Get The Passport. Period.

Get The Passport. Period.

The Jack Hopkins Now Newsletter #798: Friday, February 27th, 2026.

There are moments in history when smart people do smart things early.

And there are moments when people say, “That’s overreacting,” right up until the day they wish they hadn’t.

This is not hysteria.

This is logistics.

Move heaven and earth and get your passport.

Not because you’re fleeing.
Not because collapse is guaranteed.
Not because fear is useful.

But because preparation…is power.

Let me give you two cold, rational reasons.

1. It Is The Cleanest Insurance Policy On Your Right To Vote

You can debate voter ID laws all day.

You can argue about fairness, intent, suppression, and legislative history.

Meanwhile, elections keep happening.

Rules keep changing.

States tighten requirements. Deadlines shift. Acceptable forms of identification get narrowed. Bureaucratic friction increases.

Here’s the blunt truth:

A U.S. passport is the gold standard of identity documentation in this country.

It is federally issued.
It proves citizenship.
It is universally recognized.
It carries weight no driver’s license ever will.

If a state requires ID-you’re covered.
If a state tightens ID-you’re covered.
If there’s a dispute-you’re covered.

You don’t argue your case at the polling station.

You present proof.

End of discussion.

People love to talk about “protecting democracy.”

Fine.

Protect your access to it first.

Because when rules get messy…the people with the cleanest paperwork glide through the friction.

The people without it…fight.

A passport eliminates that fight.

Cheap insurance. Massive upside.

2. In A Country Where Administrative Power Is Expanding… Documentation Matters

We are living in a time of aggressive enforcement energy.

Detentions happen.

Mistakes happen.

Systems are imperfect.

And…while the overwhelming majority of citizens will never experience an issue…the cost of being unprepared if you are the exception is enormous.

In moments of confusion or bureaucratic error…the question becomes simple:

Can you prove, immediately and conclusively, who you are?

A driver’s license proves residency.

A passport proves citizenship.

That distinction matters.

If you ever find yourself in a situation where your status is questioned…during travel, during enforcement sweeps, during administrative scrutiny…having the highest tier document changes the dynamic instantly.

It moves you from “subject to verification” to “verified.”

That’s not paranoia.

That’s understanding leverage.

And leverage favors the prepared.

Let’s Address The Emotional Resistance

Some people say:

“If we’re telling people to get passports, doesn’t that mean something terrible is coming?”

No.

It means you live in the real world.

You insure your house.

You insure your car.

You insure your health.

Why is it radical to insure your citizenship status with the strongest document available?

A passport is not a declaration of fear.

It is a declaration of competence.

It says:

I understand systems.
I understand friction.
I reduce risk where I can.

That’s adult behavior.

The Cost vs. The Benefit

What does a passport cost?

A few hundred dollars.
A trip to the post office.
Some paperwork.
A few weeks of processing time.

What does it buy?

• Voting access security

• Travel freedom

• Immediate proof of citizenship

• Administrative leverage

• Peace of mind

That’s one of the best risk-adjusted investments available to you.

You don’t need to believe the sky is falling.

You just need to understand that systems tighten…before they collapse…and the people who glide through tightening…are the ones who prepared when it was easy.

The Bigger Principle

This is about more than passports.

It’s about a mindset shift.

Stop reacting late.

Start preparing early.

When you can see foreseeable friction on the horizon…act.

You don’t wait for the storm to make landfall before boarding up windows.

You board them when the forecast turns.

And right now, the forecast says:

Documentation matters.
Administrative leverage matters.
Proof matters.

So…go get it.

Move heaven and earth if you have to.

Because the people who regret preparation are rare.

The people who regret procrastination are everywhere.

Get the passport.

Then you can argue politics from a position of security instead of vulnerability.

That’s how grown adults operate.

Preparation first.

Debate second.

Below are twenty common pushbacks… and disciplined, fact-based answers. Short. Controlled. No rambling.

1. “That sounds like privilege talking. Not everyone can afford one.”

Not everyone can. True.
But many can…and don’t.
Advice to those who can act is not an insult to those who can’t. That’s an illogical thought.

2. “That’s disrespectful. What about people who can’t afford one?”

If you can’t afford one, the advice doesn’t apply to you. If you can, it does.

This idea that everything people say has to apply to everyone, or they shouldn’t say it, or write it…is embarrassingly ignorant.

