The GOP's Faustian Bargain: The Ultimate Consequences of Unchecked Power

March 8, 2025: Author's Note

This post evoked some strong reactions from readers, so I'm providing a short update to clarify a couple things: This isn't a prediction, nor an endorsement of the actions described. Rather, it is a thought experiment—an exploration of how unchecked executive power, once normalized, can be wielded by any leader, regardless of party. The goal is not to advocate for any specific scenario, but to provoke reflection on how the precedents we set today can shape the political landscape tomorrow. Power is rarely static, and once constraints are eroded, they become tools for the next leader—whether you support them or not.

Rather than viewing this piece as an attack or endorsement, I encourage readers to approach it with one key question in mind: What do we risk when we justify executive overreach simply because we agree with the person wielding it? Executive overreach in the past does not justify its expansion in the future—it has never been acceptable, and doubling down on it doesn’t fix the problem; it only accelerates the erosion of the checks and balances that sustain our democracy. This is not about left or right. It’s about the structures that protect democracy itself.

February 11, 2025: Emergency powers. Executive orders. Agency purges.

Trump and his allies are aggressively trying to reshape the U.S. government, tearing down institutional guardrails with little regard for long-term consequences. Each directive delivers a quick, visceral victory—a dopamine hit that keeps his base engaged, rewarded, and eager for the next battle.

But that quick fix comes at a cost ---- hasty orders that are legally dubious and, frankly, sloppy.

They appointed the wrong guy as Acting FBI Director, inadvertently making him a folk hero to the resistance within the Bureau. A hastily written OMB memo halting federal financial assistance had to be “clarified” before being rescinded. A U.S. District Judge blocked DOGE access to Treasury records, while another froze their delayed resignation scheme meant to bypass civil service protections—an effort paused after legal scrutiny and internal blowback.

They moved so hastily they failed to lay the groundwork to ensure their actions could withstand legal scrutiny, institutional resistance, and the inevitable counterpunch. What seemed unstoppable days ago is now bogged down in court injunctions, bureaucratic inertia, and internal pushback. Their attempt to steamroll the system is exposing the limits of raw executive power—but perhaps that’s the point. Chaos breeds uncertainty, and uncertainty creates opportunities to consolidate control, overwhelm opposition, and erode faith in the institutions standing in their way.

Whatever the case, Trump and his team remain undeterred. He learned in his first term that he couldn’t control the government the way he wanted—not with institutions, laws, and career officials standing in his way. So, he took a page from Elon's playbook, and is now trying to do to the U.S. government what Musk did to Twitter: hollow it out, strip it down, and rebuild it into something he alone controls.

But what happens when a Category 5 hurricane devastates Miami, a cyberattack cripples the power grid, or a global crisis demands competent leadership? What happens when the agencies designed to respond have been gutted, sacrificed on the altar of personal loyalty and centralized control?

This isn’t about the immediate chaos or the cost of change—it’s about lasting damage. Government exists to serve the people and provide stability. But Trump isn’t trying to make it more effective. He’s not trying to make it better. He’s trying to make it obedient.

But history teaches us that political power is never a one-way street. What is built today can be turned against its creators tomorrow. When that happens ---- and it will happen ---- the executive overreach cheered under one administration will become the nightmare of its creators.

This is the choice before us: Do we stand by as Trump bends the law to his will and hollows out our institutions until there is nothing left to restrain him? Or do we reclaim the principles that have safeguarded our republic for nearly 250 years?

Because sooner or later, the shoe will be on the other foot.

The Faustian Bargain Comes Due

Imagine this: It’s July 15, 2029, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez places her hand on the Bible and takes the oath of office as the 49th President of the United States. It’s not how anyone—Democrats or Republicans—imagined it would happen.

Six months into his term, President John Fetterman, elected as a moderate unifier, suffers a severe stroke. His cabinet invokes the 25th Amendment, and suddenly, Vice President AOC—the progressive firebrand once dismissed as unelectable—becomes President.

Her rise is improbable, and her selection as Fetterman’s running mate sparked controversy. Chosen as a nod to the Democratic base, she provided a strategic counterbalance to Fetterman’s Rust Belt, blue-collar appeal—offering reassurance to a different faction of the party.

Now, sooner than anyone anticipated, she sits behind the Resolute Desk. She hadn’t won the presidency outright, but now that she has it, she won’t waste any time.

