We have heard repeatedly during this election cycle that Donald Trump is a deep and abiding threat to democracy. That threat supposedly springs from Trump’s belief that he won the 2020 election, as well as his promotion of the specious legal theory that the vice president has the unilateral power to invalidate certified state electoral votes.
One can stipulate that Trump has presented no evidence sufficient to support a claim that he lost the 2020 election based on voter fraud; one can further stipulate that Trump’s pressure on Mike Pence to delay election certification was rooted in baseless misinterpretation of the Constitution. In reality, however, the truest threat to American democracy isn’t stubborn unwillingness to concede an election or groundless legal wrangling. It is the continuing attempt to create a series of institutions impervious to public rebuke or electoral accountability, comprised of pseudo-experts who act as “authorities” on a wide range of issues affecting Americans.
It is the creation and maintenance of a permanent bureaucracy, organized by the political left and catering to its whims.
This was the goal of Woodrow Wilson, who wrote in 1887 that the political sphere — the responsibility of elected officials — had to be circumscribed in favor of expert “administration”: “Administrative questions are not political questions. Although politics sets the tasks for administration, it should not be suffered to manipulate its offices.” The power of the administrative state, Wilson wrote, should be unhampered and discretionary.
And that is the goal of the so-called Deep State today. In preparation for Joe Biden’s possible defeat, the Biden administration is promoting new regulations from the Office of Personnel Management to prevent the reclassification of career civil servants as political appointees of at-will workers — effectively giving them taxpayer-funded tenure. The administration has spent the last few months ramming through regulations in an attempt to avoid the consequences of the Congressional Review Act — a piece of legislation that allows Congress to repeal regulations by passing a joint resolution immune to filibuster. The CRA can only be used, however, on regulations filed in the 60 days before a Congressional session adjourns. Hence the rush.
All of this is designed to insulate government from the elected branches. And that is good, according to our legacy media and the Democratic Party, because the elected branches may come to be run by Donald Trump. This is why The New York Times ran a piece in March titled, “It Turns Out the ‘Deep State’ Is Actually Kind of Awesome.” According to the Times, “When we hear ‘deep state,’ instead of recoiling, we should rally. We should think about the workers otherwise known as our public servants, the everyday superheroes who wake up ready to dedicate their careers and their lives to serving us.”
Those who posit that bureaucrats ensconced in regulatory positions may pursue anti-democratic ends are labeled “conspiracy theorists.” But there is no conspiracy theory necessary when the goal of bureaucratic administration is out in the open and has been for 150 years. Our Constitutional republic was rooted in checks and balances between elected branches, and an unelected judiciary delegated the power merely to interpret law rather than create it. There is no independent fourth branch of government that presides over policy, free from the electorate’s judgment.
Yet that is precisely what the Biden administration continues to promote. And that is a threat to American democracy — a threat that has already materialized over the course of decades, turning our government into an elephantine, sclerotic and byzantine architecture shielded from public accountability. According to Democrats, that’s a good thing. At least it protects us from the true “threat to democracy,” an elected Republican president.
Ben Shapiro, 39, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author; his latest book is “The Authoritarian Moment: How The Left Weaponized America’s Institutions Against Dissent.” To find out more about Ben Shapiro and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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Our Constitutional republic was rooted in checks and balances between elected branches, and an unelected judiciary delegated the power merely to interpret law rather than create it. There is no independent fourth branch of government that presides over policy, free from the electorate’s judgment.
Yet that is precisely what the Biden administration continues to promote. And that is a threat to American democracy — a threat that has already materialized over the course of decades, turning our government into an elephantine, sclerotic and byzantine architecture shielded from public accountability. According to Democrats, that’s a good thing. At least it protects us from the true “threat to democracy,” an elected Republican president.
elephantine – resembling, or characteristic of an elephant or elephants, especially in being large, clumsy, or awkward.
sclerotic – grown rigid or unresponsive especially with age : unable or reluctant to adapt or compromise. a sclerotic system/bureaucracy.
byzantine architecture – The style continued to be based on arches, vaults and domes, often on a large scale.
Add to that, THE LEFT LOVES disrespecting our democracy, BY LETTING ILLEGALS VOTE.. Which neuters AMERICANS voting.. They also love making EOS or having UNElected bureaucrats make rules/laws, WITHOUT GOING through congress..
Rinald Regan, Republican
I President, once said,” A Nation that can’t Controll its Borders isn’t A Nation.” To paraphrase Ronald Reagan.
” I greatly fear some of America’s greatest and most dangerous enemies are such as think themselves her best friends.”
Nathen Hale
” With Friends like these Who needs Enemys.”
Author Unknown. Joey Adams…?
” Government is not A Solution to our Problem, Government is the Problem…Government does does not Solve Problems, It Subsidizes Them. Government’s View of the Economy Could Be Summed Up In A Few Short Phrases: If It Moves, Tax It, If Keeps Moving, Regulate It. If It Stops Moving, Subsidize It…The Problem Is Not That People Are Taxed Too Little, The Problem Is That Government Spends Too Much.”
Ronald Reagan
That was always one of Ronnies BEST quotes.
“ the responsibility of elected officials — had to be circumscribed in favor of expert “administration”,,,,,make that circumcised in favor of, and preparation for…expert preplanned naked aggression. People only rely upon permanent Bureaucracy because they are incapable of sustaining real Democracy. They therefore should be denied access to it, or the benefits of it. They are the socialist Apparatchik “Chicken Littles” constantly afraid the sky is about to fall upon them, or some self-sustaining, self-governing American will show up and show them up for the failures that they really are,,,,,the birth of the need for all their self-chosen dangerous delusions. Enter Trump derangement syndrome,,,Self-governing Trump showed up which made him qualified to govern THEM, and panic immediately set in and the self-god democrats lose their imagined superiority and omnipotency,,,, followed by the self-protecting delusions that sustain their paliative imagined calming self-destructive, now nation destructive, grasps on unreality.
” Education is a Weapon Whose Effects depend on who holds it in his Hands and At Whom it is Aimed.”
Joseph Staiin
Adolf Hitler,” When an opponent declares,” I will not come over to your side ,” I clamly declare,” Your. child already belongs to us,Who are you, You will Pass on but your desendants now stand in this new Camp and pretty soon tbey will know nothing else but this New Community.”
” A Nation that cannot control its Borders is not A Nation.”
Ronald Reagan
America, under democrat president, Joe Biden.
A Nation that will not control it’s borders will not long remain a Nation .The “utopia” that these Marxist administrators have in mind for America will surely become a Godless un governable living Hell .