This is going to hurt some feelings, but it must be said for the sake of our nation. After twenty years in politics, sixteen of them in office, I’ve learned something hard about our system. Most people don’t understand how it works. And worse, many don’t want to.

We still teach civics like it’s a coloring book. Three branches. A bill becomes a law. Checks and balances. We act like the government runs on parchment and good intentions. It doesn’t. It never has. It runs on power. And power follows numbers.

Here’s the part nobody likes hearing.

Reform doesn’t fail because nobody fights for it; it fails because there aren’t enough votes to pass it.

Whether income tax elimination, term limits, reducing the national debt, or a dozen other conservative reforms that would bring real structural change, we don’t have the numbers.

So let’s discuss why.

Democrats don’t support those ideas. That’s not controversial. That’s reality. But what nobody wants to talk about is the other half of the problem. Most Republicans don’t support them either.

They’re there to simply follow orders. You know the ones.

Leadership controls committee assignments, calendars, fundraising, and future opportunities. Cross them, and you’re punished. Fall in line, and you’re rewarded. That’s how the system sustains itself. Not with debate, but with discipline.

So when someone says, “Why haven’t you done anything?” I have to stop myself from laughing.

I’ve filed the bills. I’ve forced the debates. I’ve taken the arrows. And I’ve said the things you’re not supposed to say out loud.

What I can’t do is manufacture votes.

And here’s the part that really stings.

The same GOP incumbents who block reform keep getting renominated in Republican primaries. Year after year. Same names. Same records. Same results. Then people turn around in November and complain that nothing ever changes.

It’s like planting the same seed and blaming the soil.

Even worse, many of those incumbents are protected by endorsements. Big names. Loud rallies. Populist slogans. But endorsements follow power, not principle. They always have.

For example, Donald Trump endorsed longtime institutional Republicans like Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Mitt Romney, and many other RINOs, despite years of voting to preserve leadership control and block structural reform. In fact, 96 percent of his endorsements have been for incumbents. That doesn’t make those endorsements malicious. It makes them political. Endorsements protect power. They don’t dismantle it.

That’s a hard truth for some folks. So instead of wrestling with it, they aim their frustration at whoever tells it.

“What’s the strategy?”

“And?”

“Why don’t you do something?”

The strategy is engagement. It always has been.

Winning GOP primaries matters. Local races matter. Boring meetings matter. Making phone calls, knocking on doors, and raising money for conservative candidates matter.

But that takes hard work, doesn’t it? And hard work is not something the social media warriors want to be bothered with. They’d rather take 15 seconds to vent their outrage before returning to mindless sitcoms, pointless rallies, and a life of political inaction.

Folks, there is no shortcut. No savior. No single vote that fixes a broken system built to protect itself.

Here it is, plain and simple.

In a republic, voters don’t just choose leaders. They choose whether reform is even possible.

If you keep sending the same people back, don’t act surprised when the system stays the same. It’s not broken. It’s doing exactly what it was designed to do.

The only thing that ever changes is when people finally decide to change themselves.

And that’s a harder fight than passing any bill.

Chris McDaniel is an American attorney, talk radio host, and politician from Mississippi who served in the Mississippi State Senate from 2008 to 2024.