It’s an aconstitutional broligarchy now
The constitutional oligarchy can be seen in your rear view mirror
Two stories underscore the U.S. transition from a constitutional oligarchy[1] to a tyrannical aconstitutional broligarchy.[2]
The first is of the foreshadowing of the Supreme Court’s apparent intent to overturn[3] a 90-year old precedent set in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States[4] in a shadow docket ruling allowing Donald Trump to fire a member of the heretofore independent Federal Trade Commission.[5] This occurs in a context not only of earlier shadow docket rulings that have permitted Trump to take even apparently unconstitutional actions utterly without explanation,[6] but, relatedly, of Trump’s decisions to deploy the National Guard, allegedly in support of “law and order,” in U.S. cities,[7] and a full-on assault on freedom of speech.[8]
The second is of the putative opposition party’s failure to come up with a coherent message in response to the Republican budget,[9] let alone 1) the aforementioned tyranny, 2) Trump’s (and Joe Biden’s) reduction of Israel to an agent of the U.S. in its genocide in Gaza, 3) his acquiescence to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and 4) an economy that appears to be returning to the ‘stagflation’ that neoliberalism was meant to cure.
I have previously thought that the Democrats prefer to sit in opposition, where they can complain about the Republicans without ever actually being expected to accomplish anything. But now, it seems, they can’t even manage to complain.
[1] James Madison, “Federalist No. 10,” in Federalist Papers, ed. Garry Wills (New York: Bantam, 2003), 50-58.
[2] Gil Duran, “How the 'Broligarchs' plan to use Trump,” Nerd Reich, November 25, 2024, https://www.thenerdreich.com/how-thebroligarchs-plan-to-use-trump/; Brooke Harrington, “What the Broligarchs Want From Trump,” Atlantic, November 24, 2024, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/broligarchy-elon-musk-trump/680788/; Lynn Parramore, “How to Disguise Racism and Oligarchy: Use Economics,” Evonomics, n.d., https://evonomics.com/how-to-disguise-racism-and-oligarchy-use-the-language-of-economics/
[3] Chris Geidner, “SCOTUS majority says Trump can ignore precedent if the majority doesn't like it,” Law Dork, September 22, 2025, https://www.lawdork.com/p/scotus-trump-precedent-humphreys-executor-ftc
[4] Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, 295 U.S. 602 (1935).
[5] Chris Geidner, “SCOTUS majority says Trump can ignore precedent if the majority doesn't like it,” Law Dork, September 22, 2025, https://www.lawdork.com/p/scotus-trump-precedent-humphreys-executor-ftc
[6] David Benfell, “‘Justice’ in the shadows,” Not Housebroken, September 8, 2025, https://nothousebroken.substack.com/p/justice-in-the-shadows
[7] David Benfell, “Donald Trump goes to war with U.S. cities,” Not Housebroken, September 7, 2025, https://nothousebroken.substack.com/p/donald-trump-goes-to-war-with-us
[8] David Benfell, “White Christian nationalism on the march,” Not Housebroken, September 16, 2025, https://nothousebroken.substack.com/p/white-christian-nationalism-on-the
[9] Abby Livingston, “Hakeem’s House Divided,” Puck, September 22, 2025, https://puck.news/hakeem-jeffries-leadership-style-is-dividing-house-democrats/