Here’s the bad news: We can’t depend on our politicians to represent our interests. Doesn’t matter which party. There are deeper reasons they’re not doing what we ask. And it’s foolish to keep hoping our politicians will somehow become the leaders we need. That means it’s on us, going forward.

Look, I know. It annoys me, too. I’ve been railing at our representatives for decades now, hoping they might listen. They should care what we think, at least in theory. We pay them a lot to legislate for us. We elevate and honor them as we give them the levers of American power. And yet, most of them suck at governance. Almost none of them bother. Hell, half are openly corrupt.

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That seems bad.

In the “Least Surprising News Ever” category, a Pew Research Center study found that “More than 80% of Americans believe elected officials don’t care what people like them think.” I feel the same way, but I also have evidence. There’s a seminal Princeton study shows that we’re not wrong to think the worst:

“The preferences of the average American appear to have only a miniscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.” Gilens & Page, Perspectives in Politics.

Yes. What the voters want doesn’t change your representative’s actions by a measurable amount. Not a hair. They represent people with money: donors, business elites, lobbyists, and the ultra-rich.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a “Vote the bums out!” thing. If it were just a couple of bad apples, then maybe, but when it’s everyone in the entire system, that’s structural. The political system is broken.

Now, here’s worse news: our politicians won’t improve. No, not the GOP, the ‘independents,’ or the Democratic Party. Yelling is fun, don’t get me wrong, and I’ll keep doing it, but that won’t be the answer. As a body, they probably can’t change anything important. That’s what ‘systemic’ means; it’s not just the people we chose. If you like your Senator or Congressperson, you may be justified. Maybe your person is great. I suspect many representatives really are good people trying to do their best, but they know they’re working in a broken government. In private, you’ll hear them talk with regret about what they can’t do. But not in public.

We, the people, have been the driving force behind every major change. Look at the Epstein files, or Minneapolis, or L.A. before them. People talked, but nothing happened until large crowds confronted them and demanded action. And even then, they literally did the least they could to placate the anger. All the recent changes have followed what we, the people, forced on them.

The worst news? What comes next will be up to us, too. And we’ll have to be specific about what we want. If we let them, they’ll half-step it, pat each other on the back, and vote themselves a raise. (Or lament that “There just weren’t the votes for more.” Whatever.)

Since it’s my blog, I’ll go first.

We will need to create a Nuremberg-style apolitical organization to investigate and prosecute corruption. Call it a Truth Commission with teeth. Due process means clear rules and boundaries, with both sides having robust protections and good lawyers. The Nuremberg trials only worked because everyone could see they were fair.

Any Truth Commission will threaten everyone in power now. Politicians will hate that — many because they’re patently guilty — so we’ll have to force it on them. And then we’ll have to deal with disinformation and astroturfed attacks from dark money orgs. That fight will never stop.

But…

If that Commission can prosecute corruption, remember that our politicians represent ‘money’: the people who commit the most corruption. Today’s politicians can be bought. Hell, you can buy the entire Republican Party and get a bulk discount. So we’ll have to make that Commission independent of legislative meddling, while still ensuring oversight and transparency. And we’ll have to protect it from constant bad-faith attacks from the very guilty oligarchs.

But…

The corrupt SCOTUS that accepts (and forgets to report) expensive bribes from billionaires every year will attack anyone investigating their patrons, their bribes, or (god forfend) the justices themselves. We’ll need to fix that problem, too. Expand the court, early and often.

But…

Any Truth Commission ultimately threatens the hyper-rich because they’re the ones who rigged the system in the first place! Their continued existence depends on corruption.

Here’s a difference you might not know. Millionaires, tens of millions, or maybe even hundreds of millions, they might be able to live on their riches. It’s possible to get that rich honestly. Billionaires, though, depend on corruption to exist. They’re financially fragile. They can’t stop — they can’t even slow down — or the system that props them up begins to crumble. We may not believe they’re vulnerable, but they are under no illusions. They bought the Citizens United ruling to give themselves incredible power just for moments like this. And they’ll be fighting for their overprivileged lives. They’ll be vicious. We already know they’re willing to blow up our entire democracy and the Earth’s climate, dooming their children, and they still won’t turn back.

The most obvious first step is to fix the terrible Citizens United decision before the rich crush fact-finding before it can start. That’s the most obvious problem, but there’s also union-busting, monopolies (Amazon, anyone?), monosomies, media ‘consolidation,’ etc. It will be very hard to stop them, and we know they have no limits.

But we have no choice. If we make the same mistake — if we leave the rich in power — they’ll do the same things again, but this time it’ll be bloodier and more protracted. Look at Trump’s January 6th coup attempt, and now look at ICE, CBP, HSI, DOJ, the FBI, and every branch of the Executive. Democrats and Republicans could have stopped that from happening, but didn’t.

I like Elie Mystal’s line:

“Do you know what you call an insurrection that has no consequences? Practice!” He wasn’t wrong. Our politicians will sit on their hands this time, too. But only if we let them.

I just said we could win. Never said it’d be easy.