By Mitch Jackson
Substack | January 9, 2026
For more than three decades, I built a successful law practice. I did the work. I showed up. I earned trust the hard way. I built a life I am grateful for, both personally and professionally.
I enjoy my family. I value my friendships. I run. I paddle board. I breathe fresh air. I wake up knowing my bills are paid and my work matters.
Life is good.
I could have stayed right there.
I could have kept my head down, focused on my cases, enjoyed my routines, and avoided controversy. I could have told myself that politics is messy, that it always swings back, that someone else will handle it.
But that was never really an option.
Because what is happening right now is not normal. It is not politics as usual. It is not just noise or theatrics or a rough news cycle that will pass on its own.
People are getting hurt.
Institutions that exist to protect all of us are being deliberately weakened. Truth is being distorted in real time. Power is being centralized. Accountability is being mocked. Gaslighting is no longer accidental. It is strategic.
We are watching a sustained effort to redefine reality, to attack independent checks on power, and to normalize conduct that would have ended careers and presidencies not long ago.
Under Donald Trump and his administration, cruelty was reframed as strength. Loyalty was valued over law. Personal grievance was elevated above constitutional duty. Entire agencies were hollowed out, inspectors general were sidelined, courts were attacked, and democratic norms were treated as inconveniences rather than guardrails.
This was not abstract.
Families were separated. Protesters were vilified. Journalists were targeted. Courts were pressured. Career public servants were purged. The idea that truth exists independent of power was openly ridiculed.
And the most dangerous part was not any single policy or statement.
It was the conditioning.
The slow effort to make Americans accept behavior that should have triggered immediate resistance. The insistence that up is down, that evidence does not matter, that asking questions is disloyal, that accountability is persecution.
I became a lawyer to take on wrongdoers.
I became a lawyer because I believe rules matter. Because process matters. Because power without limits always harms the vulnerable first and eventually consumes everyone else.
Many of my closest friends chose the same path. Many still practice. Some now sit on the bench. Different politics. Different backgrounds. Same oath.
We recognize what abuse of power looks like. We recognize intimidation dressed up as leadership. We recognize what happens when people with authority are no longer constrained by consequences.
So no, I could not stand on the sidelines.
I could not watch democracy be treated like a disposable tool. I could not watch people be harmed while being told they are imagining it. I could not listen to lies repeated until they sounded normal and tell myself it was not my problem.
Silence would have been easier.
Silence would have been safer.
But silence would have been a betrayal of everything I believe.
This is why you see me writing. Speaking. Litigating. Teaching. Explaining. Breaking things down so people can see what is actually happening beneath the slogans and outrage cycles.
This is why I call out gaslighting when I see it. Why I push back on false narratives. Why I refuse to normalize conduct that erodes trust in the rule of law.
This is not about attention. It is not about politics as a sport. It is about responsibility.
Democracy does not collapse in a single dramatic moment. It degrades through tolerance. Through exhaustion. Through people deciding that protecting their comfort matters more than protecting shared principles.
I have children. Someday if I’m lucky, grandchildren too. I care deeply about the world they are inheriting.
I want them to grow up in a country where the law still means something. Where courts are respected. Where power is checked. Where disagreement is allowed without fear. Where leaders are held accountable rather than worshiped.
That future does not happen by accident.
It happens because people refuse to play it safe when the stakes are this high.
Every generation gets a moment when it is tested. Not with slogans, but with choices. Not with convenience, but with courage.
This is ours.
You do not have to be a lawyer to see what is happening. You do not need a law degree to understand when something is wrong. You just need to be willing to pay attention and to act.
Action looks different for everyone. Voting. Donating. Organizing. Speaking up at dinner tables and school meetings. Supporting ethical journalism. Backing leaders who respect institutions rather than exploit them.
What matters is that you do something.
Because opting out is not neutral. It is permission.
There are judges, lawyers, teachers, doctors, veterans, parents, and neighbors across this country who see the same danger and have reached the same conclusion.
This is not the time to look away.
This is not the time to stay quiet.
This is the time to stand in the open, tell the truth plainly, and refuse to surrender the future to those who benefit from chaos and division.
There was never any way I was going to play it safe.
And neither should you.
Mitch Jackson, Esq.
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