We don’t lower preparation standards because not everyone can meet them. That’s not how the world works. And…it’s a damn good way to lose elections.

3. “$65 is a lot of money.”

For some people, yes, it is.
So is replacing a transmission.
So is a refrigerator.
So is a $1,000 a month health insurance spike.

This is a one-time cost for long-term leverage.

*$65 is the total for a Passport card

4. “You’re being alarmist.”

No.
Alarmism says “run.”
Preparation says “organize paperwork.”

Those are not the same thing.

5. “Why assume voting will require that?”

I’m not assuming.
I’m insulating.

Preparation doesn’t require certainty…it requires plausibility.

6. “This feeds fear.”

No.
Fear freezes people.
Documentation strengthens them.

7. “You’re normalizing suppression.”

No.
I’m neutralizing it.

You don’t protest a rule…by showing up unprepared for it.

8. “Most people will never need it.”

Correct.
Insurance is for the minority case.

9. “This feels like overkill.”

Overkill is regret without remedy.
Paperwork is cheap.

10. “You’re exaggerating ICE detentions.”

Even one mistaken detention proves the point:
Proof matters when systems err.

11. “Driver’s license is enough.”

Sometimes.
A passport is definitive.

There’s a difference.

12. “This shifts burden to citizens.”

Reality doesn’t disappear because we dislike it.
When friction increases…leverage matters.

13. “Poor communities can’t just ‘move heaven and earth.’”

Agreed.
Which is why those who can should.
Prepared citizens strengthen collective resilience.

14. “You’re talking like collapse is imminent.”

No.
I’m talking like bureaucracy exists.

15. “This is tone deaf.”

Tone doesn’t change math.
Documentation reduces risk. Period.

16. “It’s elitist to say ‘just get one.’”

Elitism is indifference.
This is risk management.

17. “This divides people.”

No.
It distinguishes between capacity and impossibility.

18. “Why not fight the laws instead?”

Do both.
Preparation and advocacy are not mutually exclusive.

19. “Why are you telling people to do this instead of organizing?”

Because you can walk and chew gum.
Organize, donate, volunteer…and…also get your paperwork squared away.
One is civic action. The other is personal readiness. Both help you win.

20. “If YOU can’t get one, you can’t get one. That’s cold.”

It’s factual.
If you truly cannot, you cannot.
If you can and won’t, that…is a choice.

And choices…have consequences.

21. “A passport is a ‘poll tax.’”

No. It’s not.

A poll tax was a government fee required specifically to vote.

A passport is a voluntary document for international travel.

You don’t need one to vote.
You don’t need one to exist.
You only need one if you choose to leave the country.

Calling everything a “poll tax” doesn’t make it oppression.

It makes it dramatic.

And drama…is not policy

A word about how “That Smacks of Privilege!” gets thrown around-and the damage it’s doing

Here’s the problem with how the word “privilege” gets used now.

It used to mean something specific: structural advantage. Patterns. Systems. Access that compounds over time.

Now?

It’s often deployed like a reflex hammer. Tap. Label. Conversation over.

No analysis. No context. No hierarchy of risk. Just: “That smacks of privilege.”

That move doesn’t elevate the discussion…it shuts it down.

When someone says, “Get your passport,” and the immediate response is, “That’s privilege,” what’s actually happening?

The word is being used as a moral veto.

It’s a way of saying:

“If this doesn’t apply to everyone equally, you shouldn’t say it.”

That standard is impossible. And strategically disastrous.

By that logic:

• “Max out your 401k” is privilege.
• “Hire a good lawyer” is privilege.
• “Install a security system” is privilege.
• “Buy flood insurance” is privilege.

Not everyone can do those things.

So what?

Should people in those professions just stop advertising…because not everyone can afford them?

That would be ridiculous.

Advice is not oppression.

Preparation is not cruelty.

The idea that you cannot recommend a protective step unless it is universally accessible is a paralysis doctrine. It’s ignorance. It trains people to aim downward… to calibrate every suggestion to the lowest common denominator…or else risk being morally indicted.

And that…does real damage. That’s why you’ll never catch my writing adhering to such a nonsensical and disastrous concept. Not today. Not ever. Unapologetically.

Because movements lose when they abandon preparation…in favor of rhetorical purity.

There’s a difference between acknowledging inequality…and weaponizing it as a conversational kill switch.

