A Note From The Circus: The People Say No

The People are Sovereign!

Photo by Becky Phan on Unsplash

My fellow Americans, I bring you great tidings from the Circus!

Two plus two equals four. There are twenty-four hours in a day. And today, a grand jury of ordinary citizens—selected by sortition before a constitutionally-mandated proceeding—has rejected the notion that treason should be performed against the Constitution by granting indictment against Letitia James for reasons that have nothing to do with justice or the interests of the United States.

Not once, but twice.

This is a momentous occasion. Let me tell you why.

When Coup Meets Constitution

Make no mistake about what we’re witnessing: an active coup attempt against the constitutional order. Trump posts on social media demanding that Letitia James, James Comey, Adam Schiff be prosecuted. Not because of evidence—because they investigated him, criticized him, held him accountable under law.

When the lawfully serving interim US attorney wouldn’t bring these cases, he was pushed out. Lindsey Halligan—a former White House adviser with no prosecutorial credentials worth noting—was installed in his place. Her qualification? Willingness to do what career prosecutors wouldn’t.

She brought indictments against James and Comey. Federal Judge Cameron McGowan Currie ruled Halligan’s appointment unlawful, that “all actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment” must be “set aside.” She understood what was happening: the transformation of the Department of Justice into “the President’s personal agents of revenge.”

The administration went back to the grand jury immediately.

And today, ordinary Americans doing their constitutional duty declined to indict.

Again.

The Friction of Democratic Ritual

This is where the coup runs into friction—not the friction of institutions or procedures, but the friction of actual human beings who refuse to play along.

The grand jury is a constitutional ritual that requires something authoritarian power cannot manufacture: the genuine assent of randomly selected citizens. You can install your loyalist prosecutors. You can pressure career officials. You can manipulate legal process. But at some point, you have to ask ordinary Americans pulled from voter rolls: Will you authorize this?

And twice now, they have said: No.

This is sortition doing exactly what the Framers intended—placing a randomly selected sample of the people between prosecutorial power and the accused, trusting that ordinary citizens given real responsibility will recognize the difference between justice and revenge.

They can smell it. They can see what’s being asked of them. And they are refusing to become instruments of political persecution.

Behold America: The Corrupt Are The Minority

This is the revelation that should terrify those attempting this coup: The people are not like them.

The sophisticated sociopaths who’ve convinced themselves that power and profit are all that matter, who’ve built elaborate intellectual frameworks justifying cruelty as clarity—they look around their circles of wealth and influence and assume everyone thinks this way. That everyone would weaponize the Justice Department against their enemies if given the chance. That everyone views constitutional constraints as obstacles to be overcome rather than principles to be honored.

But ordinary Americans, given this power, are choosing differently.

Not because they’re particularly sophisticated about constitutional law. Not because they’ve read Hamilton or studied separation of powers. But because they retain something the people orchestrating this coup have systematically extinguished in themselves: basic regard for human dignity and constitutional principle.

The corrupt among us are a minority. A powerful minority, yes. A wealthy minority with access to levers of power. But a minority nonetheless.

And when the constitutional order requires their schemes to pass through the judgment of randomly selected citizens, those schemes are failing.

The Authoritarian Playbook Exposed

CNN reports the Justice Department could try to seek indictment a third time.

A dry technicality of law. Third attempt. Why not? A federal judge has ruled the original indictment unlawful. A grand jury has twice declined to reindict. And the response is: try again.

This is farce!

It is also the authoritarian playbook laid out before us: exhaust the system through repetition. Make resistance so costly, so endless, that eventually people give up. Test every boundary until something breaks.

But here’s what they didn’t count on: ordinary Americans refusing to cooperate with their own conscription into tyranny.

Each time they go back, they have to face a new randomly selected group of citizens. They can’t intimidate them in advance. They can’t ensure loyalty. They can’t optimize the outcome.

They have to ask. And the people keep saying no.

I love the American people!

What We Must Do

So we name what’s happening: not normal prosecutorial discretion but systematic weaponization of federal power against the president’s enemies, documented through his own posts demanding these specific prosecutions.

We defend those holding the line: judges ruling unlawful appointments unlawful, grand juries declining to authorize political persecutions, career prosecutors resigning rather than participating.

And we recognize what this reveals: we are not alone. The people attempting this coup want us to believe everyone is corrupt, everyone is cynical, everyone would do the same if given the chance.

But the grand jury—that ancient democratic ritual requiring the genuine assent of randomly selected citizens—keeps proving them wrong.

The people are not like them. The corrupt are the minority. And when the coup runs into the friction of constitutional ritual requiring ordinary human judgment, it is failing.

Two plus two equals four. There are twenty-four hours in a day. And twice now, grand juries of ordinary Americans have refused to perform treason against the Constitution.

May love carry us home.

The circus continues. The wire still holds. Not because the system is strong, but because the people walking it refuse to fall.

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