A Peek Behind the Curtain

An Insider’s Report from the D.C. Swamp

A Letter from John Esten Cooke, a Friend of the OGC.

Greetings, Old Glory Club Readers,

Allow me to introduce myself. I am an OGC supporter who ended up in the illustrious and often-maligned career of public service. That’s a fancy way of saying that I’m a mid-level staffer for a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives. I am grateful to the folks at the OGC for allowing me the opportunity to put a few of my thoughts in writing for your consumption. I will try to be concise and present my thoughts as a statement rather than a manifesto, but I do ask for your patience, as this is the first time I have ever written something for the consumption of the general public.

I often hear folks describe Congress as a bunch of people “asleep at the wheel” of a car headed off a cliff. While this is not a bad description of the mindset of many of the individual members (especially on our side of the political aisle), it does not go far enough. You see, most members of Congress are fully awake at the wheel. They know the car is barreling towards the edge of the cliff at 180 mph. They know how bad the spending is; they know it’s mostly within their power to control. They know the bureaucracy is out of control, and they know that there are truly dark forces engineering the downfall of the very nation they have been elected to lead. They know all this, and yet, most of them choose to do nothing or feel as though they can do nothing.

One thing I learned very quickly after becoming a staffer is that most of the Republican members are very frank behind closed doors. I once heard a Representative give a clear and very cogent argument for why we needed a drastic reduction in the federal government’s spending — after having just heard one of Rep. David Schweikert’s floor speeches on this topic. (Schweikert usually speaks on the floor about the spending issue once a week. You can catch him doing so on C-SPAN. Highly recommend.) However, in the time since that particular incident, the member who gave this prophetic argument has voted in favor of every single one of Speaker Johnson’s spending bills, many of which amount to full surrenders to the Democrats in exchange for nothing.

“Why does this happen?” you may ask. Why do erstwhile intelligent, good people govern and legislate in such an irresponsible and self-defeating manner? How can Members of Congress know that X or Y is a problem, but vote to fund X or Y? What sane person votes for bills that drag our nation further down the road to perdition? I will try to answer these questions, generally, as best I can, and leave you all with some of my insights and why, after all the crap I’ve seen and heard in this town, I am still hopeful for our future.

First, none of what I say is gospel. I can only give you my conclusions based on what I’ve observed, the interactions I’ve had, and the stories I have to tell. This is not a condemnation of every Member of Congress or their staff, nor is this some weird apologia for any wing of the party, as frankly both the center and the right flank are overrun with mediocrities, charlatans, and lemmings. That said, I do not want to impugn the character or motivations of anyone about whom I will write, and I will not be naming anyone, so as to preserve anonymity and avoid revealing private information.

Back to the question, though. Why is the Republican Party so broken? This is a hard question with many answers. First, these members are regular people like you and me. Yes, some of them come here for the wrong reasons, and the power goes to their heads. Yes, this has caused some of them to lose sight of why they’re in D.C. But I’ve come to realize that these members, even the most powerful ones in the higher echelons of the party leadership, are regular people who are trying to cope with an insane world and are fighting against forces that they do not comprehend.

Most of them were raised in a different America and grew up in a different era, before COVID lockdowns, before the insanity of 2020, before the self-immolation of once-respected institutions during the Trump era, before the radical change of the Obama years, some even before the 2008 financial crisis. The majority of the Republicans in the House are Boomers, followed next by Generation X, with members of the Millennial and Silent Generations about the same at the very bottom percentagewise. Memes dunking on the Boomers aside, the majority of the members belong to generations that cannot identify with the issues faced by Millennials and Generation Z. Coincidentally, these issues are also ground zero of the most important political battlegrounds of our age, such as housing, immigration, the consequences of decades of fiscal irresponsibility, censorship, and liberty/freedom in the cyber age. These members are showing up to the political and rhetorical battle with swords and shields while the kids are playing with machine guns and the enemy is deploying nukes.