Her blueprint? Trump’s own playbook.

The Climate Emergency Order

On her first day, AOC declares climate change a national emergency, invoking the same powers Trump used for his border wall. She fast-tracks renewable energy projects under the Defense Production Act and, like Trump’s land seizures in Texas and Arizona, uses eminent domain against resistant oil companies.

Gas prices skyrocket. Independent truckers park their rigs, unable to afford diesel. Grocery prices spike. Rural gas stations shutter overnight. Urban progressives cheer ---- finally, bold action on climate change! ---- but small-town America feels the squeeze. And slowly, the realization sets in—this is what unchecked power looks like from the other side.

Yet, like Trump before her, AOC remains unapologetic.

Weaponize Justice: Courts, Cops, and the Liberal Order

Anticipating legal challenges, AOC moves swiftly to consolidate power and pushes through legislation to expand the Supreme Court. With the Democratic majority secured in the 2026 midterms, she fast-tracks confirmations—just as Mitch McConnell once did—to add four new justices. Overnight, the conservative grip on the judiciary vanishes, replaced by a progressive firewall handpicked to support her agenda. The same Republicans who defended Trump’s judicial maneuvers now find themselves powerless to stop hers.

The rules haven’t changed—only the players.

She taps former special counsel Jack Smith to lead the FBI, while gun control activist David Hogg takes over the ATF, reinterpreting firearm regulations with aggressive zeal. For Attorney General, she pulls Kamala Harris out of retirement, and Harris runs the Justice Department with the same pragmatic ruthlessness Pam Bondi once wielded under Trump. Where Bondi turned the DOJ into a shield for MAGA interests, Harris now wields it as a sword for progressive causes.

A quiet purge follows. Trump-appointed prosecutors see their cases dismissed or their positions eliminated. Those who resist face internal investigations, sudden tax audits, or ethics reviews. Instead of focusing on border security and transnational crime, federal resources shift toward targeting conservative individuals and groups labeled as “anti-government extremists.”

The tactics once championed by conservatives—bypassing institutional norms, punishing political opponents, and undermining civil service independence—are now turned against them. And Republicans in Congress, having enabled Trump’s civil service purges, can only watch as AOC wields those same powers against them.

They built the machine. Now it devours them.

The Gun Crackdown

With all the pieces in place, AOC leverages Trump-era ATF precedents to reclassify semi-automatic rifles as "weapons of war" under the National Firearms Act. Gun ownership remains technically legal, but the process becomes a bureaucratic maze—prohibitively expensive, painfully slow, and demanding unprecedented personal disclosure.

The expected resistance never comes. Instead, the federal government applies quiet but relentless pressure. Insurance companies deny coverage to gun retailers. Credit card firms flag ammunition purchases as "high-risk." Banks, wary of regulatory scrutiny, quietly close accounts linked to firearm businesses.

In Texas, a gun store owner loses his business insurance without explanation. In Tennessee, a mechanic running a small shooting range watches his liability premiums quadruple before coverage is revoked entirely, forcing him out of business within months.

The Second Amendment still exists on paper, but in practice, it's dead. And the newly packed Supreme Court stands firmly behind her.

The Wealth Tax and the Redistribution Machine

Declaring economic inequality a national crisis, AOC invokes the same emergency economic powers Trump once used in his trade wars to impose a 10% annual wealth tax on assets over $50 million. It doesn’t just target cash—it extends to property, businesses, and investments, forcing the ultra-wealthy to liquidate holdings just to meet their tax obligations.

But instead of funding infrastructure or reducing debt, the revenue flows into a new Reparations Trust Fund, overseen by Rev. Cornel West and an informal advisory board stacked with progressive ideologues. With direct access to Treasury payment systems, trust fund advisors bypass traditional oversight, instantly distributing funds and accelerating wealth redistribution on an unprecedented scale.

The economic fallout is swift. Private investment dries up. Real estate markets destabilize as high-net-worth individuals move assets offshore. Job losses ripple through red states, gutting the business communities that once championed Trump’s interventionism.

Nonetheless, the ideological mission marches on. Democrats, unwavering in their pursuit of economic justice, dismiss the fallout as the necessary cost of dismantling systemic inequality.

