When the Bill Comes Due
Who's Going to Pay it?
It’s not about two guys in a sauna.
It’s about what it represents.
When the people positioned as leaders — or adjacent to leadership — behave like rich frat boys performing health theatre for the camera, it exposes something deeper. It shows a class of elites living in an alternate reality. A world without consequences or limits. A world where money absorbs mistakes and image replaces substance.
They behave like entitled children working at daddy’s company — untouchable, unserious, unaccountable.
For a long time, that behavior stayed on the fantasy plane. The Hamptons, Monaco, country clubs and private jets. Exclusive spaces we could ignore because we were busy doing the real work of society — driving the economy, raising families, paying bills, keeping the gears turning.
But now that spectacle has bled into our world.
It plays out in public, through official channels, on our dime, tied to institutions that are supposed to represent us.
And people wonder why it feels wrong.
We were raised differently.
We were raised with accountability. If we messed up, it cost us. If we skipped responsibility, it knocked on the door. If we embarrassed ourselves at work, there were consequences.
So when we see power behaving as if there are none, it creates a fracture.
People say they hate the government. But the government was never supposed to be “them.” It was supposed to be us. A system built from the people who actually carry society forward.
Instead, it feels like elites used money, influence, and spectacle to convince us to hand over the keys — and then drove recklessly, as elites often do when insulated from impact.
And here’s the part that matters:
The most dangerous shift isn’t corruption.
It’s citizens believing nothing can be done.
That belief is the real surrender.
Because in a democracy, the people hold the power — but only if they wield it.
A sword hanging on the mantel does no good.
And no, I’m not talking about violence.
I’m talking about education.
Understanding the systems that bind us and protect them.
How laws are made.
What makes budgets move.
Knowing where influence flows.
Understanding what tools are actually at our disposal.
It has never been easier to have a voice, organize, build communities, access information and scrutinize power.
To hold leaders accountable.
But tools unused are tools surrendered.
The bill always comes due. History shows that clearly. When leadership fails, the cost lands somewhere — and it usually lands on ordinary people.
The only question is whether we remain passive spectators when it happens.
If citizens stop believing they are powerless…
If they stop outsourcing responsibility…
If they train themselves in civic literacy instead of rage…
Then elites don’t get to shrug off the messes they create.
They carry them.
Not because of chaos or threats.
But because informed, organized, disciplined citizens are harder to ignore than any spectacle ever produced.
The sword isn’t meant to hang above the fireplace.
It’s meant to be practiced with.
Carefully.
Intentionally.
Together.