Fourth & Democracy | Shutdown Hypocrisy Politics, Games Behind the Games & People Are Awake

Welcome to another edition of Fourth & Democracy.

Government shutdowns aren’t supposed to be vacation time for elected officials. They’re supposed to be when the adults in the room batten down the hatches and fix what’s broken – not sneak off on taxpayer-funded golf trips or throw military birthday parades for Fox News hits.

But here we are: a president posing for wedding photos before he tees off, a cabinet feeding soundbites to right-wing media instead of handing over the Epstein files, and a government treating a constitutional crisis like content.

Outside the circus, the rest of the country actually showed up. Shohei Ohtani pulled off one of the most absurd athletic feats in history, millions marched in the No Kings rallies demanding a free and fair democracy, and Zohran Mamdani admitted to smoking weed like an actual human being. So yeah – for all the dysfunction at the top, there’s still plenty of life left in the land of the free.

Let’s get into it.

1st & 10: Hypocrisy of the Highest Order

We’re in week four of the shutdown, and the people in charge keep proving the rules don’t apply to them. The White House is burning taxpayer cash on optics and leisure. Federal employees are getting pink slips. Veterans are waiting for care. Rent is going unpaid. And the same crew blocking paychecks and benefits is out there staging parades, playing golf, and hiding the Epstein files. It’s not governing – it’s reality television with your money.

Start with the man who loves a photo-op more than anyone. While 750,000 federal workers go unpaid, Donald Trump keeps showing up on the golf course. Motorcades seen leaving Mar-a-Lago, Secret Service overtime, resort security – every trip burns through money that should be used to reopen the government. It’s more of the same for the Trump regime: They see themselves as the chosen ones. They get to play golf, mock protesters, and play soldier from the back of a cargo plane while working people fight to survive.

In California, J.D. Vance and Pete Hegseth headlined the 250th Marine Corps anniversary show at Camp Pendleton – live-fire theatrics and all – while protesters around the country demanded basic accountability. A 155 mm shell even detonated early over I-5, showering a police cruiser with shrapnel. Nobody was hurt, but the metaphor couldn’t be clearer: they shut down the government – even the interstate – for ordinary people, then staged a firework show for the cameras.

Meanwhile, Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva, chosen to fill her late father’s House seat, still isn’t sworn in. Speaker Mike Johnson keeps moving the goalposts because she vowed to sign the petition forcing a vote to release the Epstein files. He’s hiding behind “process” while the Royal Family just stripped Prince Andrew of his titles over the same scandal. The U.K. is no model of transparency, but at least they acted. Here, the ruling party blocks a lawful oath to protect the powerful. That’s not law and order – that’s cowardice of the highest order.

Back in Chicago, the split-screen couldn’t be clearer. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker marched with the No Kings crowd – tens of thousands deep – telling Trump to “stay the hell out of Chicago.” Republicans responded by digging up a story about him winning $1.4 million at blackjack, conveniently skipping the part where he said he’ll donate the winnings to charity and reported them on his taxes. The same people joyriding on taxpayer funded convoys during a shutdown are calling a governor a criminal for standing with his constituents.

And hanging over all of it: The jobs being gutted. Agencies are sending out RIF letters – “Reduction in Force” – while courts scramble to block the next wave. Thousands of public servants are already out of work in an economy where companies aren’t expanding. Russ Vought and Trump call it belt-tightening; it’s really a slaughter.

They preach fiscal discipline while billing you for golf trips, convoys, and parades. They preach law and order while burying child-trafficking evidence of the powerful. They call protest un-American while a governor stands shoulder-to-shoulder with his people.

The Trump regime isn’t leading a country – they’re hosting a pageant.

2nd & Long: Positive Politics

Let’s talk about the good stuff for a second – because even in the middle of this circus, there’s progress worth celebrating. People are pushing back, standing up, and forcing power to rethink itself.

Start with Stephen Miller, the president’s favorite ghoul. After years of cruelty-as-policy, his Arlington house is on the market. Neighbors chalked his sidewalk with reminders of what he’s done, and now he’s moving out. You don’t have to be petty to smile at that – it’s just nice to see accountability show up with a “For Sale” sign.

