I’m Bryan Del Monte.
I write about power, institutions, national trajectory, and the ways political systems fail long before they collapse. I’m not interested in partisan performance or cable-news morality plays. I’m interested in how decisions actually get made, why incentives rot, and what happens when systems lose legitimacy faster than they can reform.
For a long time, I wrote under a pseudonym (William A. Finnegan). That was a structural choice, not a theatrical one. My work intersected with business, clients, and institutions that preferred discretion. That constraint no longer applies—and frankly, the moment no longer permits it.
So I write in my own name now.
What qualifies me to do this
I’ve spent decades inside the machinery most people only argue about from the outside.
I worked in Republican politics back when it still believed it was a governing philosophy, not a cultural grievance machine. I served in senior national-security and defense roles after 9/11, including time at the Pentagon on issues that were controversial, high-risk, and politically radioactive. I’ve testified before Congress, briefed Presidents, sat in the Situation Room, and participated in briefings where the room went quiet because what was being discussed could not leave it.
I’ve written policy, shaped law, drafted speeches delivered by cabinet officials and Presidents, and watched good ideas die—and bad ones survive—because incentives beat intelligence every time.
I also walked away.
Today, I run businesses. I advise privately. I write publicly. Washington no longer pays my bills, which means it doesn’t get to discipline my thinking.
That freedom matters.
What this publication is—and is not
This is not a news blog.
It’s not activism.
It’s not outrage farming.
And it’s not written to flatter any tribe.
It is analysis rooted in lived experience.
It is institutional literacy.
It is an attempt to describe reality without euphemism.
I write for people who already know how to think but want better tools for judgment—people who sense that something is wrong with the system but don’t accept simple explanations or performative solutions.
Most of my readers are highly educated. Many work in law, finance, government, tech, defense, or adjacent fields. I don’t tell them what to believe. I give them context, incentives, and structure—and let them draw conclusions.
Sometimes the writing is sharp. Sometimes it’s darkly funny. Sometimes it’s uncomfortable. That’s not an accident.
Why now
Because we are living through institutional decay masquerading as normal politics.
Because narratives are failing faster than policies.
Because legitimacy is eroding faster than authority.
Because people feel the pressure but can’t yet name the mechanisms.
I write to make those mechanisms legible.
Not to persuade.
Not to recruit.
But to clarify.
Why subscribe
If you’re looking for dopamine, this isn’t the place.
If you’re looking for partisan reassurance, it’s definitely not the place.
But if you want:
analysis that assumes intelligence,
writing that respects complexity,
and perspective shaped by proximity rather than punditry,
you’ll likely find value here.
I don’t promise certainty. I promise honesty.
I don’t promise solutions. I promise better questions.
And occasionally, I promise a story from inside the room that explains why the room behaves the way it does.
Welcome.
