DEM•OCRACY PROJECT: A Preview
Corruption is a key message in the 2026 midterms. And one of the biggest tasks we face in 2027 and beyond.
If you’re a free subscriber to my weekly newsletter you know that I’ve been planning on launching a more robust paid upgrade. One of the anchors of that will be something I’m — somewhat pretentiously — calling The Dem•ocracy Project.
I’ve been working on this in my free time since I started this little pub after 2024 — primarily mapping things out and doing research, grabbing relevant info as I come upon it, and taking notes in a ton of categories.
It’s an ambitious project covering everything from messaging and media to politics, and policy that I hope will help bring some citizenry consensus on pushing our politicians to do the right thing to win in the short, medium, and long term.
These will be deepish dives into this broad array of issues — primarily centered on winning the 2026 midterms, but doing so in a way that is scalable going into 2028 and building the infrastructure to bring criminal MAGA to justice and removing the cancer from out body politic.
Paid subscribers will get early access to all of these articles before I open them up to the general public, because I’m trying to create a road map of ideas that I hope might help. Listen, I’m a small voice in a big pond here, but every little bit helps.
The reason I’m writing this is because damn near every day we see another example of Trump & Crime Associates corruption, and I think getting to the bottom of ALL of that is one of the most important pieces of this puzzle to put our broken Democracy back together, and make it stronger than ever before.
This was just one of the corruption stories that popped up today, from Huffington Post via ProPublica:
When the Pentagon announced a $620 million loan last year to a small North Carolina startup linked to Donald Trump Jr., defense officials and the company tried to tamp down suspicions of cronyism.
The president’s eldest son said through a spokesperson that he wasn’t involved. The Pentagon said Trump Jr. played no role in the record-setting deal. And the startup’s founder told reporters that his company, Vulcan Elements, received no political favoritism.
But interviews and Defense Department records reviewed by ProPublica show that the request to loan hundreds of millions of dollars to the firm linked to Trump Jr. was made by Peter Navarro, a White House adviser to President Donald Trump and a friend of Trump Jr.’s.
Of the dozens of companies the Pentagon was considering funding at the time, Vulcan’s was the only deal initiated by a top aide to the president, said an official at the Pentagon who was not authorized to speak publicly.
After defense officials got the White House request, they asked Pentagon staff to move at an unusually rapid pace, said another person who was involved in the deal at the Pentagon but not authorized to speak about it. The staff worked late nights and with little sleep to get the loan through in a matter of weeks, the source said.
You can read the rest of the story here, but you get the idea.
Given the scope and volume of the corruption it’s easy to be overwhelmed. Some of the topics I’m going to cover in the corruption aspect of the article is:
How Democrats need to couch the issue of corruption going into the midterm elections.
Public messaging to push them to push nothing under the rug — we can’t again slow-roll the administration of Justice. It will be up to us to hone our own messaging
Finding the best method to set up a justice infrastructure. That scope and volume of criminality can’t just be dug into by one committee in each the House and Senate. We are going to have to look to a much more comprehensive historical models — be it post WWII Germany or apartheid South Africa.
Using both a new, overarching commissions for the most high-profile crimes and criminals, bit also utilizing appropriate standing Congressional committees.
We will need to get appropriations to expand staffing for all of this, but that won’t be easy with Trump still in the White House. Dems need to figure out creative ways to get around this, as well as putting teeth into subpoenas that will be fought tooth and nail.
A broader package of laws must be passed to close all corruption loopholes and add new laws where only the guardrails of norms once existed. Corruption and grift must also be fully addressed in a broader reform package Congress must pass (and Trump will veto) in the next session. Including reform of Congress itself that goes well beyond banning stock trades.
There’s a lot in just this broad overview. My goal is to break it all down in a logical and easy to understand way.
If you don’t know, my degree and early experience is in journalism, most of my career was in advertising, I ran a Congressional campaign and have volunteered in many others. I hope that intersection (and decent writing) makes these articles worth reading and sharing when they’re made available for the general public.
So, keep an eye out. When I do turn on that more robust paid component of FAM, I will obviously give all of my free subscribers an ongoing discount. While still a small fish, as someone coming from nowhere pushing 5,000 subscribers is decently impressive, and I wouldn’t be there without all the likes and shares from folks who read every week.
As always, I deeply appreciate it!
— Mike