Michael Flynn and the 'Destiny of America'

"I've been called a danger to democracy. I might be a danger to democracy, but I'm not a danger to this constitutional republic. I'm not."

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Retired General Michael Flynn slow-clapped protesters outside Cranston’s Park Theater as he arrived for his speaking engagement¹ on Sunday. During his interactions with the protesters, General Flynn maintained his innocence of the charges brought against him, charges he had pled guilty to and was later pardoned for. After he was pardoned, the charges were dropped.

"It was a pardon of innocence," said Ivan Raiklin, an associate of Flynn, who identifies as a Constitutional lawyer, a retired Lieutenant Colonel, and formerly at the Defense Intelligence Agency.

There's no such thing as a "pardon of innocence" of course. In accepting a pardon a person admits to having committed the crimes one is pardoned for. Though this is a contended issue.²

The conversation between General Flynn and the protesters was not a fruitful or meaningful discussion, but the General did invite the protesters into the ticketed event, even though they hadn't paid and organizers Meghan Brillon and Sara Vieira had established a policy of no admittance without an RSVP.

Inside the Park Theater, General Flynn asked the audience, "Did any of the protestors get in?" When he was assured that none of the protesters had taken him up on his invitation, he added, "That's too bad."

"Really?" asked an audience member.

"No, not really," said General Flynn.

You can watch the Park Theater event, in full, here:

[Quotes have been edited for clarity]

Parts of the General's one-hour talk were a little like that - making statements, pushing into unexpected or controversial areas, then pulling back, as if he was exaggerating or provoking without serious intent. But General Flynn is very serious, and much of what he said seemed sincere. And though he didn't use terms like Christian Nationalism, his talk was straight out of that playbook.

Christain Nationalism

General Flynn compared attending the event at the Park Theater to being in church, joking that people who sit near the back of the church might want to sneak out early. He invited the estimated 60 or so people in attendance to fill in the front rows.

"...it is like church, right?" asked General Flynn. "Everybody understands what I'm talking about. Everybody knows exactly what I'm talking about. It's Sunday too, right? Sunday."

General Flynn is a native Rhode Islander, a Catholic, and a former Democrat. He had family members in the audience to hear him speak. In service to President Donald Trump, Michael Flynn "willfully and knowingly [made] materially false statements and omissions to the Federal Bureau of Investigation" about conversations with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States. Charges against Flynn were dropped after President Trump pardoned him. He now tours the country giving speeches to right-wing MAGA groups, some with ties to overtly white nationalist organizations, about how to essentially take over the country.

The table was set for Christian Nationalist rhetoric at the beginning of the event when Reverend Mark Galloway gave the invocation:

“On October 11th, 1798, in his first year as President of the United States, the second President, succeeding Georgia, Washington, John Adams said to the officers in Quincy, Massachusetts of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts, these words, “Gentlemen, our nation's constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other type of people.” Adams and the overwhelming majority of the other founding fathers believed that in a society rattled by vices, various mechanisms created by the Constitution would not be able to function properly with the result that the democratic process would eventually be supplanted by nepotism if we were not a country based on the revelation of God's natural law.”

Ivan Raiklin

Before General Flynn took the stage his associate Ivan Raiklin warmed up the audience. Raiklin had harsh words for members of both the Democratic and Republican Parties, but he had kind things to say about one particular Rhode Island politician.

"Usually at these events [about] election integrity, the deep state, CCP-led Democrats and the CCP³ Republicans, don't show up. But sometimes there's one or two that have the courage to go to these venues to listen and learn," said Raiklin. "To those people, I always try to say, 'Thank you,' and the one person I was able to meet earlier, out there in the lobby, is Representative Patricia Morgan [Republican, District 26, West Warwick]. Thank you for showing up. We need to get behind her in January when she's going to drop a bill to take out ERIC⁴ in Rhode Island. I'm going to be up here, you just tell me what you need, ma'am."

Raiklin noted that the colony of Rhode Island, some 250 years ago, declared independence from the British Empire a full two months before the rest of the colonies. "You may be called to do something here shortly in a similar vein," said Raiklin. "Of course, in the most peaceful and patriotic manner ever known in the history of humanity." He then laughed at his joke.

The 2020 Presidential election, said Raiklin, was stolen. It was "illegally conducted and then subsequently illegally certified." When asked, no one in the audience would admit to disbelieving Raiklin.

