This cannot stand: Breaching trust demands action

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There is a particular sadness in watching people forget who sent them. It is not the loud kind of sorrow, the one that shouts and marches. It is quieter, deeper—and causes us to boil inside with impotent rage. The incoming House of 2025 came in on the wave of America First MAGA pro-Trump voters, not the old-time GOP. That much we know by recent off-year state elections where MAGA sat on its hands unless the candidate was Trump-endorsed, and the GOP lost big.

The Votes That Revealed the Divide and Showed Their True Colors

This week, in the United States House of Representatives, eighty-one Republicans chose to stand with the permanent Washington apparatus rather than with the voters who entrusted them with power.

They voted against Representative Eli Crane’s amendment to strip $315 million in taxpayer funding from the National Endowment for Democracy—an organization that, whatever its original intentions, is now a vehicle for anti-American globalist adventures abroad and, at times, interference that circles uncomfortably close to home. The amendment failed. The money flows on.

And watch as it heads to the Senate, more fixes

On the same day, a similar pattern emerged. Representative Chip Roy offered an amendment to defund the staff budgets of certain activist federal judges—most notably James Boasberg and Deborah Boardman—whose courts have issued sweeping nationwide injunctions that frustrate border security, deportations, and the expressed will of the elected branches.

Forty-six Republicans joined every Democrat to defeat it. The judicial blockade remains intact.

These are not isolated votes. They are symptoms of a deeper habit: the habit of arriving in Washington on the strength of a political revolution, basking in its applause, and then quietly resuming the old work of the swamp.

Coattails, Applause, and Contradiction

Many of these members rode Donald Trump’s coattails into office or back into office. They campaigned on his energy, his promises, his blunt refusal to accept the status quo. They flipped districts, held marginal seats, and survived tough primaries because voters believed—truly believed—that this time would be different. 

And when Elon Musk, the outsider turned ally in the fight against bureaucratic bloat, appeared before Congress last year and received a standing ovation from Republicans, many of these same members rose enthusiastically to their feet. It was a moment of shared purpose, or so it seemed: the entrepreneur who dares to challenge entrenched power, cheered by those who claimed to do the same.

Yet when the roll was called on matters of real consequence—defunding an entity criticized as a slush fund for regime-change operations, or reining in judges who act as unelected super-legislators—they chose continuity over confrontation. They chose the comfortable path of the Main Street Caucus, the moderate establishment wing that dominates this list. Not a single member of the House Freedom Caucus appears among them.

The Roll Call of Shame

Here are their names, organized by state—a record of those who said one thing to their voters and did another in Washington. Let us remember them when they come up for reelection in the midterms. If you have an opportunity to primary them — take it.

StateRepresentativeDistrict
AlabamaRobert AderholtAL-4
AlabamaMike RogersAL-3
AlabamaDale StrongAL-5
ArkansasRick CrawfordAR-1
ArkansasFrench HillAR-2
ArkansasBruce WestermanAR-4
ArkansasSteve WomackAR-3
ArizonaJuan CiscomaniAZ-6
CaliforniaKen CalvertCA-41
CaliforniaDarrell IssaCA-48
CaliforniaKevin KileyCA-3
CaliforniaYoung KimCA-40
CaliforniaJay ObernolteCA-23
CaliforniaDavid ValadaoCA-22
ColoradoGabe EvansCO-8
ColoradoJeff HurdCO-3
FloridaGus BilirakisFL-12
FloridaVern BuchananFL-16
FloridaMario Diaz-BalartFL-26
FloridaScott FranklinFL-18
FloridaCarlos GimenezFL-28
FloridaMike HaridopolosFL-8
FloridaBrian MastFL-21
FloridaJohn RutherfordFL-5
FloridaMaria SalazarFL-27
FloridaDaniel WebsterFL-11
IowaRandy FeenstraIA-4
IowaAshley HinsonIA-1
IowaZach NunnIA-3
IdahoMike SimpsonID-2
IllinoisDarin LaHoodIL-16
IndianaJim BairdIN-4
KansasRon EstesKS-4
KentuckyBrett GuthrieKY-2
KentuckyHarold RogersKY-5
MichiganBill HuizengaMI-4
MichiganJohn MoolenaarMI-2
MichiganTim WalbergMI-5
MissouriMark AlfordMO-4
MissouriAnn WagnerMO-2
NebraskaDon BaconNE-2
NebraskaMike FloodNE-1
NebraskaAdrian SmithNE-3
New JerseyTom KeanNJ-7
New YorkAndrew GarbarinoNY-2
New YorkNick LaLotaNY-1
New YorkMike LawlerNY-17
New YorkNicole MalliotakisNY-11
New YorkElise StefanikNY-21
New YorkClaudia TenneyNY-24
North CarolinaChuck EdwardsNC-11
OhioMike CareyOH-15
OhioDavid JoyceOH-14
OhioBob LattaOH-5
OhioDave TaylorOH-2
OhioMichael TurnerOH-10
OklahomaStephanie BiceOK-5
OklahomaTom ColeOK-4
OklahomaFrank LucasOK-3
OregonCliff BentzOR-2
PennsylvaniaRob BresnahanPA-8
PennsylvaniaBrian FitzpatrickPA-1
PennsylvaniaMike KellyPA-16
PennsylvaniaRyan MackenziePA-7
PennsylvaniaDaniel MeuserPA-9
PennsylvaniaLloyd SmuckerPA-11
South CarolinaJoe WilsonSC-2
South DakotaDusty JohnsonAt Large
TexasJohn CarterTX-31
TexasJake EllzeyTX-6
TexasCraig GoldmanTX-12
TexasMichael McCaulTX-10
TexasNathaniel MoranTX-1
TexasAugust PflugerTX-11
UtahCeleste MaloyUT-2
UtahBlake MooreUT-1
VirginiaJen KiggansVA-2
VirginiaRob WittmanVA-1
WashingtonMichael BaumgartnerWA-5
WashingtonDan NewhouseWA-4

This is not mere disagreement on policy. It is a breach of trust. And it cannot be allowed to stand as the final word.

A Call to End the Zombie Filibuster

If we are serious about change—if we truly wish to drain the swamp rather than merely redecorate it—then we must confront the structural obstacles that protect the status quo. Chief among them is the Senate’s “zombie filibuster,” that silent, undead rule requiring sixty votes to advance most legislation. It is not the robust, talking filibuster of old, where a senator must stand and speak until exhaustion. It is a phantom, invoked by mere threat, allowing a minority to paralyze the majority indefinitely.

End it. Restore simple majority rule for most matters, as the Founders largely intended. Force debate into the open. Let the American people see who stands for what, without the coward’s cloak of procedural obscurity.

Only then can the people’s House—and a reformed Senate—begin the real work of reclaiming the government for those who sent them. The hour is late, but it is not too late. The voters remember. And they are watching.