What it Means: House Democrats Physically Blocked from Entering Department of Education Building

 

The Anagnorisis of a Fading Authority: Congress Confronts Its Own Powerlessness

This past week, an extraordinary scene unfolded outside the U.S. Department of Education, a moment that serves as both a political spectacle and a profound anagnorisis—the sudden realization of a false belief. A group of congressional Democrats, invoking their status as elected officials, found themselves locked out of a federal building, unable to force their way in despite their repeated appeals to authority. What should have been a routine exercise of political influence became a stark revelation: their titles no longer carried the weight they once assumed.

The Illusion of Governmental Authority Shattered

The confrontation outside the Department of Education was more than just a logistical dispute; it was a microcosm of a larger, unfolding reality. These members of Congress, many of whom have spent decades believing in the supremacy of their elected status, now find themselves confronting a world in which their authority is no longer automatic. The more they cried, “We are members of Congress,” the more impotent they appeared. Their desperate attempts to assert control—questioning the legitimacy of a mere “federal employee” who denied them entry—only underscored the irrelevance of their claims.

Their demands were not met with compliance but with locked doors. The lone security officer at the entrance, rather than acquiescing to their repeated assertions of power, remained steadfast. The congressmembers escalated their tactics, attempting to shame him publicly with calls of “Get a picture of this man” and declarations that “This is the man who will go down in history.” Yet their rhetorical weapons had no effect. The reality had changed, but they had not yet accepted it.

When law enforcement officers arrived to disperse them, the members of Congress, who just moments before had been making demands, suddenly adopted the posture of victims. They appeared genuinely bewildered that a show of force was necessary. In their minds, government authority had always been a one-way street—something they exercised over others, not something that could be turned against them.

Political Grief: The Five Stages of Congressional Realization

What unfolded outside the Department of Education was not just a political moment; it was a psychological one. These lawmakers were experiencing something akin to the five stages of grief:

1. Denial – Their initial approach to the building suggested an expectation that the doors would open, that their presence alone would be enough to compel obedience. Even after being blocked from other federal agencies earlier in the week, they believed this time would be different.
2. Anger – As they were denied entry, they resorted to rhetorical shaming and public spectacle, lashing out at the security officer as if the power of their words could break the reality of their situation.
3. Bargaining – Once police officers arrived, they shifted their narrative, no longer issuing demands but questioning why such force was necessary, attempting to redefine themselves as unjustly persecuted.
4. Depression – The realization that their influence could not bypass locked doors or override security protocols must have begun to sink in. Though not visibly expressed, the moment carried the weight of an institutional identity crisis.
5. Acceptance – They have yet to reach this stage, as their continued appeals suggest they still believe there is a way to reclaim the control they once assumed was permanent.

Echoes of June 27th: The First Cracks in the Narrative

This anagnorisis moment did not come out of nowhere. A similar realization began on June 27th, when the first presidential debate shattered the Democratic Party’s long-held belief in the supremacy of optics and narrative control. Joe Biden’s catastrophic performance forced the party elite to confront an inescapable reality: the media’s power to spin a favorable narrative was no longer enough to override the raw perception of millions of viewers. Yet, rather than grappling with the full extent of this shift, they attempted to pivot to Kamala Harris, only to suffer a crushing electoral defeat in November.

The lesson had been partially learned but not fully internalized. The Democrats had acknowledged that Biden could not be propped up indefinitely, but they had not yet grasped the broader truth—that the power of narrative alone cannot sustain an authority that has lost legitimacy in the eyes of the public.

Congress: A Body Without the People

The final irony of this episode is that these lawmakers, who derive their supposed legitimacy from “the will of the people,” represent an institution with some of the lowest approval ratings in American history. They stood outside the Department of Education invoking a power that the public long ago ceased to believe in. They did not arrive as representatives of a populace demanding justice; they arrived as self-important functionaries demanding access.

Their authority, once unquestioned, is now met with indifference. The moment they realized that their titles were meaningless outside the chamber of Congress was the moment they encountered a reality they were not prepared to accept.

