The Broken Republic and Its Resurrection, by Michael Giere

By Michael Giere, The Stream, March 18, 2025

Michael Giere writes award-winning commentary and essays on the intersection of politics, culture and faith. He is a critically acclaimed novelist (The White River Series) and short-story writer. A former candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas, he was a senior executive in both the Reagan and the Bush (41) administrations, and in 2016 served on the Trump Transition Team.

It fits in the rhythm of history like a foot in a sock.

After the 2016 elections, many of us asserted that the election was only marginally about the candidates — it was more akin to a peasant revolt that caught the ruling class, elites, and professional politicians flat-footed. It was driven by the accumulating evidence that the federal government was working more actively against its citizens than for them, and cared very little about what average Americans want, need, or believe.

Americans voted with their gut instincts that the two Washington political parties had merged into one — united by graft. They were corrupt, intellectually and financially, to their core. Worse, they no longer cared that the voters knew it. A brazen callousness and arrogance had hardened like cement.

Citizens saw that their capital city (and too many state capitals) was piled high with dishonest politicians from both parties, making mediocrity look like a door prize. Their legislatures were enslaved to overstuffed staff, teeming herds of paid lobbyists, full-time fund-raising, and special interest groups the way prostitutes are to their procurers. …

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