The One Goal: Win. Stay in Power.
Strip away the speeches. Ignore the slogans. Forget the campaign promises.
There is one goal that defines modern politics:
Win and remain in power. Everything else is secondary.

Politics Is Not Service. It Is Survival.
In theory, politics is public service. In reality, it is competition for authority.
To survive in that arena, a Career Politician must:

• Desire power intensely
• Protect the position relentlessly
• Defeat rivals consistently
• Secure funding continuously
• Control perception strategically

Those who refuse to play this game fiercely lose.
Those who hesitate are replaced.

Power First. Principles Later.
Campaign principles are useful tools. But tools are disposable.
When faced with a choice between:

• Preserving power
• Preserving principle

The system rewards those who preserve power.
Re-election becomes the overriding objective.
Policy becomes strategy.
Ideology becomes branding.
The mission is continuity of control.

Party Is Theater
Democrat. Republican. Independent.
Different messaging. Same objective: remain in office.
The machinery of politics rewards:

• Institutional loyalty
• Fundraising strength
• Media influence
• Strategic compromise

It does not reward shrinking its own authority.
It does not reward voluntarily surrendering influence.
Power rarely votes to reduce itself.

Why the Constitution Was Written
The Founders understood ambition. They did not assume office-holders would be selfless. They assumed the opposite.
That is why they built a system of friction:

• Enumerated powers
• Separation of powers
• Federalism
• Checks and balances

The Constitution exists because political ambition cannot be trusted.
It was designed to restrain those who seek power — not to empower them without limit.

The Incentive Reality
If a politician weakens his campaign strategies, he is replaced.
If he refuses to compromise belief for survival, he is defeated.
If he challenges the institutional structure that sustains him, he becomes politically isolated.
The system punishes restraint. It rewards consolidation.
This is not about morality. It is about survival and incentives.

Citizens are told: “You are represented.” But representation flows through a filter:
Only those willing to endure and thrive in the political machinery rise to the top.
We are not choosing from the entire population.We are choosing those who are capable of doing whatever is necessary to survive the system.
Do whatever it takes to win.

The Second Amendment in This Reality
Within this structure, the Second Amendment is not decorative. It is structural leverage.
It affirms that ultimate sovereignty does not belong to officeholders. It belongs to the people.

An armed citizenry was understood as a deterrent — not against disagreement — but against unchecked consolidation of power.

If citizens lose leverage, every other amendment becomes dependent on institutional mercy. And mercy is not a constitutional safeguard.

The Uncomfortable Truth
Career politicians share dominant objectives:
Win.
Remain in office.
Maintain power.

Everything else — rhetoric, ideology, alliances — serves those objectives.

Trust should never be blind.
Power must be restrained.

Because power, once secured, seeks only one thing: More power.