I often heard one member from Texas (now retired) remark how when he was young, everyone knew that the Left was “wrong, of course, but now they’ve gotten so crazy!” The bewilderment at the degeneration of the Left to little more than a bunch of Chaos cultists from Warhammer who also have total institutional and cultural dominance over society is a development these people were not prepared for on an intellectual, moral, or spiritual level. Many of the memes that make fun of Republicans from the right, such as “You’re trying to argue with people who want you dead,” are far closer to reality than one would think.

Another contributing factor to this problem is the people who live in D.C. and work in Republican politics. Many of the same issues I highlighted with the members apply to their staff: many staffers are Generation X (there are fewer Boomers and more Millennials, but the majority is still Generation X), and they simply do not comprehend the scale of the problems facing the nation. Try to explain to them why, say, allowing illegal immigrants to join the military in exchange for citizenship is NOT a good way of solving the military’s recruitment crisis and a very, very bad idea, and they will look at you as if you are speaking Latin, or call you names, or both. Many of these mid- and high-level staffers are the ones advising the members and often influence how the members vote by providing them with “vote recs” — meaning that a piece of legislation in a staffer’s policy portfolio will be coming to the House floor, and it is that staffer’s job to recommend to the member how to vote on said bill.

I have seen amazing staffers deftly use this extremely important position of influence to great effect. One of my best friends on the Hill singlehandedly changed his member’s stance on Ukraine through hard work, dedication, and being the only one in the office to show this member facts outside of the mainstream media narrative (which influences a lot of Republicans in D.C.). It took months of persistence, but now he has his member voting in a far more logical fashion, and this member’s rhetoric on Ukraine has become more grounded in reality and realpolitik as a result.

I have also seen the opposite. During the first FISA reauthorization vote of this year (back in February), I listened to a very senior member of Congress say that her vote to reauthorize FISA “the last time” (which would have been in 2020, after knowledge of the Intelligence Community’s abuses of the program were widely known) was the only vote she had ever regretted. This member fully intended to vote against FISA’s reauthorization, to the consternation of many of her senior staff.

Voting against FISA would have gone against the wishes of quite a few powerful cliques in D.C. First, the party leadership wanted to extend FISA for a few weeks while they drafted a “compromise” replacement bill that would have reauthorized the program for two years and allegedly instituted some safeguards so that the government could not continue to use the program to spy on domestic political enemies. Second, the Intelligence Community pushed hard for a clean reauthorization because they claimed that FISA has and continues to assist them immensely in preventing terror attacks on American soil. And, of course, the federal law enforcement community wanted a clean reauthorization of FISA for obvious reasons.

This member’s announcement that she would be voting against FISA upset her senior legislative and committee staff greatly. “You serve at the pleasure of the Member; their name is on the door, not yours!” is a refrain we Hill staffers often say to remind ourselves of our purpose and our place up here in the halls of the Legislature. Some Hill staffers, however, cannot help themselves, and they will try to pressure a member into a bad vote for bad reasons. In this case, the senior staff’s main objections to voting against FISA’s clean reauthorizations were twofold: they could not conceive of ending a national security program and were terrified over how leadership would react to a very prominent member breaking ranks. Over the next week, I saw senior staffers from both the member’s personal office and committee exert so much pressure on this member that she ended up changing her mind as she was walking onto the House floor to cast her vote.

That is the power of senior staffers on the Hill: they have the potential to influence a member’s vote on legislation about which said member cares deeply. Obviously, the vote to reauthorize FISA was insane and extremely short-sighted. Long-term thinking is not very common in Washington, D.C., and the attention spans of many staffers are short to the point of hilarity — I have seen more than one staffer change their opinions about a given topic multiple times in the space of a few weeks based on nothing more than how they felt at any given moment.