The Immigration Shockwave

Then comes the move even hardened conservatives didn’t see coming. Declaring a humanitarian crisis at the border, AOC invokes emergency powers to mandate migrant resettlement in Republican-led states. Texas and Arizona—longtime bastions of border enforcement—become the frontlines of a federally mandated relocation program.

She federalizes the National Guard under the Insurrection Act—the same law Trump used against blue states—to escort tens of thousands of migrants into cities that fought hardest against illegal crossings. Schools buckle under the sudden influx of non-English-speaking students, caught between an impossible mandate and the threat of losing federal funding if they resist.

Governors watch helplessly as federal infrastructure funding is frozen and Medicaid reimbursements stall. Stripped of leverage, they can do little more than issue public statements while Washington reshapes their states by force.

The machinery of executive power has come full circle. The system of unchecked authority, carefully built and defended during the Trump years, now operates with ruthless efficiency—just under new management.

Congress Rolls Over—Again

The pattern is familiar. Just as Republicans enabled Trump’s executive overreach, Democratic lawmakers now stand aside as AOC ruthlessly wields presidential power. They go through the motions of debate, but privately, they understand the risks of dissent—primary challenges, harassment, career suicide. They saw what happened to moderate Republicans who opposed Trump and choose self-preservation over principle.

A few Democrats raise concerns about court-packing and unilateral actions, but in the end, they fall in line, echoing the same justifications Republicans once used under Trump: This is just how the game is played.

Republican protests ring hollow. Every precedent they set to justify Trump’s overreach now legitimizes AOC’s power. The irony is complete—their own arguments have stripped them of any means to stop her.

Congress, once envisioned by the framers as the strongest branch of government, is now little more than a spectator— a sideshow to the main event ---- having sold its collective soul for the fleeting security of partisan loyalty, bowing to political interests, and hoping to avoid the threat of a primary challenge.

Meanwhile, the presidency has become exactly what the Founders feared most: a power beyond law—inoculated against consequence by the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. United States—wholly unchecked by the people and untethered from democratic restraints.

The Faustian Bargain

When norms collapse, today’s victors become tomorrow’s victims. The same emergency powers and legal loopholes fueling the MAGA agenda will one day be wielded by a radical left administration. The institutions that once served as checks—courts, Congress, the civil service—are being sacrificed in the pursuit of unchecked power.

Trump’s supporters hail his executive orders as “strong leadership,” cheering as he pushes presidential authority to its limits. But power, once unrestrained, is never contained. The tools of executive overreach don’t disappear when administrations change—they remain, waiting for the next leader to turn them against those who built them.

If conservatism is to survive, it must reclaim the principles it once defended. It must reject governance by emergency decree, restore limits on executive authority, and rebuild the democratic institutions it abandoned in pursuit of short-term victories. Otherwise, it will become nothing more than a hollow movement—stripped of its ideological foundation, left only with the bitter fruits of its own self-betrayal.

Today, conservatives face an uncomfortable question: Do they want a system so unrestrained, so weaponized against dissent, that their only hope is never losing power? If that’s the case, they may have won an election—but they’ve lost the republic itself.

This is the right’s Faustian bargain. In their eagerness to empower Trump, they sacrificed the very safeguards that once protected them. They dismantled democratic guardrails and institutions because they believed they could bend the system to their will. But power shifts, and when it does, the weapons they forged to destroy their enemies may yet be turned against them.

Revenge Feels Good—But It’s a Trap

Let’s be honest: there’s satisfaction in seeing the other side get a taste of its own medicine. After years of overt media bias and progressive overreach in academia, corporate America, and entertainment, it feels good.

Finally, we’re fighting back. Finally, we’re evening the score.

But this isn’t a game. When government power is weaponized for revenge, no one wins.

That’s how a republic dies—not in a single moment, but through escalating retaliations, each side justifying its abuses by pointing to the last. A cycle of power grabs and payback that, if unchecked, spirals until it finally collapses under the weight of its own recklessness.

True Conservatism: A Movement in Exile

Conservatism has never been about raw power—it has always been about preserving the structures that prevent its abuse. The Federalist Papers, Edmund Burke, and William F. Buckley Jr. all warned against the concentration of authority in any single branch. True conservatism isn’t defined by personalities or short-term policy wins—it’s a commitment to constitutional limits, checks and balances, and the restraint of government power, especially when your own side holds it.

