The Administrative State



I think that most people inherently understand the problem of an administrative state. We've already been provided with numerous examples in literature, i.e. 1984Brave New WorldFarenheit 451, etc. More contemporarily, J.K. Rowling gave us a perfect example in the character of Dolores Umbridge from the fifth Harry Potter book. Though I cannot support Trump as a candidate, I do understand the underlying problems that people are reacting to and are hoping will be changed with a Trump presidency. Unfortunately, more than a presidency will have to be changed to effect this revolution, and we have to be careful not to change the humans for the pigs (Animal Farm, George Orwell):

http://www.weeklystandard.com/crisis-of-the-conservative-house-divided/article/2005000

"...the insidious political character of the "administrative state," a phrase once confined chiefly to the ranks of conservative political scientists, but which has broken out into common parlance. It refers not simply to large bureaucracy, but to the way in which the constitutional separation of powers has been steadily eroded by the delegation of more and more lawmaking to a virtual "fourth branch" of government."

"The salient political fact is this: No matter who wins elections nowadays, the experts in the agencies rule and every day extend their rule further, even under Republican presidents ostensibly committed to resisting this advance. We still nominally choose our rulers, but they don't reflect our majority opinions. No wonder more and more conservatives regard the GOP leadership in Washington as 'collaborationists' with Democrats."

"Liberalism today goes beyond wanting to control your pocketbook; it now demands to control how you think. It resembles the state of play that Lincoln noted in his Cooper Union address in 1860—that the South would not be placated by toleration of slavery, but demanded that we ""'cease to call slavery wrong, and join them in calling it right. .  .  . Silence will not be tolerated—we must place ourselves avowedly with them.' Just as in 1860, the tacit platform of today's Democratic party is that the Republican party is illegitimate unless Republicans surrender their principles and get on 'the side of history.' "

Leave reply

Back to Top