If someone literally cannot afford a passport, that’s real. That’s unfortunate. That deserves empathy.

But…when someone who can afford one chooses not to…and then reframes the suggestion itself as “privilege”…that’s not justice language.

That’s avoidance language.

The overuse of “privilege” has created a strange inversion:

Instead of encouraging people with resources to use them responsibly…it pressures them to pretend those resources don’t exist.

Instead of saying, “Yes, you have capacity…use it,” it says, “Be quiet about capacity, or you’re insensitive.” That’s a lot of bullshit.

That’s not how you build resilient communities.

Resilience is built when:

• Those who can act, act.
• Those who can prepare, prepare.
• Those who have leverage, use it.

The passport example makes this distortion obvious.

“Get your passport” is a risk-reduction suggestion.

It’s not mocking poverty.
It’s not dismissing hardship.
It’s not denying inequality.

It’s saying: if you can secure a definitive proof of citizenship in a volatile era, you should.

Calling that “privilege” doesn’t protect anyone. The word has outlived its usefulness.

Like any word that gets abused and stripped from its original meaning, it loses its power. That’s exactly what’s happened here.

It just reframes responsibility as arrogance.

And…when every concrete step gets reframed as “elitist,” people stop taking steps.

That’s the real harm.

The word “privilege” was powerful when it was used with precision. When it pointed to systems that needed reform.

But…when it was repeatedly thrown like a grenade…at every instance of proactive behavior…it stopped being analytical…and started being corrosive.

And corrosive language…weakens coalitions.

If the goal is to win…to build durable…prepared…structurally sound civic participation …then the reflexive privilege accusation is not moral clarity.

It’s strategic self-sabotage.

The word stopped being used carefully.

And, now…it doesn’t mean anything at all.

Here’s the bottom line.

Preparation is not privilege.

It’s responsibility.

If you have the capacity to strengthen your position…administratively…legally… structurally…and you choose not to because someone might call it “privilege,” you are not being virtuous.

You are being passive.

Movements are not built on rhetorical purity. They are built on disciplined action …layered over time. On paperwork…handled early. On friction…reduced before it shows up. On leverage secured before it’s needed.

If you can get the passport, get it.

If you can secure your documentation, secure it.

If you can eliminate a foreseeable vulnerability, eliminate it.

And…if someone wants to shout “privilege” from the sidelines while you quietly prepare…let them. I don’t even have to ask; I know some of you are as tired of that misapplied ignorance as I am. Just don’t allow it to sway you. Remain calm. Focused. Relaxed.

History does not reward the most morally theatrical.

It rewards the most prepared.

Do the adult thing.

Handle your business.

Then go fight the larger fight…from a position of strength.

#HoldFast

Back soon.

-Jack

Jack Hopkins

P.S. If a $65 Passport Card stands between you and securing the strongest proof of citizenship available to you… pause….and really examine that.

We spend more than that on impulse upgrades, convenience fees, dinners out, and kitchen appliances shoved into kitchen cabinets we barely use. This isn’t a “splurge.” It’s leverage. If you truly can’t, you can’t. And it’s as simple as that.

But…if you can…and you don’t? That’s not oppression. That’s procrastination.

Will I be less direct in the future on topics that matter? Not a snowball’s chance in hell. That’s not the kind of mamby-pamby stuff you can get anywhere…for free.

You have invested in someone who doesn’t tiptoe around, who will tell it to you as directly as you deserve to have it communicated. That…is what you pay for.

When something warrants it, I’ll deliver it with no-BS urgency and straight talk…clear-eyed, focused, and calm.

And….if I ever stop doing that? Cancel your subscription, and please find someone who won’t stop doing that.

Sources / Further Reading

• How to apply for a U.S. passport (official guide) – step-by-step on eligibility, forms, documents, and process. U.S. passports – USAGov

• Passport application & renewal details – official U.S. State Department passport info and options. U.S. Passports – Travel.State.Gov

• Where and how to apply – acceptance facilities, mail, agency info. Where to Apply for a U.S. Passport

• Passport fees and payment info – official fee breakdowns for adult and minor passports. Passport Fees (official document)

• Passport forms (DS-11, DS-82, etc.) – official government forms portal. Passport Forms – U.S. Dept. of State

• USPS passport scheduling & appointments – apply or renew via post office acceptance facilities. Passport Application & Renewal | USPS