It rests on three pillars: limiting executive authority, restraining government overreach, and protecting democratic institutions. It recognizes that tyranny doesn’t come from ideology alone but from the erosion of legal and institutional safeguards—when the law become an inconvenience to sidestep rather than the foundation to uphold.

Yet modern Trumpism discarded these principles with stunning speed. A movement that once championed states’ rights now uses federal power to punish dissenting cities and dictate local policies. Those who once defended democratic norms cheered as Trump pressured officials to “find votes,” pardoned violent January 6 rioters, and purged career civil servants in favor of loyalists.

You cannot claim the mantle of conservatism while dismantling the very institutions it was meant to protect. A political movement that tramples constitutional guardrails in pursuit of its agenda may be many things—but it is not conservative.

The Courage to Stand for Principle

It takes courage to admit when a movement has gone too far. More so to acknowledge that the ends don’t always justify the means—especially when those means threaten democracy itself. But that’s exactly where we are.

Supporting Trump’s agenda isn’t the issue. Wanting a secure border, a strong economy, or pushing back against progressive overreach doesn’t require lawlessness or abandoning the principles that make democracy work. Policy goals and the way they’re achieved are two different things. The real question is whether those goals should come at the cost of the very guardrails that keep power in check—because once those are gone, they’re gone for everyone.

Fidelity to the law must come first. Once the law is broken in service of a cause, it ceases to be law. It becomes the will of those in power—and eventually, that power will belong to your opponents.

You don’t have to be of the left or agree with them to see what's happening. You don’t have to abandon conservatism to admit something has gone wrong. But you do have to be honest with yourself: In the pursuit of victory, have we sacrificed the very principles we once fought to defend?

A Call to Action

This isn’t just about voting. It’s about accountability—holding leaders, institutions, and ourselves to a higher standard. The survival of the republic ---- and conservatism ---- depends on rejecting the temptation of raw power and returning to first principles.

Here’s what that looks like:

• Reject Authoritarianism—No Matter Who Wields It. If it was wrong for Obama or Biden to rule by executive fiat, it’s wrong for Trump. Be consistent. Hold every leader to the same standard, regardless of party. Excusing abuses of power because they serve your side is the surest way to ensure they never stop.

• Demand That Congress Reclaim Its Authority. Congress was never meant to be a rubber stamp for a strongman. It was designed to check and balance executive power. Call your representatives—Democrat or Republican—and tell them governing by executive order is not acceptable. Then call them again, every single time they fold. Be loud. Be persistent. Power belongs to the people, not a single office.

  
  

• Speak the Truth—Even When It’s Uncomfortable. If something feels wrong, it probably is. Speak up. Push back against those who excuse authoritarian behavior just because it comes from their side. Silence is complicity. Conviction matters.

  
  

• Support Leaders Who Value Institutions Over Party Loyalty. The next generation of leaders must be judged not by how loudly they fight, but by how faithfully they uphold the Constitution. Support those who stand for principle, even when it costs them politically.

  
  

• Hold Media Accountable. Stop rewarding politicians, pundits, and influencers who chase ratings, clicks, and likes at the expense of the truth. When outrage and division become the currency of the media, honesty is the first casualty. If someone tells you the ends justify the means, they’re not informing you—they’re manipulating you.

  
  

• Understand That Conservatism Is About Limits—Not Control. The Founders designed the system to restrain power, not consolidate it. The system of checks and balances they created is not meant to serve a party or an ideology—it is meant to preserve and protect the republic. Abandon those limits, and we don’t just undermine our opponents—we undermine democracy itself.

The choice is ours: Do we rebuild what was lost, or do we surrender to the cycle of revenge and power for power’s sake?

The Courage to Step Back from the Edge

This moment demands more than party loyalty—it demands patriotic courage.

It’s easy to go along with the crowd ---- to rationalize, to justify and say: Well, the other side does it too. But deep down, you already know—that’s not principled leadership. That’s tribalism.

The real test isn’t whether you can defend your side. It’s whether you can stand up and say: I support my values, but not at the cost of democracy. Because if winning requires dismantling constitutional guardrails, then it isn’t democracy that’s prevailing—it’s just another brand of authoritarianism wrapped in a different flag.

Courage is rare. It’s difficult. But without it, the republic will be lost—not in sudden collapse, but through the slow erosion of principles, sacrificed one by one until there’s nothing left to defend.