Will Frustration Lead To Change

Prominent conservative pundits are increasing their criticism of Trump’s leadership. Republican politicians are getting booed at their town halls because they voted for the terrible “big beautiful bill” and, even worse, without even reading it first. Wall Street is referring to tariffs as TACO - Trump Always Chickens Out. Major MAGA influencers who became popular by peddling conspiracies and disinformation are bluntly saying that the GOP lied to them. “We were played.”

The rest of the country is either angry that they're stuck dealing with the corruption and ineptitude that is unwinding America’s greatness, progress, and our rights, or have simply given up, tuned out, and see voting as pointless.

Everyone is frustrated. But is it enough to spark change?

Not unless we, the people, force it to change.

Republicans are going to continue to lie and promote conspiracies because their agenda is to take from the working and middle class to funnel the money to their wealthy and corporate sponsors that keep them in power. It is an unpopular stance that requires fear-mongering and lies to gain control.

Conspiracy theorists will continue to support whoever entertains their nonsense, even if those same politicians never deliver. It doesn’t matter that the claim about feds being behind Jan 6th falls apart when Trump pardons the insurrectionists and puts MAGA extremists in charge of the FBI, who find nothing to back up their lies. Epstein killed himself. Fort Knox is full of gold. And there was no bombshell in the JFK files.

Those who say they care about the national debt continue to think Republicans are better with the economy, despite the debt coming from Republican presidents and growing faster now that Trump is back in office. The roaring economy switched to a shrinking GDP, and a recession may follow.

Most astounding of all is that Democrats, who should be winning elections and majorities with ease against extremist MAGA candidates, lost and learned nothing from it. Democrats didn’t lose in 2024 because the country flocked to Trump. They failed because Democratic voters gave up and stayed home. The Democratic presidential candidate received 7% fewer votes than in the previous election. The corporate-backed, timid messaging of the DNC didn’t connect with the millions of hard-working Americans struggling to get by.

You don’t reconnect with working-class Americans by regurgitating the talking points of a multi-millionaire who writes for the New York Times and the Washington Post and founded his own major media company. You connect with working-class Americans by listening to them and joining them in protests and picket lines.

The only politicians exciting the public are Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Yet Democrats continue to try to shun their clear and powerful message in favor of vague poll-tested language that declares nothing and attempts to offend no one—the very strategy that resulted in another Trump victory and a MAGA-controlled Congress. Bernie and AOC’s message isn’t even far-left. It is simply to stop letting oligarchs hold power and ensure everyone can earn a living wage to participate in the American dream.

Confused incumbent DC Democrats are spending their time pushing Biden down to try and pull themselves up, while CNN is doing the same to sell books instead of informing the public on the damage Trump is causing to the strong economy that Biden left us.

No one has learned from the mistakes that have brought our nation to its knees and made us a pariah on the world stage.

America doesn’t need endless attacks between two political parties campaigning on being the lesser of two evils, or the talking head news programs designed to create conflict and drama for ratings. We need common-sense solutions that the majority of the country can agree on so that the nation can get back on track.

Congress shouldn’t cut food aid and healthcare to give billionaires more money. Instead, they should tax billionaires more to ensure healthcare and Social Security are properly funded for all. Corporations shouldn’t get additional tax breaks and federal grants; they should be hit with tax penalties for not paying living wages. Our taxes shouldn’t go to expanding a wasteful, bloated military; they should be spent on infrastructure, education, and housing.

America isn’t facing an abundance problem, as some Democrats want to campaign on. Sixteen million homes are vacant across the US, while almost 1 million Americans are homeless, and millions more can’t afford to buy or rent. That is because corporate investors buy homes to hold as investments, landlords collude to raise prices, and home builders split the nation into monopolies, ensuring no competition to keep prices low. Healthcare and prescription drugs aren’t expensive because of a lack of availability or a high manufacturing cost. They’re costly because corporations have found ways to create excessive administrative overhead to enrich themselves at the detriment of everyone else.

America doesn’t have an abundance problem. It has a problem with greed.

So don’t be surprised when your messaging of clearing red tape and funneling more money to those same corporations exploiting American workers fails to resonate, and the nation continues to demand that you stand up to the very people who bought you your seat in Congress.

The public must remember that the power rests in their hands. You demand what politicians' priorities are and remove those who don’t work hard enough for you. To stay silent or not vote is to give up that power to the special interests buying elections with the billions they’ve made through underpaying workers and corrupting politicians.

It takes all of us demanding better, resisting extremism, corruption, and disinformation, and understanding that the real fight isn’t about culture, religion, or gender. It is about the workers against the corporations and those without enough against the few with far too much.

Now is the time for change. Do not waste it.