October 7, 2026 — We the People, We the Voters: It’s on Us
Check out this week’s blog post by IP attorney and author Timothy Trainer, host of the podcast and video show Tim’s Travails • Follow Tim on Substack
Soon, it’ll be over. We’ll be free of political campaign ads whether on television, websites or in our inboxes. We’ve been subjected to endless political campaigning for two years or so it seems.
In a few weeks it will be on us, the voters. We’ll decide who sits in those 435 seats in the House of Representatives, as they are all up for election, and those 100 seats in the Senate, though only 35 are up for election this year.
We, the people and voters, can show each other and the rest of the world that laws matter. We can elect candidates who will take steps to stop an administration from trampling on the rights of all people. We can elect people who will not rubber-stamp whoever Trump wants in critical government positions only to have them violate constitutional rights, deny due process, and look the other way when court orders are ignored.
We can elect senators who will not confirm appointments of people unqualified to hold high office and deny science and available facts. We can elect people who will demand that the U.S. Justice Department act as the law enforcement agency for the United States, not act as a private law firm of the president. We can elect people who will hold cabinet members and lesser political appointees to account for their actions.
The world is watching. The world is curious about the mindset of U.S. voters given what we’ve done in two of the last three presidential elections. Since the end of World War II, what happens in U.S. elections has had a global impact. Our geopolitical decisions over most of the past 80 years garnered strong supportive allies and foreign influence through programs now gutted.
Our positive global influence is or was real. This may be difficult for many to understand until seen up close and in person. I’ve seen it, I’ve experienced it, and it is humbling. On the few occasions when my “name” was the United States of America, representing the country at meetings in Geneva, Switzerland, it was clear that on certain issues and questions, no country representative spoke until the U.S. position was known to the room, and only then did other government representatives take a position. That was then. Times have changed, and many governments, including those who were once solidly on our side, are no longer trusting of our ability to do what is deemed the right thing.
Who we elect has an impact here and around the world. In the space of two years, our elected officials, primarily from one political party, have facilitated the gutting of the soft power element of U.S. influence around the world. And our war with Iran, to the extent it is still a war, has shown the world the limits of military power the U.S. can bring to bear on an adversary. We are, therefore, less influential and weaker both militarily and economically.
Irresponsible Executive Branch decisions about war, tariffs, healthcare, and other issues have driven up expenses for Americans unnecessarily. Executive Branch decisions, specifically White House decisions, have increased our debtor nation status.
The question for U.S. voters is whether we want a more robust and active Legislative Branch that is more engaged in deciding the direction of the country as opposed to a Legislative Branch that facilitates and enables the current White House occupant to dictate this direction.
Ultimately, we the people can vote for candidates who will work toward improving the lives of all citizens and people residing in the United States. We can either continue to endure the current tide against our constitutional rights, the rule of law, and democracy, or elect and empower people who will fight to preserve a constitutional democracy as envisioned by the country’s founders and improved upon by centuries of progress to broaden participation in this experiment in democracy.
About Timothy Trainer: Writing books is a passion for attorney Timothy Trainer, who for more than three decades focused on intellectual property issues in his day job. He has worked in government agencies and in the private sector, and his assignments have taken him to 60 countries around the world.
Tim found time to pen a few non-fiction tomes, including his first book, Customs Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights;the 15th edition was published in 2022. Thomson Reuters’ Aspatore Books published Tim’s next title in 2015, Potato Chips to Computer Chips: The War on Fake Stuff.
Fiction was a genre he always wanted to try. In 2019, Pendulum Over the Pacific, was released by Joshua Tree Publishing. “This political intrigue story is set in Tokyo and Washington, D.C., and centers on trade tensions between the U.S. and Japan in the late 1980s,” Tim explains.
In 2023, his first series hit bookstores: The China Connection.
In 2025, he published the sequel, The China Factor, which ranked #63 on the Amazon Asian Literature list in May.
Coming this Fall: The China Dilemma!
Click here to buy all of Tim’s books.
