Sunday Thoughts

I mentioned to Derb on Friday the old line from Lenin, “There are decades in which nothing happens and then there are weeks in which decades happen.” I suspect this is a phrase that will gain greater circulation after someone on Twitter claims they coined it or says it was Mark Twain or Ben Franklin who first said it. Too many Americans have been conditioned to think Lenin was evil to give the man credit for anything, but we live in age of wonders, so who knows?

That is something to keep in mind. The first three weeks of Trump 2.0 makes clear that this version has bigger goals than the first version. The DOGE team is using “waste, fraud, and abuse” as cover for remaking the government, at least the executive branch. They are clearly looking to cut off the money from the Blob to return power to the elected branches. That means the big fights lie ahead, as the Blob rallies to defend itself from the assault.

One fight that lies ahead is with the courts. The wacko judge who just barred the Treasury Secretary from looking at who is getting paid by the government is a possible opening for Trump lawyers to expedite a case to the Supreme Court. The questions before the courts will be which branch overseas these agencies and what are the limits of that oversight? This is an issue that has been kicking around since the 1970’s and may finally be resolved.

If you think the abortion war was big, just wait for these cases. This gets to the heart of the managerial system, because it has to do with the structure of the state. If the courts rule that these agencies report to the executive, which is almost certain, then most of these challenges melt away. Further, if the court rules that the executive is free to run them within whatever limits Congress places on them at creation, then it is over for managerialism in the political realm.

The reason is Congress was extremely vague when creating agencies like the Department of Education or the Environmental Protection Agency. At the time, they did not want to be clear about what they were doing, so they could later lie about it to their voters. After Watergate, no President was willing to challenge the alleged “independence” of these entities. This is what gave managerialism its power, but Trump is now challenging this assertion, thus taking on managerialism.

It is an amazing thing to see.

Topics

• The Super Cup
• The Boohoo’s Have Started (Link)
• Unitary Executive (Link)
• Impoundment
• Spare Me The False Worry (Link)
• Internews Network (Link)
• Security Clearances (Link)