From Mom to Patriot

From Mom to Patriot

An Analysis on Why Gas is $5/Gallon

The uncomfortable questions many conservatives are quietly asking

Toni Shuppe's avatar
Toni Shuppe
May 15, 2026
∙ Paid

I don’t know about you, but when I cast my ballot for President on November 5th, 2024, I wasn’t just voting for a candidate.

I believed I was voting for putting America first again — for making everyday life more affordable for people willing to work hard and build a future for their families.

I believed I was voting for NO MORE foreign wars, fewer foreign entanglements, and an end to the endless global conflicts that always seem to benefit powerful interests while ordinary people carry the cost.

I believed I was voting for an outright dismantling of federal agencies that were never constitutional in the first place — sprawling bureaucracies filled with unelected officials who often hold more real influence over policy than the representatives Americans actually vote for.

Most of all, I believed I was voting for transparency and accountability for those who orchestrated the largest election heist our country has ever known.

But due to the way things have unfolded since January of 2025, I now find myself wrestling with a very uncomfortable tension:

How can things feel simultaneously better in some ways… and deeply uncertain or just downright wrong in others?

That’s the part I think many people are afraid to say out loud right now.

Because in today’s political climate, the moment you ask questions, people immediately try to sort you into camps:

“You’re either loyal or disloyal.”
“You either trust the plan, or you’ve turned against the movement.”

But Saving the Republic and Rebuilding Liberty require something more difficult than blind agreement or constant outrage.

It requires discernment.

It requires the willingness to ask hard questions without immediately falling into cynicism or panic.

And honestly, I think many Americans are trying to figure out what that middle ground even looks like right now.


The rest of this article is for my paid subscribers, where we go deeper into the complicated realities behind gas prices, foreign policy, global systems, and the questions many Americans are quietly wrestling with right now.

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