I have also heard downright stupid arguments for bad political decisions. Take the previous story about FISA reauthorization, for example. The member had a gut feeling that she should vote a certain way but was then subjected to a week of extreme pressure from her senior staff. A litany of arguments (right out of the mouth of the Intelligence Community) was used, but perhaps my favorite argument was that “if we don’t reauthorize FISA, these agencies will just use it anyways in secret.” If Hill staffers at the senior level are resorting to that line of thinking, then that has some very dark implications about where we are as a nation, if it were true. I did raise the question that if such a scenario were the reality of the state of the American government, then what were any of us doing working for a legislature that was by and large defunct? I never got a satisfactory answer. Jeremy Carl is right to call a lot of Hill staffers “mediocre.”

Now, this is not to say that these kinds of Hill staffers are evil or even bad people. Many of them aren’t; they’re just like you and me. Many have families in D.C. They are genuinely trying to serve their respective members well, and most have a plethora of very valuable institutional knowledge. The problem with a lot of these staffers is that they fundamentally cannot grasp what time it is and are in way over their heads. From positions of good faith and with the best of intentions, they propose and influence their members to adopt and vote for disastrous policies.

Take my earlier remark about some Hill staffers supporting the idea of illegal immigrants joining the military in exchange for citizenship. That was a real example from a previous argument I’d had with several staffers in my office on that issue. I was the only staffer in that office who thought that the idea was crazy and tantamount to national suicide. “Why don’t you want illegals joining the military?” I was asked, as if that was some sort of gotcha. “Don’t you know there’s a recruiting crisis?” was another question hurled my way. I think my favorite defense of this insane idea was one of the older staffers telling me, in an extremely exhausted and disinterested voice: “This is a viable solution.”

These staffers think that they’re very smart, but they also seem to believe that the United States is fundamentally immune to history. When has a nation replacing its military with foreign mercenaries (and that is the kindest description I have of illegals in uniform) ever been a beneficial policy in the long run? How would filling the military with illegals not have the exact same deleterious effects that we’ve seen in the private sector? Would that not make the recruiting crisis worse by exacerbating the underlying causes of said recruiting crisis? In the end, the idea died, and no one ever tried to push it further, but I still think about that debate often. The total failure of the staffers who pushed this idea to engage in long-term thinking or think about second-order effects is the best descriptor of what is wrong with many Hill staffers. These are not evil people. They aren’t intentionally plotting the destruction of the nation and its culture. They’re genuinely trying to do good. But that does not excuse them for the damage they cause through their ignorance and poor planning. The staffers in my office who considered it a good idea to let illegal aliens enlist in the military in exchange for citizenship were completely unable to comprehend the epic disaster such a policy would have turned out to be. They probably still believe that this is a good idea and will support it when it inevitably becomes a policy pushed by the Left. They will do this not out of malice, but out of ignorance.

Now that I have thoroughly black-pilled you, allow me to present a few white pills and finish this rant before you’ve fallen asleep trying to read it. As I have shown, bad legislative staffers are a dime a dozen, and their presence can spell disaster for votes and policies that greatly affect American citizens. Their opinions are poorly thought out, their recommendations shortsighted and self-defeating, and their knowledge of most subjects limited to the broadest and most sanitized mainstream views. But here’s the thing: when one good staffer gets into an office, as I explained earlier, things can change. My friend turned his member towards the light on a number of issues other than Ukraine. There are dozens more just like him.

When I first came to D.C., I feared that I was alone. After working here for a few years, the biggest white pill I’ve been served is the realization that those of us of like mind are far more numerous than we realize. I have met some amazing, smart, talented, charismatic, and ambitious young staffers and people in the right-wing movement who understand the problems facing the country just as those at the Old Glory Club do. There are organizations, such as the Conservative Partnership Institute and American Moment, that were founded in the wake of Trump’s first term with the mission of trying to pull right-wing staffers to the Hill in order to seed the Hill with ideologically aligned individuals who would help the agenda of a second Trump administration.

Not all of us staffers can change our respective offices the way my friend has; from personal experience, I know how difficult this can be. But every one of our guys who gets in, gets some experience, and works his way up the ladder is a victory for us. Even if our guys don’t stay on the Hill, they’ve strengthened their résumés and boosted their credentials, which is extremely important to building and strengthening our cause. I am more certain than ever that we’re going to make it. The older generations may not be able or willing to right the ship, preferring to drink and eat the last of the provisions before sailing into the storm, but our generation is far more willing, able, and mentally equipped to steer the ship of state back to calmer waters.

