Gage Skidmore
Mark your calendar: November 3, 2026. Republicans are preparing to turn Congress increasingly red.Mark your calendar: November 3, 2026. Midterms soon become the primary focus to produce solid Republican congressional majorities. Republicans are preparing to turn Congress increasingly red. Musk brings the cash.
Thirteen Senate Democrats face re-election. Most represent safely blue states, but some who do not include Booker (N.J.), Ossoff (Ga.), Shaheen (N.H.), Warner (Va.), and Peters (Mich.). Terms of alleged Republicans Collins and McConnell are expiring, and McConnell’s health prohibits re-election. Trump won Georgia and Michigan in 2024; New Hampshire and Virginia have Republican governors.
The Deep State won’t fold quietly. We saw that in the Senate, Inc.’s resistance to Trump’s nominees (selected through a thorough, deliberative process). The few Republicans who considered resisting (Ernst, who wavered on Hegseth’s nomination; Murkowski; McConnell; and Collins) were chastised by threats of well funded future primary opponents — the Liz Cheney treatment. Ernst is now Musk’s best friend in the Senate, heading the chamber’s DOGE caucus.
Democrats (Fetterman excepted) double down on failure. Their grilling of Trump’s nominees backfired. As Trump might say, not a good look. Playing to their vanishing base ensures antagonizing the broad center. Sen. Warner is horrified that government employees hold security clearances and — wait for it — some are age 25! A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Regardless of its original intent, DOGE is evolving into America’s truth and reconciliation commission. The cover story was that DOGE, prior to July 4, 2026, would create recision lists, which didn’t make much sense. The debt accumulation rate demands cuts immediately, not in 18 months. Trump easily terminates thousands, independently of DOGE or confirmed nominees. Trump’s DOJ, before his attorney general or FBI director were confirmed, forced the FBI to admit that 5,000 of its agents (36% of the total) had participated in J6 persecutions. Some will soon be unemployed. (Julie Kelly is skeptical that the number isn’t twice as high.) The Department of Education and CFPB were obviously toast once Trump took the oath. Is DOGE’s mission primarily political — clever publicity providing excuses for preordained cuts? USASpending.gov has long curated much passing for “news.”
Public attention focuses on Trump’s bureaucratic body count, an opening salvo. Emptying out Washington follows. Departmental headquarters will be exported to the hinterlands, triggering mass retirements. The corrupt D.C. court needs elimination. Pardoning J6 hostages without eliminating their persecutors’ infrastructure would be negligent. Election fraud investigations will be a focus, partly to establish grounds for challenging close 2026 races.
Forty-three years ago, Reagan’s Grace Commission targeted government waste and fraud using private-sector advisors. Its 2,500 recommendations, produced over two years, died in Congress. Trump accomplished the impossible in weeks by bypassing Congress. DOGE almost seems a distraction allowing serious cuts in the background.
A de facto constitutional reformation, concentrating power in the executive, is underway — not legislatively or by constitutional amendments, but by force of will backed by popular support. Attorney John Hinderaker notes that presidents already possess necessary authority: “There is a strong argument that the administrative state is unconstitutional. What is incontrovertibly unconstitutional is the concept of an executive branch that is independent of the president.” (Judge Engelmayer — and N.Y. A.G. James — take note.)
Some things never change. Twenty-five hundred years ago, Heraclitus declared that livestock are driven to pasture by blows. House Republicans (led by vacillating Speaker Johnson) and their Senate colleagues have absorbed the lesson: it’s Trump’s movie, and they’re extras.
Congress is the enemy. It hasn’t drafted (let alone balanced) a real budget since FY2009. Nineteen ninety-six was the last budget enacted on time. Congress created a century of inflation and unimaginable indebtedness. Solutions include constitutional amendments curtailing its chaotic proclivities. Budgeting floats in the ether between the Legislative and Executive Branches. If our overall national welfare defines patriotism, the antithesis is Congress subservient to oligarchic (domestic and foreign) control. Congress sold itself to the highest bidders. Biden was no anomaly.
Buckle up. Was Seth Rich murdered for crossing Clinton, Inc.? The FBI’s insistence on concealing records for 66 years is a clue. The FBI is stonewalling the Thomas Crooks investigation. If JFK was shot from the rear, how did part of his skull fly backward? Physics matters. Epstein and Diddy didn’t operate without powerful friends. Our voting system institutionalizes fraud. What happened to Ukrainian billions? The Seth Rich, Anthony Weiner, and Hunter Biden laptops are prosecutorial gold. Secrets will surface in the 20-plus months before the midterms.
The Deep State is reeling, anticipating future revelations. Those possessing an embarrassment of opposition research riches resist playing all their cards too early. The best drop at opportune moments. October 2026 surprises await. Ongoing DOJ investigations require time.
Panicked opponents yield unforced errors. Witness Democrats’ hysterics at Trump’s nominees’ hearings. Trump excels at this sport. His press secretary, unlike predecessors, routinely baits opponents. Whipping boy Jim Acosta is tragically gone, but we can dream. Karoline Leavitt inviting podcasters and influencers into the White House press pool further diminishes the dying media. Trump’s trolling volume is cranked up to 11: “The Palestinians, people like Chuck Schumer, would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region.”
Democrats have two options: submit or continue unforced errors. Millionaire lifetime politician Bernie Sanders, attacking Musk (the anti-Soros) for spotlighting USAID frauds, is rich. As are other MDS (the TDS terminal phase) tantrums.
A trial is underway, with Democrats as defendants testifying before the public jury, a reality escaping them. They proceed pro se, without experienced objective counsel. The cautions of rare rational party veterans (e.g., James Carville) are ignored. The defendants lack remorse and are best advised to avoid testifying. They are as credible as O.J. Simpson.
Dems continue antagonizing voters. The scheme by N.Y. governor Hochul and Hakeem Jeffries, to keep Elise Stefanik’s House seat vacant until November, middle-fingers constituents who will lack congressional representation. Strategists such as AOC and Maxine Waters attack Trump, producing collateral damage within the broad center surrounding him. Doubling down on sanctuary jurisdictions reminds crime victims who doesn’t love them.
After voting protocols are inevitably reformed, yielding state legislatures increasingly shifting right, crucial constitutional amendments can be addressed. If Visa and MasterCard can instantly flag fraud, cleansing voting rolls is straightforward. Wyoming’s constitutional amendments vote equals California’s. Wyoming and Alaska have one congressional representative each; California has 52. Their legislatures enjoy level playing fields for amendments. The 7,429 owners of the Constitution, legislators of the states (currently excluding Canada), control our destiny.
After the 2005 Supreme Court trashed the Fifth Amendment’s Taking Clause in Kelo, within two years, 84% of the states legislatively nullified that absurdity. It was a de facto Constitutional Convention — the first since 1787 — proving they can act promptly when public outrage peaks. Wholesale reforms are overdue. Congressional term limits; ending qualified immunity for corrupt law enforcement officials; birthright citizenship; budgetary constraints; unequivocal line item veto authority; standardized voting protocols; civil asset forfeiture; etc. demand action.
A quarter-millennium later, it is altogether fitting and proper that America once again verifies that it can long endure, that the unfinished work of the great task remaining before us is finally accomplished, and that this nation can have a new birth of freedom.
Douglas Schwartz blogs on history and gaslighting at The Great Class War.
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Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr (cropped).
