Be In the Room, Not Bought at the Door
Justin Jest here, with a smoke alarm in one hand and a visitor badge in the other: if the public is invited into democracy’s…
Trump Tore Up the Deal, Then Claimed the Road
Trump tore up the Iran deal, and now he wants a parade like he personally laid fresh asphalt. That’s not statesmanship; that’s the guy…
Why the Lobbyists Still Get the Front Row
I’ve got no quarrel with representative democracy in principle. The whole point was to let more folks be in the room without everybody crowding…
No Riders, No Excuses
One law. One vote. That is not a revolutionary demand; it is the minimum standard for pretending a legislature is doing adult work. If…
Keep It in One Piece
I’m a simple man with a simple rule: if a law can’t stand up straight without a suitcase full of extras, it ought to…
Democracy, Now With a Login Screen
If democracy arrived in 2026, the first surprise would not be that people had too many opinions. We already knew that. The surprise would be that no one had ever built a serious place for those opinions to go.
Big Money Out, Public Media In
Democracy gets strange when the loudest voice in the room turns out to be the one with the biggest ad budget. We are told…
Let the Voters Write the Ending
In a healthy republic, the people ought to choose the goal and leave the fine print to the hired scribes, not the other way…
America First, Invoice Later
America First industrial policy is supposed to arrive wearing a hard hat and humming the national anthem, not dragging a grant folder with international…
The Ballot Printer Ate My Democracy
Maryland’s mail-in ballot mix-up became outrage fuel because the rumor machine can turn a vendor error into a democracy heist before the printer cools down.
The Watchdog Found the Locked Filing Cabinet
The Epstein-records transparency process has entered its most government phase: an inspector general review of whether the disclosure machine actually disclosed anything clearly.