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How a State House Swamp Leader Stays in Power:
Assemble a small, loyal coalition – A handful of members whose support is essential to win leadership votes and control the chamber.
Control the agenda – Decide what gets a vote, when, and under what rules. If a bill doesn’t help you or your loyalists, it never sees daylight.
Access to money and favors – State budgets, committee chairmanships, staff, campaign cash, and donor networks—all tools to reward loyalty.
Dole Out Punishments – Drop a hammer on a member who is exposing the playbook to remind everyone who’s boss. State Freedom Caucuses have been routinely targeted in this regard.
Keep the majority broke and scared – Most members are told that they have no real power (This is a lie). Keep them dependent on leadership for their bills and re-election.
Use complexity as a weapon – Procedural chaos and backroom deals make it hard for outsiders (and even most members) to understand what’s happening.
Avoid transparency and reform – Sunshine and open rules shift power away from the top. Can’t have that if you’re the Swamp.
Gaslight the Public - In typical Orwellian fashion, the Swamp will twist words to make their agenda sound amazing while they fleece your pocketbook and restrict your liberties. Check out http://SwampGlossary.com for examples.
Use performative bills to create noise – Run a flashy bill that won’t pass just to give members something to campaign on—while real decisions are made behind closed doors. This is also used to confuse the members into thinking the Swamp Speaker "isn't a bad guy because he let me run my bill."
Use media allies or influencers – Give scoops, leaks, or access to sympathetic outlets. Reward reporters who toe the line. Freeze out the ones who ask tough questions.
Andy Roth
...there was a sober silence in the room. Samuel Adams, a key figure in the American Revolution and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, spoke up to say,
“We have this day restored the Sovereign to Whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come.”
Colonel Douglas MacGregor predicts a continuation of the Iran war soon, once all sides have replenished missile stocks.
"Washington’s political class manifests much less regard for the long-term strategic interests of its own citizens—their security and prosperity. As a result, Washington pays an exorbitant price in reputation and treasure for policies that confront Palestinians with the choice of death or expulsion from their homelands.
"Assumptions of tacit acceptance or rapid capitulation are implicit and dangerous.
[The Muslims will not 'do a deal.']
"When Hitler was briefed on the expected Soviet reaction to Operation Barbarossa, Major General Ernst Koestring, a Prussian officer fluent in Russian from a family that had lived in Moscow since the reign of Catherine the Great, advised: “Initially, German forces will advance rapidly. The various peoples on the Soviet periphery will likely welcome the German forces. Resistance will be weak. But when the Germans advance into ...