The Wile E. Coyote Moment: The Inevitable Fall

Like Wile E. Coyote running off a cliff but not yet looking down, these lawmakers have continued forward on the inertia of past assumptions. They still believe in a power structure that no longer operates as they expect. But the gravity of their irrelevance is about to set in. Just as Wile E. Coyote’s legs spin in mid-air before he plummets, these congressmembers are caught in the final moments before their full realization.

The government they thought they controlled is no longer responsive to them. The people they claim to serve have abandoned them. And the institutions they once commanded are no longer theirs to wield. They have run off the edge of the cliff, and soon enough, they will have no choice but to look down.

This moment is not just a reckoning for the left, but also an overreach by the right—one that will ultimately expose the delusions of both sides. While congressional Democrats are suffering their anagnorisis, realizing that their assumed authority does not grant them power, Trump, DOGE, and the MAGA right are charging forward under a similar illusion—that they now wield “the will of the people” as an unassailable force. But this, too, is a fantasy, as illustrated by the recent failed negotiations between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky. 

The Right’s Power Trip: Mistaking a Temporary Mandate for Absolute Control

Trump and his allies, flush with their electoral victories and emboldened by the utter collapse of the Democratic establishment, are acting as if they have carte blanche to dismantle government institutions without consequence.

• Shutting down USAID, taking control of the Treasury, locking out Congress from government buildings—these are the actions of victors who believe they have already rewritten the rules.
• Performing ICE raids, floating radical foreign policy moves, threatening tariffs—they are acting as if they are not only in power but completely unopposed.
• Gloating about their dominance over the left—they see their political enemies humiliated and powerless, reinforcing their own sense of invincibility.
• Bullying Volodymyr Zelensky and presuming to have power over Vladimir Putin (see analysis here)

Yet, just as the Democrats falsely assumed that their congressional status gave them power, the right is now making a parallel mistake—assuming that electoral victory and institutional capture mean they are untouchable.

They are not.

DOGE, The Security Guard, and the New Bureaucratic Gatekeepers

Take the security guard outside the Department of Education—a simple federal employee, “just doing his job”. In the eyes of congressional Democrats, he was an anomaly—an unelected, low-level worker who held absolute power over their access to a building.

But from the perspective of DOGE and Trump’s administration, he was the perfect instrument of their authority.

• He represented the new order—one where the old establishment no longer dictates who gets access to power.
• His simple refusal to yield to elected officials became a moment of bureaucratic triumphalism, showcasing how completely the right has taken control of the government’s internal machinery.
• In another reality, one where the left was in power, this same security guard could have been turning away Trump allies, enforcing vaccine mandates, or restricting access to January 6th defendants.

The reality is that government employees like him are not ideologues. They are tools of whoever wields power at the moment. And in this case, DOGE and Trump are deluding themselves if they believe the security guard—or the bureaucratic machine at large—exists solely to serve them.

The Right’s Own Anagnorisis Is Coming

Trump and his supporters currently believe they have harnessed the will of the people. But they are not actually dismantling government—they are rearranging its power.

• The Democrats who were locked out of federal buildings? That could just as easily be Republicans in the future.
• The seizure of the Treasury, the control over bureaucracy? Today, it’s in the hands of DOGE. Tomorrow, it could be turned against them.
• The security guard who refused to let Congress in? He doesn’t work for Trump. He works for whoever signs his paycheck.

Just as the Democrats believed their status as members of Congress granted them real-world power, the right currently believes that their electoral victories and executive orders grant them unchecked control.

Both are mistaken.

The Will of the People Has Been Abandoned—By Both Sides

Neither the left nor the right are actually governing in the interest of the people. They are governing in the interest of their own political dominance.

• The left clings to dying institutions, refusing to accept their irrelevance.
• The right weaponizes those same institutions, mistakenly believing they now belong to them.
• Meanwhile, the American people watch in disgust, knowing neither side represents them.

The true anagnorisis—the one neither side has yet had—is that government as a whole is collapsing under the weight of its own contradictions.

