Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Lindsey Graham’s death has me thinking about the choices that define a political legacy.
As someone who spent years lobbying Congress on behalf of veterans, I watched Lindsey Graham champion American military intervention while repeatedly resisting reforms that would have better protected the troops sent to fight those wars.
That raises a larger question:
What does political courage actually look like?
My guest this week, Reed Galen, made a very different choice.
A longtime Republican strategist who worked for George W. Bush, John McCain, and other Republican leaders, Reed eventually concluded that staying inside the Republican Party meant compromising principles he wasn’t willing to abandon. Today, through Civic Forum, he’s trying to build a different kind of civic movement—one grounded in honest conversation, local engagement, and democratic participation.
In this episode, we discuss:
• What political courage actually requires
• Why Reed walked away from Republican politics
• Whether America’s institutions can still be reformed
• Why local organizing matters more than ever
• How ordinary people can go on offense in defense of democracy
⸻
📬 Subscribe to Reed Galen’s Substack:
substack.com/@reedgalen
🇺🇸 Learn more about Civic Forum:
civicforum.org
📖 Preorder the new edition of War Is a Racket by Major General Smedley Butler, featuring my new introduction:
penguinrandomhouse.com/books/839030/war-is-a-racket-by-smedley-butler
⸻
🎙️ Subscribe to On Offense with Kris Goldsmith
Substack:
onoffense.substack.com
⸻
On Offense with Kris Goldsmith is a podcast about fighting for democracy, confronting extremism, and organizing against fascism—because being on defense is not enough.
#ReedGalen #LindseyGraham #Politics #Democracy #PoliticalCourage #Authoritarianism #Veterans #OnOffense #KrisGoldsmith #WarIsARacket
Lindsey Graham’s death has me thinking about the choices that define a political legacy.
As someone who spent years lobbying Congress on behalf of veterans, I watched Lindsey Graham champion American military intervention while repeatedly resisting reforms that would have better protected the troops sent to fight those wars.
That raises a larger question:
What does political courage actually look like?
My guest this week, Reed Galen, made a very different choice.
A longtime Republican strategist who worked for George W. Bush, John McCain, and other Republican leaders, Reed eventually concluded that staying inside the Republican Party meant compromising principles he wasn’t willing to abandon. Today, through Civic Forum, he’s trying to build a different kind of civic movement—one grounded in honest conversation, local engagement, and democratic participation.
In this episode, we discuss:
• What political courage actually requires
• Why Reed walked away from Republican politics
• Whether America’s institutions can still be reformed
• Why local organizing matters more than ever
• How ordinary people can go on offense in defense of democracy
⸻
📬 Subscribe to Reed Galen’s Substack:
substack.com/@reedgalen
🇺🇸 Learn more about Civic Forum:
civicforum.org
📖 Preorder the new edition of War Is a Racket by Major General Smedley Butler, featuring my new introduction:
penguinrandomhouse.com/books/839030/war-is-a-racket-by-smedley-butler
⸻
🎙️ Subscribe to On Offense with Kris Goldsmith
Substack:
onoffense.substack.com
⸻
On Offense with Kris Goldsmith is a podcast about fighting for democracy, confronting extremism, and organizing against fascism—because being on defense is not enough.
#ReedGalen #LindseyGraham #Politics #Democracy #PoliticalCourage #Authoritarianism #Veterans #OnOffense #KrisGoldsmith #WarIsARacket
