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There are no rules based paths that will get us out [1]

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Date: 2025-05-24

Many of you are already there, but everyone needs to realize that the Republicans have broken the Republic to the point where there is no way out of this mess using existing laws and the constitution. That doesn’t mean we are without hope, far from it. But it does mean that any path forward to success will require some creative coloring outside established law. Why is the so?

First, the major news has been corrupted. In 1996, the Telecommunications Act passed both House and Senate with overwhelming majorities (414-16, and 91-5). Proposed by Bill Clinton, this act tore away New Deal safeguards on media consolidation allowing for just a few corporations to own all major news in the country. Read more details here. The end result is the overwhelming major media bias for pro-corporate news and now that has changed to pro-fascist news. Not even NPR and PBS are immune as those entities were forced to accept advertising and their boards of directors were filled with pro-corporate people, The MSM always had an anti-progressive bias, never even mentioning progressive possibilities or when they had to derisively dismissing them as fantasy and impossible. But now the MSM has become a single party animal which rarely questions the Republicans and attacks Democrats with every possibility.

Second, guardrails against election cheating get continuously weaker. Citizens United created a space where unlimited funds could be dumped into any race by Oligarchs. This money creates a vastly uneven playing field where a few rich individuals can blast their message across a friendly MSM far out of proportion to their votes. Further, Republican legislatures have gerrymandered control where they can including several states which should be evenly divided but instead now have significant GOP majorities. Combined with voter suppression and a clear willingness to break the law to achieve political power elections are no longer close to being fair. It will take a massive pro-Democracy vote just to break even.

Third, all components of the executive branch have been, or are in process of, being fully corrupted to Republican control. There is no independent FBI, Justice Department, or any other federal oversight which is not under Republican sway. ICE has become the institution by which people are disappeared. The FBI has removed all of their anti-Russian counter-espionage efforts. The Russians are free to continue to meddle in our elections, steal our secrets, and spread their poison.

Fourth, the independence of the courts is being whittled away. People like to point out that we are “winning” in the courts. But what I see is a long slow delaying of the inevitable and zero progress towards an active solution. Such delay can be useful provided there is something else coming to change all the rest of the dynamics. So every case which goes our way is a positive. But the courts have yet to use their Contempt Power and I personally believe that is because they know it is not a power that can be enforced and so they don’t wish to advertise it. What we need is a judge willing to cite Pam Bondi with contempt and then attempt to put her in jail. They have plenty of cause to do this so it would not be on thin legal ground. But a judge who does this will quickly show that Pam Bondi will never end up in jail under contempt charges. That is obviously not good for us in many ways, but demonstrating this to the country will at least prove to everyone just how bad things are. Meanwhile we have no constitution. There is not a single part of the Constitution that the conservative SCOTUS won’t gut if they feel like it and they are not constrained by logic.

There is a lot of effort towards the 2026 election and there should be. I support that effort and this article isn’t here to depress people. But that 2026 election on its own will not get us out of this mess. Even if by some miracle we win it we still have an executive branch that ignores congress at will and with impunity, a court system titled against us (at least at the top, and even at the bottom with every new vacancy), and no change in media control.

No, the 2026 election will be important not necessarily for winning but to remove all doubt from people that the US is now a fascist country. We will not be rid of the Republican menace through voting. It will require extra legal efforts. But that is not to say unethical behavior. Rather we will need to engage in ethical acts which break unethical laws. I do not know which direction this will take. It will need to come from a popular uprising. It will need to come from grass-roots organizing. You will not see the talking heads of MSM say anything nice about us. The secret police of ICE will be looking to make the leaders go away. The executive branch agencies will be looking to steal votes everywhere they can.

The Republicans have broken the American Republic as we know it far beyond repair. We did not start this battle. We wanted freedom and fairness for everyone. The Oligarchs have corrupted the system through a long and slow process but it has now been captured by them. The sooner people realize there is no going back, the better. We can only go through.

I took an oath to defend the constitution. The problem is those in power who pretend to represent constitutional authority have already crushed the constitution. Our government is no longer a government sanctioned by the constitution. Nowhere in that document resides an executive with unlimited powers. The best thing I can do in defense of the constitution is to tear down this occupying power which pretends to rule in its name.

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