Stephen Miller isn’t popular in his hometown of Santa Monica, either. | Susan J. Demas

Then there’s AIPAC, finally getting the scrutiny it deserves. More candidates are realizing that taking lobby money tied to a foreign government is political poison. Jennifer Welch, co-host of the I’ve Had It podcast, roasted Cory Booker for dodging the question on whether he takes AIPAC money. Gavin Newsom gave the same “that’s interesting” dodge like a kid who got caught copying off the wrong test. Meanwhile, Rep. Seth Moulton said he’s returning his AIPAC donations all together. That’s not a small thing – it’s a sign that moral clarity is finally starting to matter.

Over in Congress, a rare sight: Democrats and Republicans teaming up to block an undeclared war in Venezuela. After Trump’s regime started bombing Caribbean vessels labeled “narco-terror” targets, lawmakers like Tim Kaine, Adam Schiff, and Rand Paul came together on a War Powers measure that says, in plain English: No president gets to launch a conflict without Congress signing off. That’s how it’s supposed to work – and it’s the first time in years both parties have agreed on anything resembling restraint. That’s worth celebrating.

Even Marjorie Taylor Greene stumbled into a moment of usefulness. She’s railing against her own party over the shutdown and calling out broken systems – and Democrats have been smart enough to use her clips to hammer home the same point: This government is broken because it’s being run like a grift, not a country.

Finally, the real good news: People are awake. Millions showed up for the No Kings rallies across the country – from big cities like Chicago to small towns in North Carolina and Michigan. Regular Americans are done watching this mess from the sidelines. They showed up. They stood together. And reminded everyone who actually owns this democracy.

Optimism isn’t delusion – it’s discipline. Every protest, every moral stand, every bipartisan “enough” is proof that the people still have more power than the pageantry.

3rd & Short: The Games Behind Sports

Sports isn’t just about competition. It’s about spectacle, soft power, and the collision between entertainment, politics, and technology.

Shohei Ohtani’s performance in Game 4 of the NLCS against the Milwaukee Brewers defied precedent. Three home runs and ten strikeouts in a single postseason game – no one has ever done that, not in the modern era or the so-called golden age. The comparison to Babe Ruth, long treated as the ceiling for any dual-role player, is now outdated. Ruth was a product of baseball’s early mythology. Ohtani is a product of its evolution – a player operating at the intersection of athleticism, analytics, and global influence. His impact extends beyond any box score; it’s redefining what a professional athlete can be in a world where superstardom is both global and immediate.

While Ohtani dominates the headlines, another kind of game is being played on a much larger scale. Saudi Arabia has moved from investing in sports to effectively purchasing them. After acquiring major stakes in global soccer leagues, golf, boxing, and esports, the kingdom secured the rights to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup. Construction is underway on a slate of mega-projects – including a futuristic cliffside stadium in Qiddiya designed to retract its roof, and even the backdrop. The proposal for a skyscraper-top arena is most likely exaggerated, but the underlying message remains clear: Saudi Arabia intends to use its sovereign wealth fund to transform sports into an instrument of national branding and political rehabilitation. The country’s leadership hides behind modernization; critics call it sportswashing.

Back in the United States, the NFL’s selection of Bad Bunny as next year’s Super Bowl halftime performer triggered a predictable culture clash. The choice of a Puerto Rican megastar – one of the most streamed artists in the world – prompted tears and outrage in right-wing circles, where the selection was criticized as “un-American.” The backlash underscores the great American political divide: one side seeing representation as a threat, the other viewing it as progress. For the NFL, the decision reflects both demographic reality and commercial calculation – the league’s most watched event aligning itself with a global, bilingual audience that helps define contemporary pop culture.

Meanwhile, social media continues to blur the line between parody and participation. Over the past month, AI-generated “celebrity deathmatch” videos have exploded across platforms, recreating imaginary wrestling matches between historical figures and deceased icons. What began as digital novelty has evolved into a reflection of a broader cultural trend – nostalgia monetized and ethics sidelined. The spectacle is equal parts absurd and revealing: a public so desensitized to simulation that it finds entertainment in synthetic violence featuring people who no longer exist.