Trump, The Last Idol of the Boomers, Runs Into the Wall

For decades, Trump has been the perfect political idol for the boomer generation—a king of perceptions, a master of narrative, an avatar of strength in a world they perceive as crumbling. He won in 2016 by sheer force of personality. He survived impeachment, indictments, and political attacks through sheer media dominance. He was Wile E. Coyote, always one step ahead of the boulder, always dodging the fall.

But now, Trump and his movement are hurtling toward the same fate as the Democrats outside the Department of Education. They are running into the wall at full speed, believing they are unstoppable.

• They assume the will of the people is on their side. But polls show that most Americans do not want either party’s vision for the country.
• They assume their electoral victories mean they have control. But government bureaucracy is not built to be dismantled—only repurposed.
• They assume they can rewrite the global order with foreign policy ultimatums and tariff threats. But America’s influence is waning, and reality will not bend to Trump’s branding.

Trump and the MAGA movement believe they are the exception to the rule, that they alone can bend government to their will.

Just as the Democrats did.

And just like Wile E. Coyote running off the cliff, Trump has yet to look down. But when he does, he will see the same fall waiting for him that awaited the Democrats who falsely believed they were in charge.

The True Crisis: The People Are Not Governed, They Are Managed

Neither Trump nor Biden, neither the right nor the left, are actually governing.

• The right is not liberating America—it is replacing one ruling faction with another.
• The left is not fighting for democracy—it is fighting for control of institutions that no longer work.
• The American people are not being represented, they are being managed—like inventory, like numbers on a balance sheet.

And as both sides continue their desperate struggle for dominance, more Americans are waking up to the real anagnorisis:

Neither side governs with legitimacy anymore.

Trump’s victory lap will be short-lived. The Democrats’ agony will not last forever. Both are circling the drain of a system that no longer serves the people.

And when the dust settles, it will not be the left or the right that emerges victorious—but something else entirely.

The Return to Reality: Sovereignty, Reason, and True Liberty

What will emerge from the collapse of this system is not a new ruler, not a new ideology to impose order, but a return to the only firm foundation upon which cooperation, liberty, and life can truly stand—a world where people are ruled by reason alone, sovereign over their own well-defined property alone, and once again humbled before reality alone.

For too long, humanity has been ruled by illusions—illusions of authority, illusions of control, illusions that bureaucracies, financial empires, and political institutions could dictate the course of human life better than the individuals who actually live it. That lie is now failing. The attempt to govern through force, coercion, and narrative control has hit its limit, and both left and right are now discovering that power is nothing when it is detached from reality.

Reality is the final authority. And reality does not negotiate.

The coming era will not be defined by state decrees or centralized economic policies, but by people recognizing once again that liberty, life, and the pursuit of happiness are only possible when sovereignty is personal, when property is sacred, and when truth is not manufactured but discovered.

The great hope of America, even if it was only aspirational for much of its history, was the idea that people could live by reason rather than by coercion, that they could pursue their own good rather than submit to the arbitrary will of rulers, that they could cooperate freely without needing the permission of those who claimed dominion over them.

That hope did not fail because it was false—it failed because it was abandoned. It failed because power was handed back to those who thrive on fear, deception, and control.

But now, as that same power collapses under its own weight, the truth stands ready to be reclaimed:

• Sovereignty begins and ends with the individual.
• Property, when well-defined and well-defended, is the foundation of peace.
• Reality is not subject to political whims—it is the only firm ground on which human life can be built.

This is not a utopia. It is not a new system to be imposed from above. It is simply the recognition of what was always true, and what will always be true:

Human beings do not need to be ruled.

They need only to be free, to be rational, to be accountable to the real world rather than to false authorities.

This is the foundation of everything that makes life worth living. And as the illusions of power disintegrate, this foundation remains—waiting for those with the courage to stand on it once again.

The Creation of Systems as Manifestations of Our Internal Darkness

Throughout history, human beings have created systems—governments, institutions, ideologies—as expressions of both our highest aspirations and our deepest fears. In many ways, these systems have acted as mirrors to the internal darkness that resides within each of us. When we have felt powerless, we have sought external structures to impose control, often believing that these systems can provide a solution to our inner turmoil. Governments, especially powerful entities like the federal system, are not mere abstractions of societal organization—they are physical manifestations of the collective psyche, shaped by the needs, desires, and fears of those who construct them.

