When the Law Is Mocked, You Must Stay Upright

A grounded piece to read to yourself after watching power abandon principle-and to help you hold your nerve when the noise is loud.

When the Law Is Mocked, You Must Stay Upright

A grounded piece to read to yourself after watching power abandon principle-and to help you hold your nerve when the noise is loud.

The Jack Hopkins Now Newsletter #747: Friday, January 22nd, 2026.

Yesterday, millions of Americans watched the rule of law be trashed once again…

…by Republican lawmakers…mocked…distorted…and treated as an inconvenience …rather than the foundation of the country.

After a day like that…outrage is easy. What’s harder is staying clear…steady…and functional…without numbing out or burning yourself up.

So I wrote something different.

What follows isn’t commentary…and it isn’t analysis. It’s something you can read to yourself…silently or out loud…any time you want…as often as you want…especially on days when watching the news…tightens your jaw…and makes the future feel unstable.

It’s based on three decades of experience communicating with clients in highly stressed…high-stakes situations…people who didn’t have the luxury of falling apart.

Over time, I learned not just how to speak to people under pressure…but how to teach them to speak to their own minds in a way that kept them oriented…resilient…and capable of acting from strength rather than panic.

That’s what this is for.

Not to make you feel better in a superficial way.
Not to minimize what we’re facing.
But to help you stay grounded enough to endure it without losing yourself.

You don’t need to agree with every word.
You don’t need to read it perfectly.

Just read it. Let it do what it’s meant to do.

And come back to it whenever the noise gets loud again.

There are days…when watching the public theater of power …feels like swallowing gravel.

Days when you see people entrusted with the law treat it as a prop. When cruelty is rehearsed…bad faith is rewarded…and seriousness is mocked. Days when you can feel your jaw tighten…your chest narrow…your thoughts circle the same grim questions.

On days like that…the danger isn’t despair.

The danger is erosion.

Erosion of clarity.
Erosion of steadiness.
Erosion of the quiet internal posture that lets you keep standing even when the ground feels unstable.

So pause here…for a moment.

Not to disengage.
Not to look away.
But to re-center inside yourself…where your real leverage has always lived.

Take a slow breath in.
Not a dramatic one.
Just enough…to notice…that you are here.

And then…let it out…longer than you took it in.

Good.

What you witnessed today…did not surprise you because your mind is naïve.
It shocked you…because your values are intact.

That matters.

When you feel anger…grief…or disbelief rising…after watching the rule of law treated with contempt…that reaction is not weakness. It is orientation. It is your internal compass…confirming that something important…has been violated.

And…here’s the crucial thing…most people miss:

You do not need to resolve that feeling…in order to move forward.
You only need to carry it…without letting it distort you.

There is a difference.

People who collapse under moments like this…believe…often unconsciously…that steadiness requires hope…reassurance…or external validation.

It doesn’t.

Steadiness comes from something quieter.

It comes from recognizing that history….has always been carried forward…by people who stayed upright…while institutions wavered.

You don’t need to win the day.

You need to remain intact.

Notice…now…where your body holds tension…as you think about what you watched.

You don’t need to push it away.
Just notice it.

That tension is not a command.
It’s information.

And information…once acknowledged…can be used.

There is a kind of strength that shouts.
And…there is a deeper kind…that does not need to announce itself.

The second kind…lasts longer.

The people who ultimately shape outcomes…are rarely the loudest in the moment. They are the ones…who develop an internal rhythm….that cannot be knocked off balance by spectacle.

They learn how to:

• Witness without absorbing

• Name reality without inflaming themselves

• Hold anger without letting it rot into bitterness

• And keep moving without requiring permission or applause

If today felt destabilizing…it’s because you were watching performance collide with principle.

Performance is loud.
Principle…is patient.

Performance exhausts itself.
Principle….endures.

You are allowed to be angry and disciplined.

You are allowed to grieve what has been degraded….and refuse to become cynical.

Cynicism feels sophisticated…but it is actually a form of surrender.
Grit…is something else entirely.

Grit is what happens…when you stop asking, “How could they?”
And start asking, “How do I remain who I am in this moment?”

That shift…changes everything.

As you read this…let your attention settle into your spine.
Not metaphorically…literally.

Feel the simple fact that you are supported.

The law may be mocked in public.
Truth may be distorted on camera.
But…there is still a line that runs through people like you…quiet…unglamorous… unyielding.

That line…is what holds societies together….when the visible structures wobble.

You don’t need to be heroic today.

You need to be durable.

Durability….is built through repetition:

• Returning to clarity

• Choosing restraint…over frenzy

• Thinking long…when others think short

• Staying present…when outrage tempts you to scatter

If you feel tired…that doesn’t mean you’re failing.

It means you care.

So…here is a simple…internal instruction…you can carry forward after days like this:

“I will not let their disorder become my disorder.”

Say it silently once.

Then again.

And notice…how your body responds…when you give yourself that permission.

You are not powerless here.

Power is not always loud.
Power…is often the ability to remain oriented to reality…while others abandon it.

History turns…not on moments of spectacle…but…on who stays steady enough…to act when the moment finally comes.

Today…was not that moment.

Today…was a test of endurance.

And…you passed it…simply by staying awake…clear-eyed…and unwilling to normalize what you saw.

Carry that forward.

Not with panic.
Not with fantasy.
But with the kind of grounded resolve….that doesn’t burn out.

You don’t need to feel hopeful today.

You need to feel anchored.

That…is more than enough.

And tomorrow…you continue.

#HoldFast

Back soon,

-Jack
Jack Hopkins