The American Bureaucracy

Americans voted overwhelmingly for change in 2024, handing Donald J. Trump a mandate to drain the swamp, yet, here we are a year into his re-election, with the same D.C. swamp denizens seemingly unscathed, no prosecutions, no accountability for even the violations of 18 U.S. Code S.242 - Deprivation of rights under color of law, which makes it a crime for government officials to willfully deprive a person of rights protected by the Constitution or federal laws while acting under the authority of law.

Some examples of this lawfare is lying to a FISA court to justify surveillance of Trump and his organization, Operation Crossfire Hurricane – the Russia collusion hoax, the unprecedented Mar-o-Lago raid, the Alvin Bragg, Leticia James, and Fani Willis indictments, James Comey’s leaks to his media contacts. These are just examples of the violations under 18 U.S. Code S.242 perpetrated upon Trump and while his loyal supporters wait for justice, the clock is ticking.

If real reforms like securing elections, purging deep state operatives, and prosecuting corruption doesn’t happen before next year’s midterm elections, the opportunity will slip away. And then there is the administrative state. Another of Trump’s nemesis.

The term "administrative state" refers to the body of unelected officials, agents and workers, within federal agencies and departments, who carry out the daily functions of the government. It has been described as a vast bureaucracy, which more often than not, is at odds with the branch of government it is supposed to answer to, the Executive Branch, a phenomenon that appears to occur with alarming frequency when the reigns of power are at the hands of a particular political party. You can guess which party is favored, when you realize that 95% of the bureaucracy identifies as Democrat.

The Administrative State is supposed to facilitate the policies of the executive branch with agencies managed by officials who are responsible to the President. These agencies are supposed to have specialized expertise and help manage complex areas like day to day government business, commerce, the environment, and public health.

But the administrative state has been a subject of ongoing debate regarding its place within the traditional constitutional structure of separated powers (legislative, executive, and judicial branches), with some arguing it effectively functions as an unintended "fourth branch" of government.

Agencies for which there’s no provision in the Constitution for, have been given a certain level of independence and discretion, a sort of bureaucratic autonomy, in interpreting and enforcing laws with career civil servants often resisting the temporary political appointees of an administration, which can lead to slow-walking politically driven changes that may be perceived as detrimental to the agency's mission but also to the political leanings of the bureaucrats within the agencies. And here lies the problem.

The administrative state operates within a complex system of established rules, regulations, and processes, often referred to as "red tape.” These procedures, are deeply embedded and difficult to modify. Within agencies themselves, there can be significant internal resistance to change. Employees have developed ways to navigate existing systems, and the fear that changes could negatively impact their careers or the agency's operations can stifle innovation and reform efforts.

This stubborn resistance to change is also attributed to special interest groups, both inside and outside the government, who have a stake in the administrative state's operations. These groups can lobby Congress and agencies to maintain existing structures and resist reforms that threaten their interests or the specific programs they support, particularly, when they come from the Republican Party.

Government agencies and departments have a great deal of institutional inertia, and over time, people begin to see existing arrangements as natural and unchangeable. The U.S. system of checks and balances was deliberately designed to be slow and inefficient, requiring widespread consensus before action, which resists quick or radical reform but not partisan politics.

While the public expresses dissatisfaction with the system, there's often a lack of widespread, sustained grassroots movements specifically focused on deep institutional reform, partly due to the complexity of the issues and a focus over local and state politics rather than national.

While large-scale federal reform is stalled, some changes are possible at the state and local levels through mechanisms like citizen initiatives and referendums, which allow citizens to bypass unsupportive legislatures. However, systemic reform of the overall U.S. governing structure remains highly improbable and Trump is running out of time.