Local Action Has a National Impact

"Right now, we collectively do not have the resources to take out the global enemy," said Raiklin, who made sure to tell the audience that everything he was saying was approved of and in accordance with the beliefs of General Flynn. Raiklin then effortlessly segued into violent, transphobic rhetoric. "And I'm talking about the commies. To crush the commies, we have to backpedal. We have to take out the deep state first, right? I like to say we have to castrate the deep state. If they want to promote the castration and mutilation of children, let's pivot and say, 'You know what, let's do that to the enemy, which is the deep state and then the commies,’ right? Let's back that up. We have to do it at the state level.”

Raiklin then laid out the battle plan:

"We have to take our townships in New England back," said Raiklin. "It's our generation that's going to take this thing back. You start with the school boards, you start with the townships, the mechanisms that run the elections, and if you can't do it yourself, you support [those] who can.

"Then we take over the counties.⁵ How many people does it take? Two or three close advocates can take over the narrative of a county, and then you start to develop the network to take over the state. Texas is the first state. I would argue, that we just took back from the CCP Republicans because that was the death, the stake in the heart, of the Bush criminal syndicate."

When Raiklin introduced General Flynn, he gushed. General Flynn, in Raiklin's opinion, is the "most popular person and the most humble person and the most respected person."

General Flynn received a standing ovation from those in attendance, with chants of "USA! USA! USA!"

Vice President Michael Flynn?

"President Trump, in 2016, narrowed the field of [potential] Vice Presidents down to four names," said General Flynn, "and those four names were Chris Christie, Mike Pence, Newt Gingrich, and Mike Flynn, okay? Those were the four names.

"And of those four names, of course, he narrowed it down further and chose Mike Pence to be his running mate. I mean, geez, I won't go there."

Needless to say, Vice President Flynn may have made a very different decision from that made by Vice President Pence on January 6th.

As much as General Flynn was promoting local action in support of national change, he was also concerning himself with supporting right-wing, populist, perhaps even fascist, politicians around the world.

Flynn had great things to say about Tucker Carlson, who, since being fired by Fox News has been in Argentina interviewing right-wing populist presidential contenders like Javier Melei, a former professional footballer.

Melei, said General Flynn, is an "Argentina-first type candidate, and he was strong."

The Christian Vote

"It's actually about [registering voters] now," said General Flynn. "About 60 to 63% of the voting public are of Christian faith, whether it's Catholic, Baptist, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, or non-denominational Christian. What I'm telling you is [that Christians make up] most of the voting base in this country, yet they don't go and vote. The Catholic community is the largest voting block in the country...

"I know what service is and I know what being a good citizen is, but being a good citizen means to vote. It's not just protecting the vote, it's not just getting out the vote and doing registrations and mail-ins and all the kind of stuff that we do...

"This is all about voter integrity, folks. This is all about understanding who we are as citizens in this country. Not Democrats, not Republicans, not libertarians, not any of that stuff. Just citizens."

"We've got to guard the vote. That means you've got to be there 24/7 when it starts, right? … If they put ballot boxes around Providence County here, if they start putting these ballot boxes where people are just going to go stuff, go stand there and make sure that somebody's not coming over there with 50 or 60 or a hundred ballots, right? Stand there and say, "‘I'm videotaping this.’ That might be at two o'clock in the morning. How many saw 2000 Mules⁶? Yeah, a lot of you. Good. those people weren't dropping off [ballots] at three o'clock in the afternoon. It was late at night or early in the morning. We have to be there."

Bobby Kennedy Jr.

"I stay in touch with Bobby Kennedy, Jr., right? I stay in touch with him because I like him. Why? Because I know, having met him and spoken with him, [that] in his heart, he loves this country. He's got issues that I don't agree with him on, but in his heart, I know that he wants to do the right thing."

Robert Kennedy Jr. is an American environmental lawyer and writer known for advocating anti-vaccine misinformation and public health-related conspiracy theories. He is a candidate for the Democratic Party nomination in the 2024 presidential election.

Super Happy Fun America

General Flynn seemed unaware of the Super Happy Fun America (SHFA) group, listed as one of the sponsors of the event. Super Happy Fun America is a Massachusetts-based right-wing political organization.

"Super happy, fun America. Is that you guys? I mean, I was like, wow, what is that? Is that for kids or something? Super happy? Is it a bar?"

Super Happy Fun America, then known as Resist Marxism, twice [here and here] brought violent fascists to the Rhode Island State House. The second time they flew in Proud Boys from the West Coast. Both times their rallies descended into violence.