Across all of it – Ohtani’s superhuman ability, Saudi Arabia’s strategic fantasy, the NFL’s cultural reckoning, and AI’s algorithmic absurdity – the pattern is there. The games are still being played, but the meaning behind them is changing.

4th & Democracy: After the March

The No Kings protest was the largest act of public dissent this country has seen in years – reports of up to 7 million people, thousands of cities, one message: we’ve had enough of being ruled instead of represented. It wasn’t perfect. Nothing that big ever is. But it was real. It was loud. And it was a reminder that people still care enough to show up.

In the days since, the internet has done what it always does – divided itself. Some people are calling the march performative. Others think it didn’t go far enough. There are those who want to burn the whole thing down, and others who are terrified of what that might mean. The truth is, all of them are right in their own way. Anger without direction burns out. Fear without action freezes progress. What we need now is that middle ground – not compromise, but coordination.

A general strike sounds romantic until you remember what it takes to pull one off: rent, food, childcare, risk. Those aren’t small things. That’s why mutual aid is the real backbone of any movement that wants to last. If the next step is economic pressure – withholding labor, boycotting key industries, slowing the machine – then people have to know someone has their back while they do it, and it won’t be some well-meaning billionaire. It will be food banks. Community rideshares. Strike funds. Legal clinics. The work of building those networks may not trend on social media, but it’s what turns moments into movements.

Because what No Kings proved wasn’t just anger – it was capacity. When that many people hit the streets in the middle of a shutdown, it means something deeper is waking up. That’s the power that can’t be televised or gamed by a Thiel-owned algorithm. The people who think it was catharsis are missing the point: every great movement starts with something that looked “performative” to the people sitting at home.

The next phase isn’t about rage or fear – it’s about leverage. The question now isn’t whether we can make enough noise; it’s whether we can sustain the pressure long enough to make them feel it. That’s where the real work begins.

What to Watch

WTF with Marco Maron – The Final Episode (ft. Barack Obama)

After fifteen years and nearly 1,500 conversations, Marc Maron closed his podcast last week the same way he made it matter – with honesty, vulnerability, and a guest who changed history. His final episode with President Obama felt like a full circle moment. Two men who helped define different eras meeting one last time to talk legacy, empathy, and how we can turn our country around.

The Perfect Neighbor – Netflix

The Netflix documentary revisits the killing of Ajike “AJ” Owens, a 35-year-old Black mother of four who was shot through a locked door by her white neighbor, Susan Lorincz, after months of harassment in a Florida community. Told through 911 calls, surveillance footage, and family testimony, The Perfect Neighbor strips away the distance we usually get in true crime and forces viewers to confront what fear really means when weaponized by race and law. Beneath the quiet of suburbia, it exposes how Stand Your Ground laws, apathy, and prejudice come together.

What to Read

Jack Kerouac – The Dharma Bums

If this week’s politics leave you exhausted, The Dharma Bums is the perfect antidote – a restless, searching book about motion, meaning, and the kind of freedom that doesn’t come from government or money. Kerouac’s wanderers aren’t just chasing mountains; they’re chasing clarity, trying to find a stillness in the world. It’s messy, spiritual, and beautifully American. In a time when cynicism feels like a national pastime, this book reminds you there’s still a whole world worth exploring, and a better one worth building.

Overtime

Every week feels heavier, and somehow lighter when we all face it together. The point of Fourth & Democracy has never been to preach from the sidelines – it’s to remind you that awareness is action, and that truth still matters in an era obsessed with distraction. The hypocrisy, the pageantry, the performative cruelty of “owning the libs” – it all thrives when people tune out. But millions just marched. Millions paid attention. That’s the spark that matters. If we keep showing up – in the streets, at the polls, in our conversations with each other – we can force accountability where politics keeps failing it.

Lincoln Square exists to keep that spark alive – a place where independent writers, ad makers, veterans, and journalists can cover stories that legacy media ignores or sanitizes. If you’ve found value here – if the writing informs you, provokes your thoughts, or makes you feel a little less alone in the noise – consider becoming a paid subscriber to keep us growing together. It’s not just about perks; it’s about partnership. Your support keeps real reporting independent, keeps our work ad-free, and ensures that every piece of Lincoln Square information lands in the inboxes of people who still believe truth is worth fighting for.