Fools and Power
Summary for the time-constrained reader
They give up power to retain power, it sounds crazy—it is. Our politicians are not just fools. They’re traitors. Trump didn’t take the GOP, the party surrendered. Democrats let Mitch McConnell steal the Court and called it “norms.” Biden promised to fight the rich, then let donors gut his agenda. Manchin sold the presidency from a yacht. Rome betrayed itself to emperors, Weimar to Hitler, Washington to Exxon and Trump. The robes remain, the titles remain, the speeches remain—but the power is gone. We pay the bill: insulin rationed, towns drowned, rights erased, futures sold. They betray the country for the crown, and we dig out the bodies. They give up power to retain power, and we pay.
They give up power to retain power, it sounds crazy—it is. Our politicians are not just fools. They’re traitors. Trump didn’t seize the GOP, the party handed itself over.
Democrats let Mitch McConnell steal the Court in daylight and whispered about “norms.” Biden came in promising to fight the rich, then let donors gut his agenda. Manchin sold the presidency from the deck of a yacht. Rome betrayed itself to emperors, Weimar to Hitler, Washington to Exxon and Trump. The titles remain, the robes remain, the speeches remain—but the power is gone. And we pay: insulin rationed, towns drowned, rights erased, futures sold. They betray the country for the costume of authority, and we’re left digging out the bodies. They give up power to retain power. Always.
The Price Tag of Betrayal
The ledger tells the story.
Health care: drug companies spent $300 million to block price cuts. They bought $600 billion in profit and corpses—diabetics rationing insulin, families bankrupted by medicine.
Energy: oil and gas spent $124 million over ten years to protect subsidies worth $20 billion a year. A 160-to-1 return. The profit is measured in drowned towns and children breathing wildfire ash.
Wall Street: since 2008, banks poured $2 billion into lobbying to gut reforms. Now they’re bigger, riskier, closer to collapse. They’ll cash out. We’ll pay again.
The politicians know it. They read the blood-soaked math. They sign anyway. Then smile for the cameras while staff drafts the “tough compromise” press release. Compromise is the costume. Betrayal is the job. They give up power to retain power, and we foot the bill.
History’s Traitors
Rome, Weimar, the Gilded Age—it’s the same script.
The Roman Senate ruled once. Then Caesar crossed the Rubicon and senators surrendered. They kept the robes, the halls, the titles. They handed the legions to Augustus. The Senate became theater. Betrayal in togas.
Weimar thought giving Hitler emergency powers would save their seats. Months later their parties were gone, their names erased. Betrayal signed into law.
The Gilded Age: senators bought wholesale by railroads and robber barons. A millionaire’s club disguised as public office. Betrayal was the business model.
They gave up power to retain power. And lost everything.
We are no different. We are not immune.
The Theater of Betrayal
Watch Congress today. Hearings. Resolutions. Sunday shows. All theater. The veto lives elsewhere. Courts strike laws. Corporations kill reforms. Donors silence ideas before they’re spoken.
Remember McCain’s thumb-down on ACA repeal? One flicker of defiance, lit by terminal cancer. That’s what it took for one senator to break script. Even that was erased months later when the tax bill gutted the mandate.
This is not governance. It’s costumes. Presidents, senators, representatives—holding crowns with no steel beneath them.
And when the real power is gone, they kneel. To Exxon. To Goldman. To Trump. To anyone holding the leash. Never to us. They give up power to retain power, and bow lower each time.
The Bill We Pay
We pay in graves and debt.
We pay when insulin costs $300 a vial. Families choosing between medicine and rent. Death by spreadsheet.
We pay when the grid collapses and pipelines burst because regulators were sold out.
We pay when billionaires pay less than teachers, while roads crumble and schools close.
We pay when the Court rewrites the law we never voted for, and Congress shrugs.
We pay every time “compromise” is betrayal dressed as pragmatism. They give up power to retain power, and we pay the price in blood.
The Oldest Betrayal
Strip away the names and it’s the same crime, repeated forever. Politicians love the trappings so much they’ll betray the people to keep them.
Rome did it. Weimar did it. Washington is doing it now.
The costumes change—robes, suits, microphones. The backdrops change—marble, glass, LED screens. The act does not. The same traitors smile, swear oaths they won’t keep, and sell the country for one more day on stage.
And when the curtain falls, we’re the ones left digging out the bodies. They give up power to retain power, and we’re buried under the rubble.
