There has never been a moment in American history quite like this one.
Not because things are at their worst — though for many people they feel that way. Not because the system has failed — though in many ways it has. But because for the first time in the modern era the American people have something they have rarely had all at the same time — awareness, communication, documentation, and the approaching deadline of an election that can actually move the needle.
That is not weakness. That is leverage.
And it is time to put our cards on the table.
Not as Democrats. Not as Republicans. Not as conservatives or progressives or any other label the machine has handed us to keep us divided and manageable. As Americans. As the people who fund this government, staff this military, build this economy, raise the next generation, and have watched for decades while the people we sent to Washington to represent us represented themselves instead.
That ends now. Or it ends at the ballot box. The choice belongs to them.
Here is what we are putting on the table. All of it. No hedging. No diplomatic language. No more waiting for the right moment because this is the right moment and we all know it.
Term Limits. Non-negotiable.
No member of the House of Representatives should serve more than three terms. Six years. That is enough time to learn the job, do the work, and go home. The Founders never imagined a political class — men and women who make careers out of holding office, who spend more time raising money than legislating, who have been in Washington so long they have forgotten what it feels like to live under the laws they pass.
No Senator should serve more than two terms. Twelve years. Enough.
No Supreme Court Justice should serve a lifetime appointment. The world has changed since that standard was set. Eighteen year terms with staggered appointments restores accountability to the highest court in the land without destroying its independence.
No federal agency head, no cabinet secretary, no appointed official in a position of significant power should be able to entrench indefinitely. Fixed terms. Public accountability. Regular review.
The argument against term limits has always been that we need experienced legislators. What we actually have is entrenched legislators — and those are not the same thing. Experience in service of the people is valuable. Experience in service of staying in power is the problem.
Campaign Finance. Clean it up.
The moment a corporation, a PAC, a foreign-connected entity, or a billionaire with an agenda can pour unlimited money into an election is the moment that election stops belonging to the people. Citizens United opened a door that has allowed money to replace votes as the true currency of American democracy.
Close it.
Full transparency on every dollar that enters a political campaign. Hard caps on individual and organizational contributions. Public financing options for candidates who refuse corporate money. Strict penalties for dark money operations that hide the source of political influence.
A representative who owes their seat to a billionaire’s super PAC does not represent you. They represent the billionaire. This is not complicated. It is not even controversial among ordinary Americans across the political spectrum. The only people who defend the current system are the people who benefit from it.
Accountability Standards. Perform or leave.
Every elected official should be subject to a clear and enforceable standard of performance. Not a vague popularity contest — actual measurable accountability. Did you show up to vote? Your attendance record is public. Did you pass legislation that delivered results for your constituents? That record is public. Did you use your office for personal financial gain? That is prosecuted, not excused.
No more stock trading by members of Congress and their families on information only available to them because of their position. That is insider trading. It is illegal for everyone else. It should be illegal for them. Full stop.
No more revolving door between regulatory agencies and the industries they regulate. You cannot spend five years at the FDA and then go work for the pharmaceutical company you were supposed to be overseeing. You cannot regulate Wall Street on Monday and join a hedge fund on Tuesday. The conflict of interest is not subtle. It is the entire system working exactly as the powerful designed it to work.
Lobbying Reform. Draw the line.
Lobbying is legal. Influence is legal. The First Amendment protects the right to petition government. But what exists today is not petitioning — it is purchasing. Lobbyists write legislation. Lobbyists fund campaigns. Lobbyists cycle in and out of the very offices they are supposed to be influencing from the outside.
A five year ban on any former elected official or senior government employee becoming a lobbyist. Mandatory public disclosure of every meeting between a lobbyist and an elected official or their staff. Hard limits on gifts, travel, and entertainment provided to officials by anyone with a financial interest in legislation.
The people’s representatives should be accessible to the people. Not primarily to the people who can afford $50,000 a plate dinners.
Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Pricing. Stop the manipulation.
The United States pays more for prescription drugs than any other developed nation on earth. Not because our drugs are better. Because the system has been designed by the people who profit from it to prevent the government from negotiating prices on behalf of the people who pay for it.
Medicare should negotiate drug prices. Full stop. Every other major country does this. The only reason America doesn’t is that the pharmaceutical lobby has spent decades and billions of dollars making sure it doesn’t happen.
No American should have to choose between insulin and groceries. No family should go bankrupt because someone got sick. Healthcare is not a luxury. It is not a political position. It is a basic condition of a functioning society and the wealthiest nation in the history of the world has the resources to guarantee it if the will exists to do so.
The will has been purchased away from us. We are purchasing it back with our votes.
Electoral Integrity. Protect the vote.
Every eligible American citizen should be able to vote. Full stop. Not some of them. Not the ones who can navigate an obstacle course of restrictions, limited polling hours, purged voter rolls, and identification requirements designed to exclude rather than protect. All of them.
Automatic voter registration. National standards for polling place availability. Paper ballot backups for all electronic voting systems. Independent nonpartisan redistricting commissions in every state so that politicians stop choosing their voters instead of voters choosing their politicians.
Gerrymandering is the manipulation of democracy at the map level. It allows a party to win a minority of votes and hold a majority of seats. That is not representation. That is engineering. And the people on both sides of the aisle who have benefited from it should be ashamed of what they have done to the principle of one person one vote.
The Federal Reserve and Economic Accountability.
The gap between the wealthiest Americans and everyone else has grown every decade for fifty years. That is not an accident. It is the result of policy decisions — tax structures, interest rate management, regulatory choices — that have consistently favored capital over labor, investment income over wages, the already wealthy over the people trying to build something from the middle.
We are not asking for equality of outcome. We are asking for a fair system. One where the rules don’t change depending on how much money you have. One where a working family and a hedge fund operate under the same basic standards of accountability. One where the tax code does not contain more loopholes than a fishing net, each one put there by a lobbyist for a client who could afford to pay the lobbyist more than the loophole was worth.
What We Are Saying. Plainly.
We see you. All of you. The ones who have been there thirty years. The ones who trade stocks on inside information. The ones who take the meeting with the lobbyist and vote the way the check tells you to. The ones who gerrymander your own safety into the map and call it democracy. The ones who have made a comfortable career out of the dysfunction because the dysfunction serves you even when it destroys everyone else.
We see you and we are coming to the ballot box.
Not in anger. In clarity. There is a difference. Anger is loud and unfocused and spends itself before it arrives. Clarity is quiet and organized and shows up on election day and knows exactly what it came to do.
What seems like our bleakest moment is actually our prime opportunity. When the system is this visible — when the manipulation is this naked, when the self-interest is this undisguised — the people finally have something they rarely have.
A clear target.
We are not asking anymore. We are informing.
Term limits. Clean money. Real accountability. Fair elections. Healthcare that works. An economy with rules that apply to everyone.
Deliver it or we will find people who will.
The table is set. The cards are down.
Your move.
“We are the Peoples Table”
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“Intelligent People Assume Nothing” | Michael S Faust Sr. | Substack
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