BELLWETHER NEWS

09/16/26

The debt keeps rising. The bombs keep dropping. Washington keeps finding excuses for both.

Bellwether Action is ready to support strong leadership in 2028, and if Thomas Massie chooses to run for President, he will be our first choice.

That decision comes down to something simple. Massie has shown a willingness to pay a political price rather than bend the knee to the prevailing consensus in Congress. When spending rises, when war expands, and when the easier path is to fall in line, he has chosen instead to challenge what Washington has come to treat as normal. That kind of independence is rare.

His work pressing for the release of the buried Epstein files reflected a simple principle: truth should not bend to power, and justice should remain blind to the names involved. Massie has framed that fight as a matter of basic decency. That standard should not be remarkable. Yet in Washington today, it can feel increasingly hard to find.

Massie has not announced a campaign for President, and Bellwether is not suggesting otherwise. But the problems facing the country are already here, and we should not have to wait for the 2028 race to begin before thinking seriously about who can save our country.

Some choices become clear before the race begins, and this is one of them.

AMERICA NEEDS
MASSIE 2028

09/12/26

Children deserve the right to grow up.

A childhood mistake shouldn't become permanent entertainment for millions of strangers.

Growing up has always meant making mistakes. Children say foolish things, have awkward moments, lose their tempers, embarrass themselves, and learn from experiences they would rather forget.

For most of human history, they were allowed to forget them.

Social media has changed that.

Today, a child can have one vulnerable or embarrassing moment recorded by another person and uploaded to the internet within minutes. Before that child has even processed what happened, millions of strangers can be watching, laughing, commenting, creating memes, and ensuring the moment never truly disappears.

That is not a normal consequence of growing up.

Bellwether Action believes in freedom for adults and strong protections for children. Adults should have wide latitude to speak, create, debate, and make their own choices online. Children deserve something different: greater privacy, greater protection, and room to grow up without their most vulnerable moments becoming permanent public entertainment.

Social media companies should bear greater responsibility for protecting minors in these circumstances.

These companies have built extraordinarily sophisticated systems capable of identifying content, recommending it to particular audiences, and distributing it to millions of people almost instantly. When an identifiable child becomes the unwilling subject of viral content recorded in ordinary, real-world circumstances, platforms should be required to stop feeding that content into recommendation and "for you" style algorithms once it is reported or flagged, rather than removing it only after it has already reached millions. A parent or guardian should be able to flag such content through a fast, dedicated process and expect it to be de-amplified within hours, not weeks — the same speed platforms already apply to copyright claims and terrorist content.

Any such policy should be narrowly focused.

This is not about government control, and it is not about taking away your rights. But no adult has some sacred right to turn a child's vulnerable moments into entertainment. If your idea of freedom requires access to a child's vulnerable moments for laughs, something is seriously wrong.

There is also an important distinction between exploitation and participation.

Children should still be free to participate, perform, create, and be seen. A child appearing in a movie, play, television production, sporting event, or other organized activity with appropriate oversight from a parent or guardian is fundamentally different from a middle school student pulling out a phone, recording another student during an embarrassing moment, and uploading it for millions of strangers to laugh at.

The difference is choice, context, and protection.

And when this happens in a public school, government cannot simply pretend it has no role in the problem.

We should reconsider why children need unrestricted access to internet-connected cameras and microphones throughout the school day at all. Phones can expose children not only to recording by classmates, but to an enormous ecosystem of apps, companies, data collection, and, under lawful circumstances, government access. A school should be one place where children can learn without carrying that entire system in their pockets.

Parents have a responsibility to understand the technology they give their children, and schools have a responsibility to protect the environment those children enter. We should encourage school-friendly, privacy-first phones that preserve communication and emergencies without constant recording and unnecessary data collection, while public and private schools alike adopt stronger limits on conventional smartphones.

Parents who want even stronger protections should have meaningful educational choices, including private schools willing to make student privacy a defining part of their environment.

It is no wonder people lose trust in government programs when government institutions cannot prioritize something as fundamental as protecting children.

This does not mean every embarrassing video can be prevented. It does mean schools, government, and technology companies should recognize that the consequences have changed dramatically and their responsibilities should change with them.

A generation ago, an embarrassing moment at school might have followed a child around for a few days. Today, that same moment can be recorded, copied, reposted, searched, and potentially follow that person for the rest of their life.

Children are still figuring out who they are. They will make mistakes. They will have awkward moments. They will occasionally say and do things they'll regret.

They should be allowed to move past them.

Freedom for adults and protection for children are not contradictory principles. A free society should defend both.

We as adults should also hold ourselves to a higher standard. We should think twice before watching, sharing, or laughing at something when doing so may come at a child's expense. Government cannot—and should not—solve every problem in our lives. But protecting children from corporations that profit from turning their vulnerable moments into viral entertainment strikes us as one of the rare places where government has a legitimate role to play.

Children deserve privacy. They deserve some grace. And above all, they deserve the right to grow up.

- Logan Conyers

09/08/26

The midterms are eight weeks away.

Consider what has already happened before Americans cast a general-election ballot.

Congressional maps, normally redrawn once a decade after the census, became political battlegrounds again in the middle of the decade. Republican-led states moved to redraw districts in hopes of gaining seats. California responded with a new Democratic-backed map of its own. In Missouri, the fight became so tangled that state and federal courts issued conflicting rulings over which congressional boundaries should govern the November election.

Then came the primaries.

Across both parties, candidates were forced to answer questions larger than the offices they were seeking: what does their party stand for now, which parts of its coalition still belong together, and how much patience do voters have left for the people already in charge? Some familiar names survived. Others did not. New candidates emerged from contests that exposed disagreements that will not disappear simply because primary season is over.

Now, with the general election around the corner, the fight for power has become remarkably concentrated. Only about 50 of the 435 House races are expected to be competitive. In the Senate, about nine races are considered competitive. This handful of states and districts will help determine who controls Congress and what Washington can accomplish for the next two years.

With the way things are playing out across America, November 2026 is beginning to look less like a destination and more like a dividing line.

The fights that shaped this election are far from over. Both parties are still wrestling with their identities. Political coalitions that once seemed permanent are being tested. New candidates, movements and sources of political power are emerging while the next presidential race waits just beyond the horizon.

The excitement for what comes next is matched only by the dread of where it could lead.

May wisdom find us before the moment does.

08/09/26

Today, Bellwether Action was established as an independent political organization dedicated to advancing leaders and causes that offer a better course for America.

Built on the belief that principle matters more than party, Bellwether Action will support worthy candidates and causes through independent political action focused on measurable results.

The organization runs on a deliberately lean model. Its founder contributes his time and work without taking compensation, keeping resources focused on the mission.

Today marks the beginning. Bellwether Action will put its model to work during the 2026 election cycle and beyond.