Remember the Harlem Globetrotters? They always played against the Washington Generals. Players hot dog. Crowd cheers. The Generals lose. They have always lost. They exist to lose. The game looks competitive to anyone who forgets that both teams cash checks from the same owner.

You do not need to purchase a nation. You purchase 535 people. Or fewer. Buy the committee chairs. Fewer still. Buy the leadership. A few dozen individuals, properly leveraged through money or blackmail (it’s actually both), steer everything.

No priest or system stands between a person and God. The direct connection was always available to anyone willing to stop watching the show and turn around.