Ignore the Bromance Break-Up.
Unite for Representation!
Everybody's talking about the bromance breakup between Trump and Elon. (At least they were before Trump sent the National Guard into LA.) Trump’s getting rid of his Tesla. Elon is saying that Trump was on Epstein's list. There are rumors of fights and drug addiction. But everybody’s missing the point.
The point is: the government shouldn’t revolve around two billionaire egos and their battle with each other.
Throughout history, republics have often cycled between revolution, democracy, and authoritarianism, rising in moments of popular empowerment only to collapse under the weight of concentrated power or unrest.
But the American republic was built differently. Its system of checks and balances and rule of law, rooted in representation and a tradition of peaceful transfer of power, has created a stabilizing force against those extremes.
Rather than swinging violently between chaos and control, the United States tends to cycle between periods of reform and growth. Its structure allows for self-correction, sometimes slow and imperfect, but resilient, enabling the nation to adapt, expand rights, and address its flaws without dismantling the whole system.
But the structure of our republic was changed during the progressive era, shifting power from the many, and to the few. And now we are struggling to reform ourselves.
Whether it's Elon Musk, Donald Trump, or Joe Biden, our recent leaders have proven that there is a difference between us and them. They have—and exercise—a lot of power. And we cannot hold them accountable because they do not listen to us. Because they cannot hear us.
Americans want the debt under control. Americans want immigration reform. We want a balanced budget. Americans want a plan. But we can't really get there because the structure of our government is flawed. And it allows those billionaire egomaniacs to seize control of it. They suck up all the attention, and they make the system look bad.
But it is not the system it's supposed to be. It is not a government of, by, and for the people.
All the items Americans want done are supposed to be done by Congress. Congress is supposed to represent the states and the people of the states. But the rules won’t let it.
The House of Representatives, which represents the people, has only 435 members. Each representative represents almost 750,000 people. That’s too many. Representatives cannot appropriately gauge what their districts want. And Self-government doesn’t work without adequate representation.
Things can change. Congress can change the rules. But the system is caught in a state of learned helplessness. No one believes they can, and the rules, the small echo chamber they’ve created, reinforce their beliefs.
I was speaking with someone in the political establishment recently about running a campaign with congressional reform as one of its top items. He said, “You can’t do that. Regular people don’t want that, not with taxes, not with inflation.” His point is what most people in politics think: in order to win elections, you’ve got to take care of the now problems and that’s a later problem.
But that is the problem.
That narrative—that idea—is what prevails in our country because it benefits the people who are already in charge. So the people who have power retain power. And the people asking for power—asking for things to get done, asking those in charge to fulfill their responsibilities—are left out.
The result is that the now problems never get solved, and the later problems get worse.
But to get anything solved—for the people’s voices to be heard—we need congressional reform. We need to uncap the House. We need to create a system that can actually represent the people.
And for that to happen, someone inside the system (the elite) has to let the reform discussion through. Or someone on the outside (the people) will have to break through with it. We have to start talking about serious reform. Because right now, all we talk about is Trump, Elon, Biden, and the latest scandal.
Meanwhile, there are thousands of people across the country working on congressional reform, and we don’t hear enough from them. We are told it’s because “the people don’t want it.” But that’s not true.
Maybe it’s because they're not listening to the people who do.
By the majority in power ignoring the debate, reformers aren’t given a chance to organize and rally around a candidate. Without a serious candidate who can unite around congressional reform, the current establishment won’t back it, the money won’t back it, so it can’t happen.
Suppose you are serious about improving the government and holding bad leaders accountable. In that case, you should be searching for and recruiting candidates to make Congress great again––to make Congress representative again. Candidates who run on congressional reform. Candidates who aren’t afraid to lead and educate the people instead of pacifying them.
The thing is, there is already a lot of money backing Congressional reform. But it’s decentralized and scattered among many different efforts and almost exclusively outside the campaign structure.
But the moment regular people stand up and give representation support, give it a voice, give it resources, it will break through. The tides will turn. The money will organize. And the advantage will turn to any candidate running on congressional reform. People will be given another option: Candidates who want to fulfill their responsibilities.
There will be debate. There will be arguments. But we will be talking about the right thing. And change will be enacted.
We will no longer be arguing over the next scandal. We’ll be talking about fixing the structure of our government, giving people a real voice, and then hearing them. We will be talking about representation.
We can do this.
We must defend what we believe. We must defend our right, as Americans, to be represented in our government.
We must speak up and unite for our right of representation!
Peace and Love,
Jeff Mayhugh