The Democracy Papers

So why would we design our digital public services like one? There’s been a lot of talk recently about what’s going on with our digital public services. A certain new task force with its Silicon Valley vibes, resumes stacked full of fortune 100 brands and exactly zero experience designing for government services has reminded me of why we must treat public digital services differently.

The State of the Union Is Gaslit Last night's State of the Union address, once a hallowed ritual of accountability and transparency, was a carnival of riotous falsehoods. The longest address in history was also the most gaslit. A president in denial stacked two plus hours of cringey “look-at-me” storytelling on top of a cacophony of chaos, misdirection and bullshit, full of overstated achievements and blatant distortions.

Be So Loud for America This weekend gave us Shroedinger's Trump: while we, the people were unsure if he was alive or dead, most major media refused to talk about his unusual disappearance. Just like they're refusing to talk about his occupation of our cities, because it's good for their bottom line when he causes mayhem. Recently, Trump’s fervor isn’t drawing the same crowds it once did. His rallies are thinner, the applause quieter. But don’t mistake that for weakness.

Paper eight The Dangers of Militant Division In Federalist No. 8, Alexander Hamilton warned us about the risks of a disunited nation: the rise of standing armies, the erosion of liberty, and a society consumed by internal conflict. He couldn’t have predicted the exact shape of those dangers today, but the essence of his warning remains chillingly relevant.

America doesn't have kings. In Federalist No. 15, Hamilton warned that the United States, under the Articles of Confederation, was on the brink of collapse. He feared that a weak central government would lead to anarchy. The national government was powerless to enforce laws and constantly undermined by states acting in their own self-interest. The solution, he argued, was a stronger federal government that could hold the country together, legislate directly for the people and ensure order.

The Death Spiral of a Broken Republic Alexander Hamilton isn't here to witness our modern chaos, but damn, was that man prescient. In Federalist No. 9, he warned that without a strong, unified government, republics fall into factionalism, insurrection, and an endless cycle of collapse. He looked at the city-states of ancient Greece and Renaissance Italy—where, like an ouroboros, democracy continually ate itself alive—and saw a cautionary tale for America. His solution?

The Tyranny of Factions James Madison warned us that factions, driven by their own interests at the expense of the common good, would be the biggest threat to democracy. And... he wasn’t wrong. In Federalist No. 10, he argued that the only way to stop factions from tearing a republic apart was to make sure no single group could seize total control. A large republic with a federal system would dilute extremist influence and protect against tyranny, whether from the majority or the minority.

Paper twelve A Republic on the Brink When a government turns against its own people, when it seeks to strip away the institutions meant to serve them, when it consolidates power into the hands of the few at the direct expense of the many, what do we call that? Not reform. Not efficiency. Not progress. It is the systematic dismantling of democracy. It is an open declaration of war against the people by those who seek to rule instead of govern. It is a coup. And it is happening right now.

Paper eleven A Fork in the Road You know, when I first had the idea to rewrite the Federalist Papers with a modern lens, I couldn't have imagined the speed at which our institutions would fall. I had hoped to write these to inspire unity in a broken nation, to push for engagement in government policy, both locally and nationally. But it feels disingenuous to continue down this path when our democracy is actively under siege.

The Hostile Takeover of the Federal Government What happens when powerful elites don’t just influence the federal government but seize it outright? Not to govern, not to serve but to dismantle it piece by fucking piece. What happens when billionaires and corporate operatives, backed by shadowy think tanks and dark money groups, execute a coordinated plan to gut democratic institutions, purge career professionals and consolidate power into the hands of a chosen few?