The Establishment Democrats Are Wrong. Here's Why.

In the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, there's a game called Calvinball. The only rule is that the person with the ball makes up new rules as they go. Whatever helps them win becomes the rule. That's American politics now. Democrats follow the rules. Republicans change them whenever they want. And Democrats keep losing because they're playing a game that no longer exists.

Let's start with the Supreme Court. When Justice Scalia died on February 13, 2016, President Obama picked Merrick Garland on March 16. That was 237 days before the election. Mitch McConnell said no. His reason was "The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice" (Hulse, 2020). He claimed there was a rule: no Supreme Court picks in an election year. Republicans refused to even hold a hearing. For 293 days.

Four years later, Justice Ginsburg died on September 18, 2020. That was 46 days before the election. McConnell rushed through Amy Coney Barrett in eight days before the election (Fandos, 2020). Suddenly the "rule" vanished. Remember Lindsey Graham. In 2016, he literally said "use my words against me" if Republicans ever did this. Then he voted for Barrett anyway (Montanaro, 2020).

Wisconsin, 2018. Democrats won every statewide race. Before the new governor took office, Republicans called a lame duck session. In 22 hours, they stripped the incoming Democratic governor of his powers (Stern, 2019). The Assembly Speaker admitted it plainly: "We are going to have a very liberal governor who is going to enact policies that are in direct contrast to what many of us believe in" (Stern, 2019). Translation: Democrats won, so we're changing the rules.

Money tells the same story. During Obama's presidency, McConnell called the deficit "the transcendent issue of our era" (Bolton, 2013). Obama inherited a $1.4 trillion deficit. He cut it to $665 billion (Treasury Department, 2013). Then Republicans took over in 2017. First thing they did was pass a tax cut that added $1.9 trillion to the debt (Tax Policy Center, 2024). Trump added $7.8 trillion to the debt in just four years (CRFB, 2024). When Biden was president the deficits mattered again.

Impeachment standards shift the same way. Republicans impeached Clinton for lying about sex. Lindsey Graham said using your office "in a way that hurts people" was enough to remove a president (Evon, 2019). Then Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate Biden. He incited January 6th. Graham called both impeachments a "sad, ridiculous sham" (Williams, 2019). Lying about sex was impeachable. Trying to overthrow an election was presidential privilege.

Mail voting might be the most brazen flip. Florida Republicans invented modern mail voting. In 1988, Connie Mack won a Senate race because absentee ballots went 3-to-1 for him (Gardner & Dawsey, 2021). For thirty years, Republicans made mail voting easier. Then Trump lost. Suddenly: "Republicans: BAN MAIL-IN VOTING!!!" (Rodriguez, 2025). Since 2020, 21 states have passed 33 laws making it harder to vote by mail (Brennan Center for Justice, 2024).

Texas showed us how creative they can get. Their 2021 abortion law lets any random person sue anyone who helps with an abortion for $10,000 plus legal fees (Texas Legislature, 2021). This structure meant courts couldn't block the law since there's no officials to stop it. Even when judges said it was unconstitutional, clinics stayed closed. The law says if you provide abortions while fighting in court and lose later, you owe money for every procedure (Whole Woman's Health v. Jackson, 2021). Oklahoma and Idaho copied this trick.

Republicans have a significant advantage: it's easier to destroy existing structures than build new ones.

The same pattern appears with emergency powers. Trump declared one in 2019 to build his wall. He took $3.6 billion from military construction, saying: "I didn't need to do this, but I'd rather do it much faster" (Keith, 2019). Biden tried to forgive student loans during COVID using emergency powers. The Supreme Court killed it 6-3 (Biden v. Nebraska, 2023). Border wall with money Congress rejected was smart leadership. Student loan relief during a pandemic was unconstitutional overreach.

Republican Calvinball has already cost us three Supreme Court seats, gerrymandered districts for decades, and voting laws that target Democrats while protecting Republican votes.

Chuck Schumer called Barrett's confirmation "the most illegitimate process I have ever witnessed in the Senate" (Schumer, 2020). Democrats' response was to follow every rule. Filed briefs. Gave speeches. Republicans did one thing: counted votes. Barrett got confirmed.

Democrats keep thinking if they just follow the rules harder at the federal level, they'll win. Better legal briefs. Stronger arguments. More careful procedures. They're playing chess while Republicans play Calvinball. The game is rigged. Republicans broke the federal system and playing harder there won't fix it.

What we can do is build power where we still have it. States and cities still have functioning democracies. That means we can create state compacts that go around D.C. When blue states work together, they represent an economy comparable to China's, the world's second largest.

We can use that power to set up community networks and replace gutted federal programs. Then we can build structures that bypass captured federal regulators. These strategies can create facts on the ground that federal courts can't easily reverse.

Focus money and energy on states where Democrats control everything, because that's where you can pass laws without Republican obstruction. Blue states represent freedom, strong social safety nets, and low corruption. Yet despite being the minority, red states have entrenched their rule over the most powerful nation on Earth. The contrast needs to be stark enough that it becomes undeniable.

The game is rigged because they destroyed it, and playing harder won't fix what's been destroyed so thoroughly. The only winning move is to stop playing their game entirely. Moving from Resistance to Independence.

For more information on how to make that shift, subscribe and read through my previous pieces on the subject. We can win this, but it will take absolutely relentless tenacity.

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References

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