do you support undeclared wars?”
“Do you support deploying New Hampshire citizens into combat without congressional authorization?”
“Do you support HB 229 and efforts like it?”
And if the answer is no, remove them from office! Cowards and feckless NH legislators are not leaders, they are parasites!
Peace is not cowardice. Constitutional restraint is not extremism. And patriotism does not mean clapping like trained seals every time another dead-eyed politician promises freedom through explosives and demands you salute a crimson US flag dripping with the needless blood of New Hampshire’s own sons and daughters.
The true patriot is the citizen who stands before the war machine and says “No, damn it! You WILL obey the Constitution first.”
New Hampshire once helped ignite a revolution against centralized power. Perhaps, maybe, just maybe, here in the Granite State we can try to remember what our own motto actually means.
