Dear Friends,
It seems to me, opportunities to break a cycle of power and corruption are few and far between, so when we get one, as we do today, squandering it is not only foolish, it will lead to retaliation when the administrative state gets back in power. One only needs to read the story of Dion in Plutarch’s Lives. He overthrew a despot, gave the tyrant mercy and squandered his chance to right the ship… allowing the tyrant of Syracuse to slip back into power and he exacted brutal revenge on Dion’s allies and the people of Syracuse. The outcome was worse than the start. I submit this isn’t an isolated, but storied example, but the normal cycle when an opportunity to oust a despotic government is wasted. We are in such a time. However, I worry this chance is being wasted, with terrible consequences if it is.
There is no more dangerous bear than a wounded bear. The beast will fight with a ferocity and abandon that makes it a mindless killing machine. Powerful people whose egos have been wounded are no different. The moment they get the chance they strike with ferocity and abandon to ensure they never get wounded again. When the bloodletting is over they might regret some of it… but it’s too late then. Like when Alexander, in a drunken rage, murdered Cletius… to whom Alexander owed his very life. That’s why I believe that once it’s back in power the deep state will move, ruthlessly, to make sure it never gets another Trump to deal with. No matter what it takes. When the bloodletting is over, the administrative state can regret in comfort and leisure.
Ronald Reagan cut the power of the State even though he had a congress beholden to the administrative state. By talking around the gatekeepers and congress directly to the people, he convinced us that cutting the power of the State would result in prosperity. People demanded his agenda be pushed through… and it delivered prosperity. So much so popular music adopted songs like The Future’s So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades. The zeitgeist moved decisively to limited government. George Bush then exploited the end of the Cold War, turning it into a globalist progressive long march. He called it… The New World Order. Then set himself to re-empowering the administrative state. So another Reagan couldn’t get elected again. It worked… until it didn’t.
We have seized the dragon’s den but Trump’s appointees are squandering this opportunity. Appeasing the dragon until it returns. Hoping it will spare them… but history proves otherwise. So the administrative state is allowed to stonewall Trump’s executive orders, maintain abuse as usual, and build up the military industrial complex. Instead of using this chance to limit the power of the State, Trump’s very appointees are working for the bureaucracy… not the American people, or Trump for that matter. Not all of them. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. astounds me, as do Tulsi Gabbard and Harmeet Dhillon. All three are doing what they can to dismantle the deep state, but without the backing of the DOJ or FBI, their efforts will quickly come to naught when the administrative state is back in power.
Tinkering around the edges won’t work because the core is corrupt. George Bush undid Reagan’s legacy of limited government in four years. Because even as the courts stand in the way of dismantling the deep state, they will facilitate its rebirth. Unless the soil is salted. Reagan started it, and Trump has to finish it. The bureaucracy is premised on the false notion that concentrated authority, the experts running the world from the top down are far better than the distributed authority of limited government. This means we’re fighting not only the corrupt actors and the deep state, but the very idea of a deep state. We must limit it through law and discredit the idea of expert despots altogether… salting the soil of despotism to protect future generations from it. If we don’t act… the deep state will be ruthless.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
