Forever, we’ve heard rightwing complaints that the government is too intrusive, too power-hungry, and too control-mad to let citizens live their lives freely. In an earlier article today titled “‘Government is Evil Republicans’ Sure Want Government to Control People” I shoot holes in the narrative that Republicans have ever truly wanted small government or the government to not manage aspects of people’s lives that they don’t want or need to be managed. [Generally, Democrats want basic functions of government like environmental regulations, food safety, or taxes–which nearly every government on the planet controls–while Republicans seem happiest when government goes way beyond the scope with abortion bans, sodomy bans, book bans, voter suppression, and even limits on free speech like the “Stop WOKE Act.”]
But then a separate, harder-to-define, and perhaps even more nefarious idea began to formulate in my mind: “People are so worried about a government takeover. However, what if they didn’t notice that the government was being taken over?”
Because I believe this is exactly what’s happened. You can see it in a Supreme Court where the majority of justices were appointed by people Presidents that didn’t win the popular vote, and–no surprise–feel no need to even consider popular opinion as they overturn established laws like Roe vs. Wade that have been in effect for 50 years. You can see it in a congress that is so hopelessly corporatized, an incumbent U.S. politician has a better chance of dying in office than losing reelection. And you can absolutely see it with Trump, a businessman with no public sector experience and really no relevant experience to being President, but who was able to take over the government just fine anyway.
For four years, he…
—Slashed government at every turn (several key ambassadorships went unfilled for years and the State Department was never even close to fully functioning).
—Spread paranoia about a government that he was in charge of (railing against “the Deep State,” showing an unbelievable disdain for intelligence agencies or law enforcement agencies like the FBI, enabling ludicrous conspiracy theories, and believing there should be no such thing as a remotely independent Attorney General).
—Surrounded himself with other business people who also knew little about government (Ben Carson, Carl Icahn, Rex Tillerson, Betsy DeVos, Steve Bannon).
—And he appointed one of the worst cabinets imaginable—with many cabinet heads showing an active dislike for the departments they’d been put in charge of: Rick Perry said he’d eliminate the Department of Energy…then was made the head of it. Betsy DeVos doesn’t think the Department of Education should exist…then was made the head of it. Tom Price was a wealthy doctor who didn’t think Medicare should exist…so he was made Secretary for Health and Human Services. Scott Pruitt sued the EPA dozens of times and has a hatred of it…then was made the head of it.
Then when Trump was about to be replaced by Biden, he launched a last-ditch coup attempt to remain in office. That’s never happened before in American history, and would’ve led to the decapitation of the actual government (Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi were targeted for execution by the protesters) by a rogue businessman and the business interests he’d surrounded himself with.
Even once Biden took office, corporate-backed politicians have blocked nearly every major piece of legislation he’s tried to accomplish. [Apparently, winning the most votes in U.S. history hasn’t given him a mandate to get the things he campaigned on through the Senate.] Not only that, but Republicans (who didn’t win either branch of congress or the presidency in 2020) have been able to not only block progress, but overturn Roe vs. Wade, gut environmental regulations, and even float serious proposals to privatize social security and Medicare.
Yes, I think we need to worry more about the federal government being so taken over that it basically can’t get anything done, and “states” (where the true corruption usually is) filling the void—with help from their corporate funders.