The election season is upon us once again. November 2026 will be here sooner than we can imagine. Already, in Arizona, as across the nation, candidates are declaring, fundraising, and defining their messages. But what’s unfolding isn’t just another political cycle.
We are living in a time of disruption — not the creative kind that fuels innovation, but the corrosive kind that eats away at trust in institutions and at the civic spirit that sustains democracy itself.
The evidence is everywhere.
Academia, once a bastion of free inquiry, is under siege from culture warriors who treat knowledge as an enemy. Libraries and museums — the keepers of our shared memory — are being defunded or censored. Exhibits that record the real history of America – its pivotal points and key characters — are being erased from view. Public parks, the very commons where community once gathered, are politicized. Even the military, historically among the nation’s most trusted institutions, has become a political football.
Read the entire commentary on Substack In The Center Lane With Herb Paine →
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