"Good for you," said General Flynn, apparently unaware of the history. "It's a great name. Super Happy Fun America. I mean, who doesn't want that, right?"

In addition to Super Happy Fun Time, many other groups acted as sponsors:

Moms for America

"I work with an organization called Moms for America, that's based out of Nebraska," said General Flynn. "Anybody here a part of Moms for America? Moms for America has been around since 2004. Kimberly Fletcher [the founder] has a brood of beautiful children. She's been homeschooling her entire life and she runs a national organization, they have flipped close to 300 school boards in this country.

"These women, like these young ladies that here, are out there working their tails off. They've got kids, they've got families, they have extended families, they've got jobs that they're trying to do, they're trying to make ends meet, and they're out there doing this kind of stuff.

"I've met many of 'em. I've met damn near their entire leadership team, and it's all women who have families, anywhere from a couple of kids to nine or 10 children, and they're out there working the streets. They're trying to get people to understand we've got a problem in our school system.

"People always ask me, 'If you got in there and you were the President of the United States, what would be the first thing you'd do?' And they expect me to say, shut the FBI down. And it's not, I mean, I'd probably do that, but it's not [the first thing]. The first thing I'd do is I'd shut the doors of the Department of Education, shut 'em.

"The Department of Education hasn't been around for 250 years. Jimmy Carter, under his Presidency, is the one who stood it up. The Department of Education is a gigantic building filled with people that gets a couple billion dollars [in its] budget. And you wonder, you say to yourself, 'How does this happen? How does this happen?'

“The rise of homeschooling in this country has gone through the roof in two years. In two years, the change in homeschooling was multiplied by five. Because people said all these things about critical race theory and gender and there were 72 or 74 genders. I'd be upset if I was a gay man.

"People would be going, ‘I'm gay. No, I'm not transgender, I don't like little kids.’ Because you get defined like that. Remember, I served in the United States military for the better part of 20 years under the rule of 'Don't ask, don't tell.'

"I didn't care. All I cared about was were they ready? Were they ready to fight and win? And now we've just gone this crazy, crazy route."

Drag Brunch

Earlier in the day the Park Theater was the location of a drag brunch. General Flynn couldn't help but talk about it.

"I was going to come to the drag brunch today because you get hungry on a Sunday... [I was] going to come in here because it's like, you know what? I want to make sure that I'm dealing with everybody. This is not just dealing with somebody who's MAGA. This is everybody in this country because we are going to lose this country...

"The [people] that came for the drag brunch, trust me, they love this country because otherwise they wouldn't have been able to do that, right? They had the right to be able to do that, and they did it. We looked at it. I'm serious. I wanted to go meet. I love to have these conversations.

"It was adults only, thank God, it was adults only. Whatever, a couple showed up. But when they start to impose on children, that's a different issue."

The Destiny of America

"I'm looking for champions," said General Flynn. "I'm looking for people who have the guts, who have the courage, who aren't worried about the Providence Journal writing some snarky article about you online saying you're this or that, right? It just doesn't matter anymore. You've got to know who you are. You've got to define yourself.

"I teach young people a lot, and especially young kids, I teach them, [to not] worry about what others say about you. Don't worry about what others think about you. Worry about what you think about yourself. Define yourself. Define who you are. Once you've defined who you are, then we can change the conversation of this country to what I call the Destiny of America.

"The Destiny of America is not defined by me. It's not defined by the Constitution. It's defined by every one of you. As a citizen of this country, we have a path and we have documents that help us get there, but the destiny of this country is defined by each one of you, and you have to decide what is going to be."

1

2. In Burdick v. United States, although the Supreme Court's opinion stated that a pardon carries "an imputation of guilt and acceptance of a confession of it," this was part of the Court's dictum for the case. Whether the acceptance of a pardon constitutes an admission of guilt by the recipient is disputed.

3. CCP = Chinese Communist Party

4. The Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, is a nonprofit organization in the United States operated and financed by state elections agencies and chief elections officials. It is the subject of some conspiracy theories.

5. Raiklin and Flynn both seemed unaware that Rhode Island has no democratically elected government functions at a county level

6. 2000 Mules “is a 2022 American conspiracist political film from right-wing political commentator Dinesh D'Souza. The film falsely claims unnamed nonprofit organizations supposedly associated with the Democratic Party paid "mules" to illegally collect and deposit ballots into drop boxes in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin during the 2020 presidential election. D'Souza has a history of creating and spreading false conspiracy theories.”