I have worked in and around politics and policy at the local, state and federal levels in California for much of the last 25 years. During that time, I worked in the state legislature and, later, advanced the objectives of “establishment” interests in business, education and health care, most often taking up the battle against the overly zealous administrative and regulatory state.
My approach to policy has been as an incrementalist. “Slow and steady wins the race” has been one of my mottoes. An analogy I have often used is, “affecting change with large organizations is like piloting an ocean liner, not a speed boat… You can’t turn it on a dime.”
Another of my theorems has to do with people and change… “People change for two reasons – because they want to and because they have to. If they change because they want to, the change has a tendency to stick. If they change because they have to, chances are they go back to their prior behavior the first chance the boot leaves their neck.”
Image by Grok.
Over the years, I have had some degree of success moving those big ocean liners in the seas of public policy and have seen many of those changes “stick” but I have never taken on the task of saving an ocean liner from a fatal collision with a metaphorical iceberg as President Trump has.
President Trump re-assumed control of our ship of state and, in partnership with his new chief engineer, Elon Musk and his DOGE team, have taken control of the bridge and are determined to save our nation from a watery grave of debt, deceit and debauchery.
The nature of any organization is to grow beyond its original franchise. Just look at McDonalds or Amazon as two examples of continued growth, expansion, and prosperity in the private sector. Unfortunately, the growth of organizations in the public sector is not funded by people willingly giving their money in exchange for a service they want. Instead, bureaucracies grow by taking bigger portions of tax dollars extracted from individuals and businesses under penalty of law. And eventually, the bureaucracy’s objective is no longer providing a public service but maintaining its existence by preserving the status quo.
The modern American administrative state was launched over 100 years ago under Woodrow Wilson and grew exponentially during the buildup and execution of World War II under Franklin Roosevelt and in the decades since under both Democrat and Republican administrations.
The swamp of our current federal bureaucracy is so big, so broad, and so deeply entrenched that no amount of incremental change will make a difference in restoring financial integrity and conformity with the bounds of our Constitution.
President Trump and Elon Musk are exactly right to stop the engines, closely inspect the boiler room, make necessary repairs and reduce the size of the crew to align with the new course they have set…ensuring the mutinous ones walk a very public plank.