Dear Friends,
It seems to me, the advantage of the administrative state superimposed on a constitutional republic is that the people think they have a say… but they really don’t. The administrative state has the power. If a congressperson who is constitutionally charged with oversight has to bow and scrape and be taken to a Secure location facility to look at a document, the bureaucracy is the real power. When the President’s orders are overruled by the administrative state… the President isn’t in charge. The administrative state is in charge. When people vote over and over to stop a policy but it keeps happening anyway? That is a sure sign the bureaucracy is the actual governing body. The elected part is a pretty dress covering an ugly hag. This allows the administrators to get to the business of administrating.
The administrative state is synonymous with the bureaucracy and is often called the deep state. The term deep state signifies the fact the bureaucracy outlasts any elected person or president. It’s the actual power. While the bureaucracy was sold as the hands of the elected, it has become their master instead. It was recently said by a powerful senator, “You don’t mess with the spy agencies, they have six ways to Sunday to get you…” He was talking about the President himself. The supposed head of the Administrative Branch. That statement alone illustrates how the bureaucracy is the real power in Washington DC… not the elected government. Wilson thought an administrative state could be the philosopher kings Plato wrote about. Rule by administration would solve the problem of democracy.
Rule by administrative state doesn’t solve the problem of democracy, however, it makes the problem worse. Democracy, as the Founders saw it, has the tendency for people to become fixated on an idea, and vote for something they later regret. The representatives for the people and the states were supposed to stop that predilection of democracy. Being people, even the elect are subject to ideological capture. We see, however, that the administrative state is even more prone to getting caught by an idea than elected officials or a mindless mob. Both know there may be consequences if they are caught. Maybe an administrative state is a form of mindless mob? Bureaucracy then is like a mindless mob, that faces no consequences or accountability no matter what it does.
Ancient Athens eventually rued the day they voted to put Socrates to death, but a bureaucrat has no such conscience. The bureaucrat working diligently in his or her cubicle tyrannizing mankind with a pen, never sees the victims. As long as they use the right number and size of paperclip to denote how many copies, they are above reproach. So the administrator administrates every facet of our lives from a cubicle. This makes bureaucracy is the ultimate of central planning. The central planner is invisible, all powerful, and unaccountable. Human nature is able to play amazing games with us under such circumstances. People can be made into monsters under those conditions. Heartlessness replacing empathy and stupidity replacing wisdom are the natural end of those incentives.
The administrative state makes stupidity more powerful. It acts without conscience, accountability, or consequence. Is it even possible to create a more conducive environment to stupidity? The problem of democracy is at least mitigated by consequences and conscience. History shows that absurd ideas are not the monopoly of the masses, but started by the elites and accepted by the people. Wives tales, urban legends, and ghost stories never gain the power to destroy civilizations. They are organic and so are organically contained. Ideas that capture the minds of unaccountable people with unlimited power and no conscience, however, have the power to destroy nations and people. So in fact, every so called advantage of the administrative state is a detriment. Maybe it’s time for us to have a say?
Sincerely,
John Pepin
