If you’re continuously stunned by the behavior of gerrymandered GOP representatives (state or federal) in the world of Citizens United….
Don’t be!
After all, we’re losing if we’re continuously caught by surprise.
Here’s how to think of them:
They are no longer public servants.
In the most gerrymandered states, they haven’t been public servants for a generation.
In their world of no accountability to the public, improving public outcomes is not their goal. Nor do they do better in life or their careers by serving the public interest.
In fact, if they serve the public interest, they will likely be primaried. And lose. (Look at the Texas Republican reps who opposed vouchers last session because they would undermine public education in their rural districts—almost all were primaried and lost).
So if they’re not public servants, what are they?
Private Servants
Think of them as the servants of certain, narrow private interests. Financial, usually, but also social/cultural.
See that they are in public office to use public power (public money, regulatory power, etc.) to benefit those private interests.
Most of the time, when they give public power or assets over to those private interests, public outcomes fall. Which is why public outcomes consistently fall in the places they control (such as gerrymandered red states like Ohio), while certain interests always gain.
When those public outcomes fall, it doesn’t impact them at all. Because they’re in rigged districts they can’t lose.
But when those private interests are happy (because public power has been used to advance their cause), they ensure that their private servants stay in power…and advance. (Often directing a portion of the public funds they pilfered to do so)
Which is why their actions leading to failed outcomes always continue, usually growing more intense even amid public failure. Think about it: if they were public servants, actually trying to improve public outcomes, those failing actions would of course stop. But since they’re private servants and those they are serving are pleased, they just keep on doing what they’re doing, even as the public suffers. (This, by the way, is the dead giveaway that they are not public servants.)
That’s basically the career path of people like Jon Husted. (Now Ohio’s Senator). Disastrous public outcomes everywhere you look, but pleased and enriched private interests.
Public outcomes suffer. He advances.
It’s Not “Policy”
Sometimes people like Husted call what they do “policy,” to pretend they’re public servants. They know that most people still assume that’s what they’re doing.
But “policy” isn’t the right word. Policy leaves the impression that this is some attempt to serve the public good.
That’s not what they do.
It’s just a continuous giveaway: again, public power and public assets being harnessed to enrich and benefit certain private interests.
Recall Brett Favre using TANF money to build volleyball courts. That’s not policy at all. Just a giveaway. And it’s a perfect, simple example of what they do.
Once you see that that’s their role, everything flows from there.
Never Be Surprised
Stay angry at it.
But no longer be stunned or surprised at their behavior.
They are there to hand over public power to private interests.
That is what they will do.
And they will be rewarded for doing so, while punished for serving public outcomes.
Once you see that, everything they do is 100% predictable.
And what we need to do to stop it—although not easy—also becomes far more clear. (I wrote a whole book about it).
For today, joining a protest near you is a good start.
Day 123 — April 4, 2025
In response to Trump’s tariff chaos, stocks—the Dow Jones, NASDAQ, S&P 500—suffered one of the worst two-day plunges in American history. Friday marked only the fourth time ever that the Dow fell more than 2,000 points.
Trumps’s response on social media was to declare “MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE,” and to attack those feeling the pain from his disastrous policies
Quite the contrast from “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”