In this sense, systems like the Federal Government have often served as grand constructs of control—designed to subdue the chaotic forces within us, to create order, and to assert dominance over our own uncertainties. At the same time, these systems are never more than extensions of ourselves, distorted by our imperfections. When we collectively build such institutions, we are in fact externalizing our own internal conflict, projecting our desires for power, control, and certainty onto a larger stage. And as we invest these systems with power, we endow them with an illusory sense of permanence, an illusion that these external authorities can provide lasting answers to our deepest questions.

However, as history unfolds and we confront moments of anagnorisis, the veil begins to lift. We start to realize that the systems we’ve created, like the idols of old, are empty vessels—hollow structures that can no longer offer us the guidance or protection we once believed they could. These institutions, long revered as the stewards of order, security, and progress, ultimately reveal their fragility, their falsehood. Their collapse does not signify the end, but rather the beginning of a new understanding: we have projected our own fears onto them, and they have failed us not because they are inherently flawed, but because they are mere reflections of our own internal darkness.

The Moment of Anagnorisis: A Call to a New, Whole, and Righteous Way

The sudden realizations we face in these moments of anagnorisis—whether they come in the form of political upheaval, personal crises, or societal breakdowns—are not to be feared, but embraced. They are the essential turning points, the moments when we, collectively and individually, come face to face with the hollowness of our old beliefs and the fragility of our constructed powers. These moments invite us to question everything: our governments, our institutions, our ideologies, and, most importantly, our belief in the permanence of our own fears and desires.

What is truly exciting about this process is that it is not an end, but a profound opportunity for transformation. When we tear down the idols we have placed upon the high places of society—be they governmental systems, political parties, or even material wealth—we are not simply discarding them. We are creating space for something new to emerge. These idols, built from our own collective fears and insecurities, will fall, and in their place, we can invite a more righteous, whole, and grounded way of being—one rooted not in the illusory power of institutions, but in the clarity and sovereignty of the individual.

This moment of tearing down is not one of destruction, but of revelation. It is a return to our true selves, to the sovereignty of the individual, and to the recognition that we need not depend on false structures of authority to guide our lives. In this moment of crisis, we are being invited to return to the Source of all things—the Creator, the Source of truth, and the wellspring of life itself.

As we confront these systemic failures, we are given the rare opportunity to reconnect with our deeper purpose. These moments of anagnorisis allow us to strip away the illusions of power and control that we have clung to, so that we might come into a more authentic relationship with ourselves and with the world around us. Rather than being ruled by fear, deception, and control, we are called to live by reason, by truth, and by the recognition of the innate sovereignty within each of us.

The Invitation to Renewal

What makes these moments so profound is that they do not mark the end of a way of life, but the potential for renewal. Just as the destruction of idols in ancient times was seen not as a defeat, but as an opportunity for spiritual rebirth, so too does the collapse of our current political and institutional idols offer a chance for a new, more harmonious world. A world where power is no longer abstracted to systems and structures, but restored to the hands of individuals who are sovereign over their own lives and destinies.

It is a return to our Creator—a return to the essence of what it means to be human, to be free, to be accountable to reality, and to live in alignment with truth. This journey is not one of despair, but of liberation. We are not merely losing control; we are reclaiming it—on our own terms. The challenge is not to look back to rebuild what has fallen, but to look forward with excitement at the possibilities of a world where we no longer rely on external authorities, but live according to our deepest understanding of what is right, just, and true.

As we face the collapse of the idols we’ve built, we are invited to embrace a new and righteous way of being. This is a call to live fully in the present, to be grounded in our true selves, and to operate from a place of sovereignty and clarity. The return to reality—our Source, our self, our Creator—is not a return to submission, but a call to freedom, to reason, and to life itself.

It is time to cast aside the illusions that have governed us for so long. This is an exciting moment, one that holds within it the potential for true liberation, for the emergence of a world where power resides not in institutions, but in the hearts of individuals, sovereign and free. The path forward is not one of political domination, but of spiritual and intellectual awakening—a return to the deepest truth of who we are and what we were always meant to be.