I know we spend a lot of time talking about who is really the president of the United States. Oh sure, Democrats believe Biden is but most of us who can think for ourselves and see the writing on the wall know that he is president in name only and that someone with a far bigger and uglier agenda is calling the shots. And who better to pin it all on than the old white racist if and when things go too far south?
Yeah, that sounds sorta kooky, I get it, but life these days IS kooky, and the truth is often stranger or eviler than fiction.
In our case, it’s both.
John Hayward is one smart cookie and I often will write about his threads because he always finds a way to say what I’m thinking in a much smarter way than I ever could. He doesn’t use a lot of ‘WOOFS’ and ‘HOOBOYS’ and ‘OMGS’ like I do …
Take a look:
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More than any president before him, Barack Obama understood that administrative power is vital to winning a hybrid cultural and economic battle like the War on the Middle Class. Admin trumps legislative power because you can simply refuse to enforce laws you don't like.
— John Hayward (@Doc_0) May 15, 2023
The Obama revolution should not have come as a surprise. Congress built up the Administrative State for decades by ceding power to it, allowing the bureaucracy to rule by promulgating regulations so that Congress didn't have to make tough decisions.
— John Hayward (@Doc_0) May 15, 2023
Obama revolution.
Yikes.
But when you read his entire thread, it makes sense.
It's a big reason the State grew to such mind-boggling size, consumes so much of the American economy, and generates such incredible levels of debt. The legislature couldn't build something like that, but a vast army of bureaucrats did. It was like nanotechnology in action.
— John Hayward (@Doc_0) May 15, 2023
Obama was infatuated with growing the state, with growing the power of government, supposedly in the name of ‘hope and change.’
The administrative super-state was just waiting to be used in hyper-aggressive social engineering strategies. Obama and his people – his intellectual gurus, his army of ready and willing bureaucrats that plagues us to this day – planned for years on how they would use it.
— John Hayward (@Doc_0) May 15, 2023
Administrative super-state.
See what I mean? The guy just gets it.
It's a pity you don't really see any comparable level of planning and preparation from the Right. Even the most sincere conservatives don't lay out decade-long plans for using administrative power to achieve vital social goals. It's why they're so easily ambushed after they win.
— John Hayward (@Doc_0) May 15, 2023
The Right just wants to be left alone, and sadly, that isn’t enough to take on a party determined to continue growing the government (and shrinking the people).
Conservatives don't have the vast network of institutions the Left enjoys, working tirelessly to prepare bureaucratic legions to exploit the next White House victory. They don't have professional managers parked in comfortable sinecures waiting for their Party to take power.
— John Hayward (@Doc_0) May 15, 2023
We don’t own the media, Big Tech, Big Pharma, Hollywood … nope.
Many conservatives are urging the next Republican president to clean house, take a flamethrower corrupt bureaucrats… but replace them with who? Where is the conservative administrative legion ready to march into D.C. with a long-term strategy to reduce its power and wealth?
— John Hayward (@Doc_0) May 15, 2023
Good questions.
Even if the Right had the manpower on standby to do that, it wouldn't be as ruthlessly effective at wielding administrative power as Obama and his disciples. For one thing, the media would not let a GOP administration get away with neutralizing left-wing laws it dislikes.
— John Hayward (@Doc_0) May 15, 2023
The media won’t let the GOP get away with doing anything.
Many conservatives are deeply uncomfortable with social engineering, even when it's clearly necessary to roll back decades of left-wing social engineering. They're not good at nation-building, even their own nation. Their admin power would not be augmented with media power.
— John Hayward (@Doc_0) May 15, 2023
Obama had an easier task because the administrative state is inherently left-wing and collectivist. It WANTED him to weaponize it against the middle class. It was a feudal aristocracy eagerly waiting for a Pope of the Left to declare some crusades.
— John Hayward (@Doc_0) May 15, 2023
It wanted him to weaponize it against the middle class.
And weaponize it he did.
The GOP is often focused on legislative matters, but real power clearly lies with the Administrative State, whose princes can write their own laws, and easily turn other laws into dead letters. Open-borders immigration by fiat is the perennial example, but there are many others.
— John Hayward (@Doc_0) May 15, 2023
Right now, you're watching the Left wage war to delegitimize the Supreme Court, which was long their bastion of power. It's not just because conservatives "captured" that power – it's also because the Court is an obstacle to the almighty Administrative State.
— John Hayward (@Doc_0) May 15, 2023
Reversing the accumulation of administrative power will require controlling the Admin State for years. It can't be done with a presidential Thanos Snap, or even a highly improbable string of belt-tightening congressional budget acts. It has to be a controlled demolition.
— John Hayward (@Doc_0) May 15, 2023
It won't be easy to turn the Admin State against itself, to command the permanent bureaucracy to dismantle its titanic agencies, to move power steadily back to a Congress that doesn't really want it, and to state governments that must build themselves up to handle it.
— John Hayward (@Doc_0) May 15, 2023
The weaponized Admin State will fight back. It commands huge amounts of media power. It has news networks and tech billionaires on speed dial. It has symbiotic relationships with lavishly-funded, heavily-staffed activist organizations. Federal employees are unionized.
— John Hayward (@Doc_0) May 15, 2023
Obama saw how all that power could be harnessed, organized, and set to work on a carefully planned agenda. He built machines that are still running years after he "left office." He created bureaucratic organisms that Congress cannot control. He used debt to enslave the future.
— John Hayward (@Doc_0) May 15, 2023
You're going to need more than an Underpants Gnome strategy – 1. Win one election, 2. ????, 3. FEDERALISM! – to control and destroy all that. You need a plan to fundamentally transform America with administrative power, and a corps of administrators dedicated to the task. /end
— John Hayward (@Doc_0) May 15, 2023
Underpants Gnome strategy.
Heh.
Addendum, since I see many people saying they want to break federal agencies down and fire people, not control them: that's the long-term goal, and while a good President and solid congressional majority can do SOME downsizing right away, it's going to be a long struggle.
— John Hayward (@Doc_0) May 15, 2023
And a solid congressional majority that's truly committed to taming the Leviathan State is a lot to ask, especially after just one election. You have to BUILD that majority, which is partly done by showing voters that freedom and fiscal sanity are achievable goals that work.
— John Hayward (@Doc_0) May 15, 2023
A long struggle.
But it can be done.
I have to believe that.
