The Quiet Collapse Of Civilian Power: And The Hollow Rituals That Remain

Originally Posted On Jon Hall’s Apocalypse Diaries

As Americans celebrated another July 4, notably the 250th anniversary of America’s founding – fireworks, barbeques, and revelry swelled as the country’s institutions congratulated themselves for their democratic resilience.

Yet with recent events, the contradictions are impossible to ignore.

Even as millions extolled the ideal of “government of the people”, those truly in charged flexed their power where it actually matters: in boardrooms, think tanks, and war rooms.

Unelected billionaires now dictate policy by text message. The Iran strikes were ordered without congressional oversight, justified by a decades-old war authorization passed a generation ago. America’s wealthiest donors and corporations funneled record sums into campaigns, shaping trends and decisions without most people even realizing it.

Leaked private messages between Larry Ellison and Elon Musk in 2022 revealed casual exchanges like: “A billion… or whatever you recommend” and “$250 M with no additional work required”, from Marc Andreessen.

These leaked messages offer rare, concrete evidence of billionaires coordinating massive financial moves by text – treating sums that could fund entire public programs as pocket change.

The military strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites last month were carried out without congressional approval. Sadly, this is nothing new and continues a longstanding trend of presidents exercising unilateral military authority.

Although critics called Trump’s Iran strikes unconstitutional, a joint resolution known as the “Authorization for Use of Military Force” – or AUMF – passed immediately after the attacks on 9/11, still grants the president exclusive powers to target groups and nations determined to have “aided the terrorist attacks”.

Iran, for its part, has long been implicated in aiding Al Qaeda: the 9/11 Commission found Tehran provided the group with weaponry, funding, intelligence, and extensive training.

While bombs fall abroad, the domestic democratic process is similarly undermined. In the 2024 presidential election, the top 100 billionaire families injected a record $2.6 billion into the election – more than double what they gave in the 2020 election.

That staggering flow of money shapes who runs, who wins, and what policies remain unspoken for fear of offending donors. After all, it’s clear who truly matters… and it isn’t us.

Yet we still cast our ballots. We still cheer the fireworks. We recite the words about self-government and liberty as if they still ring true. If you listen closely, between the explosions and behind the corporate slogans, you can hear something quieter now.

A hollowing out. A faint echo of a promise that wasn’t meant to be kept. Civilian power doesn’t vanish with a declaration or coup, it erodes the way a shoreline does: inch by inch, wave by wave, until the land is gone and no one remembers where it used to be.

Still, every July 4, we’ll continue to stand on whatever’s left and tell ourselves it was always this way – standing in awe of the spectacle, and calling it sovereignty.