So, hopefully, I have cheered you up a bit. Now, you may be asking, “What can I (the reader) do?” My answer is simple, cliché, and cringe: get involved. By following the Old Glory Club, you’ve already taken that important first step of searching for knowledge and community in a world gone mad. You have already shown that you are not one of the mice that can be corrupted by utopia. I strongly urge you to involve yourself in politics if you can, for however gay it may be, politics is the vehicle in the modern world by which social change is effected. Now, this does not necessarily mean coming to D.C., as that may not be compatible with where you are in your life and you may not find politics interesting or palatable. That’s perfectly understandable. My report today is strictly focused on the political aspect, but there are other articles and folks on the Right (several of whom have published articles on this topic for Old Glory Club) with a plethora of advice for how to become active and involved in areas outside of the political realm. Rather than repeat their recommendations and insights, I will let their own words speak for themselves. However, if you find yourself at a crossroads in your life, such as recently graduating from college, for example, and want to take a risk as I did, we always need more manpower on the Hill and in D.C.

If uprooting your life and working in D.C. isn’t possible or palatable for you, fear not, as there are numerous other avenues by which to involve yourself and make a strong impact. Local politics is supremely important and underappreciated by the wider public. Many local and state parties are in dire need of new, young blood. Figure out who runs your local Republican Party precinct, your county GOP, or your city council. Offer to help your local congressman’s reelection campaign (and if your congressman is someone horrible such as, say, Tony Gonzales, then check out primary challengers).

You would be amazed at the amount of positive change you can have just by being on your city council, county board of supervisors, school board, etc. I’ve heard stories of people getting involved locally, and realizing to their shock and horror that their local government is infested with blatant corruption and incompetence, and said corruption was having a deleterious effect on their everyday lives. I’ve seen the difference a competent and well-run county GOP can have on a member’s district, and local and state parties are a great way to establish a pipeline of talent to D.C. or positions of importance in the private sector. Seizing control of local institutions and creating parallel ones will be how we start taking back ground from the Left, building our own “castles,” and providing a springboard for further political action.

We are in an existential battle not only for the very soul of this nation but for the future of our progeny and their right to be free and prosperous in their homeland. The Left wins this battle in two ways: by the Right not showing up to fight, or by the Right letting itself be provoked into fighting on the ground of the Left’s choosing. The Republican Party is plagued by both mistakes: our party has refused to fight in the culture for decades, retreated out of institutions (Conquest’s Second Law is a bitch), and beclowned itself by choosing stupid hills on which to plant its flag. These are the mistakes of people who came before you and me. They are mistakes that we can learn from, and they are reversible. So long as like-minded young men form bonds of fraternity, loyalty, patronage, and mutual interest, then there is hope.

Does the Republican Party (and the broader American right) have its problems, its share of idiots and grifters? Absolutely. There is plenty of deadweight that needs to be cut (and if the primaries are anything to go by, we have our work cut out for us). But after the experiences I’ve had, the people I’ve met, and discovering groups such as the Old Glory Club, I am certain that we are well equipped to build a strong foundation on which future opportunities can be seized. Now is the time to start building our own professional and patronage networks, both on and off the Hill. Let’s take advantage of the D.C.-to-private-sector pipeline by getting our guys into these important staffing positions and into these think tanks and third-party organizations that are so influential on policy. There are plenty out there who agree with us and feel the way we do; we just have to reach them. To paraphrase Pete Quiñones, “We’re in the education phase.” Know that there are allies on Capitol Hill, that our voices are being heard, and that we are fighting the good fight. Love him or hate him, Rush Limbaugh was right when he said, “If it was hopeless, they wouldn’t have to lie.” I look forward to seeing everyone at the conference in June.

Signed,

John Esten Cooke