Donald Trump, President of District 13

Long ago, I was a pollster for the term-limits movement, championing an issue consistently supported by 80 percent of voters. I was appalled by media coverage that typically labeled the movement “controversial.” Talk about fake news! How could an issue so widely supported be controversial? What were the reporters thinking? At first, I naively assumed the problem was a lack of awareness, so I spent hours reviewing polling data with reporters and Washington officials. I quickly learned it didn’t matter. Most people in official Washington simply didn’t care what voters thought.

Over the decades, I’ve seen plenty of other 80 percent issues ignored by those in power. I came to recognize that the biggest divide in American politics was not between Republicans and Democrats, but between the Political Class and everyday Americans. Most Politically Active Elites believe the American people have too much individual freedom. Most voters, on the other hand, think there is not enough individual freedom.

This dynamic created a 10-10-80 nation where ten percent on the left are engaged in a bitter political war with ten percent on the right. Both sides are more interested in defeating the other ten percenters than caring about or listening to the 80 percent.

Sadly, we’ve reached a point where American politics more closely resembles the Hunger Games movies rather than a nation where governments derive their only legitimate authority from the consent of the governed. In the movies, life was good for the wealthy Capitol elites who lived off the labor of the oppressed districts. Ruthless President Snow set the rules and maintained control by keeping the districts fighting each other.

In America today, our Capitol elites do well for themselves by trading government favors. Voters hate this corrupt system, but what can we do about it? How can we get our political system to respond to the hopes and dreams of the 80 percenters rather than the agendas of the 10 percenters?

In mythical Panem, the first step toward defeating the corrupt system was for everyday citizens to stop fighting each other and “remember who the real enemy is.” That would be great advice for Americans today, but it’s hard to find agreement about who the real enemy is. Some say it’s Donald Trump while others point to Barack Obama or some other controversial political figure. In a different category, some blame “woke” activists or Christian Nationalists or some other group they don’t like.

In the Hunger Games films, it seemed obvious at first that the real enemy was President Snow. As the storyline progressed, however, the audience learned that distant District 13 had quietly assembled a powerful military force. Eventually, the District 13 army was unleashed and rallied the nation to defeat the distant Capitol.

That seemed like a great victory for the people of Panem until a major plot twist was introduced. District 13’s leader, President Coin, was happy to lead the battle but was not really interested in a free Panem. She simply wanted to replace President Snow and run the Capitol herself.

The lesson was clear: The real enemy was not Snow or Coin, but the Capitol system that enriched and empowered them. The corrupt system itself was the problem, the real enemy.
The same is true in America today.

From this perspective, President Trump might be described as the president of District 13. He built a powerful political army and used that army to defeat the political establishment. Trump successfully rallied voters against the Left’s ten percenters and took power by tapping into issues like illegal immigration that official Washington had long ignored.

However, once in office, President Trump did not drain the Swamp. Instead, he enjoyed using the power of the federal government every bit as much as Presidents Obama and Biden had done. Just like his predecessors, Trump wanted to unilaterally impose his vision on the nation and showed little patience for anything that got in his way. For politicians, checks and balances only matter when the other team is in charge.

With Trump in office, the focus of his army shifted and defeating the left became all that mattered. “If the Right doesn’t use force back against the Left, then America is done for,” according to a social media response attacking my commitment to our nation’s founding ideals.
Today, Trump serves as President of District 13 and leads the army of ten percenters on the right. Democratic Socialists and more traditional Democrats are fighting for leadership of the ten percenters on the left. Both teams believe they are our nation’s savior and that the other team is evil.

The problem is that neither political team is listening to or representing the 80 percenters. Like the journalists who always called term limits controversial, they don’t care what voters think. The only opinions that matter to most in the Political Class are the opinions of the ten percenters.

The bottom line is that America’s real enemy is not Trump or Obama or Republicans or Democrats. It’s the corrupt Capitol system that gives ten percenters too much power over the rest of America.  That’s the gravest threat facing America today.