Progressivism Isn"t Progress, IV
The Bureacratic Fortress of Progressivism Previous pieces in this series have explored the phenomenon of "progressivism" - the slow means to the end of a socialist authoritarian state in America.
This has long been the goal of U.
S.
statists (often interchangeably called "progressives," "liberals," "socialists," etc.
), and they started more than a century ago to achieve this goal through slow evolution rather than bloody revolution.
They're closer now than they've ever been.
The progressives slowly took over every major institution that influences Americans, from schools and universities, to labor unions, to the media, to Hollywood.
Each implants and further ingrains in our minds the notion that the world is full of problem-causing people (usually "corporations," or small business owners, or Constitutionalists, or investors, or any of a broad array of greedy wealth-mongering capitalists)...
and that government is the solution.
The greater the problems (real or perceived), the more government's needed.
In fact, the more government in general, the better.
Nowhere has this progressive take-over been more prevalent or successful than in the bureaucracy of the federal government - the "administrative state.
" This is often referred to as the "fourth branch" of the U.
S.
government; not behind, but in almost all cases in front of the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches.
A strong argument could be made for the notion that the unelected collective that comprises the administrative state wields a preponderance of power in America.
Why? How have we arrived at this point, where the "land of the free" is ruled by little more popular sovereignty than were monarchies and dictatorships of old? A chief reason is that people have become convinced that the administrative state is the more "professional," "competent," and "permanent" part of our government.
Any good salesman can get elected to local or even national office; once there, he's likely to lean heavily on the "pros" in the bureaucracy for actual governance.
And this is not without some good reasons.
The fact is that we've allowed the permanent bureacracy to become populated by the more learned and knowledgeable among us, and (through a variety of progressive machinations - see what the liberal media did to Herman Cain without a shred of evidence) discouraged our best-and-brightest from seeking elected office.
I've seen this in play at the local level - and, perhaps, so have you.
You don't have to look far to find a city councilman or county commissioner who's a real boob, but likeable (and electable).
And if not for the professionalism of people like county attorneys and city administrators, he'd screw things up far worse.
It's a system that works - but it's not what America is supposed to be.
And the more it "works," the farther we get from the Constitutional free-market republic established by our Founders (and by which the world has gained more peace and prosperity than from any other source in its history, except for God Himself).
The progressives have erected a formidable fortress in the American administrative state.
With it, they may well achieve their Holy Grail objective - the collapse of the free market system, the eradication of prosperity, the "equalization" of everyone, and totalitarian government control of the population.
We will cease completely to be the nation we were established to be (and the nation we've struggled to act like for decades).
We'll still have a "one percent," but they'll be our government masters, not our entrepreneurial employers.
Many of us think that sounds like a bad outcome.
For those of us who'd want to avoid it, though, the solutions are simple but almost impossibly difficult.
Here's a partial list: Keep up relentless pressure to elect good, ordinary people to public office and ask them (continuously) to question and challenge the administrative state...
push for legislation limiting the number of bureacrats who can be hired by the government, and the salaries that can be offered those people...
push to eliminate public sector labor unions - you're either a public servant, or you aren't...
push for regulations on regulations, limiting the number and length of the rules bureaucrats can institute without a vote...
push for page limits on all legislation (no bill should be longer than the Constitution), so that every fifty-or-so pages of law must be openly debated and voted upon by our representatives.
The progressives will fight back hard from behind the walls of their administrative fortress, to be sure.
We're likely to lose.
But in that loss will be the hope that the American people, who've always cherished freedom and resisted tyranny, will see the naked emperor placed over them by the progressives, and will rise up to refound the nation.
It's only a hope, but I would love to see this happen without another bloody revolution.
The peace and prosperity of America, and the world she still leads, depends on a return to limited government.
But to get there, we the people will have a forbidding fortress to take down.
And that bureaucratic fortress has been built, brick by brick, by our progressive fellows.
Once you see the fortress for what it is, you realize that, despite the constant bombardment of messages to the contrary, progressivism definitely isn't progress.
by Michael D.
Hume, M.
S.
This has long been the goal of U.
S.
statists (often interchangeably called "progressives," "liberals," "socialists," etc.
), and they started more than a century ago to achieve this goal through slow evolution rather than bloody revolution.
They're closer now than they've ever been.
The progressives slowly took over every major institution that influences Americans, from schools and universities, to labor unions, to the media, to Hollywood.
Each implants and further ingrains in our minds the notion that the world is full of problem-causing people (usually "corporations," or small business owners, or Constitutionalists, or investors, or any of a broad array of greedy wealth-mongering capitalists)...
and that government is the solution.
The greater the problems (real or perceived), the more government's needed.
In fact, the more government in general, the better.
Nowhere has this progressive take-over been more prevalent or successful than in the bureaucracy of the federal government - the "administrative state.
" This is often referred to as the "fourth branch" of the U.
S.
government; not behind, but in almost all cases in front of the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches.
A strong argument could be made for the notion that the unelected collective that comprises the administrative state wields a preponderance of power in America.
Why? How have we arrived at this point, where the "land of the free" is ruled by little more popular sovereignty than were monarchies and dictatorships of old? A chief reason is that people have become convinced that the administrative state is the more "professional," "competent," and "permanent" part of our government.
Any good salesman can get elected to local or even national office; once there, he's likely to lean heavily on the "pros" in the bureaucracy for actual governance.
And this is not without some good reasons.
The fact is that we've allowed the permanent bureacracy to become populated by the more learned and knowledgeable among us, and (through a variety of progressive machinations - see what the liberal media did to Herman Cain without a shred of evidence) discouraged our best-and-brightest from seeking elected office.
I've seen this in play at the local level - and, perhaps, so have you.
You don't have to look far to find a city councilman or county commissioner who's a real boob, but likeable (and electable).
And if not for the professionalism of people like county attorneys and city administrators, he'd screw things up far worse.
It's a system that works - but it's not what America is supposed to be.
And the more it "works," the farther we get from the Constitutional free-market republic established by our Founders (and by which the world has gained more peace and prosperity than from any other source in its history, except for God Himself).
The progressives have erected a formidable fortress in the American administrative state.
With it, they may well achieve their Holy Grail objective - the collapse of the free market system, the eradication of prosperity, the "equalization" of everyone, and totalitarian government control of the population.
We will cease completely to be the nation we were established to be (and the nation we've struggled to act like for decades).
We'll still have a "one percent," but they'll be our government masters, not our entrepreneurial employers.
Many of us think that sounds like a bad outcome.
For those of us who'd want to avoid it, though, the solutions are simple but almost impossibly difficult.
Here's a partial list: Keep up relentless pressure to elect good, ordinary people to public office and ask them (continuously) to question and challenge the administrative state...
push for legislation limiting the number of bureacrats who can be hired by the government, and the salaries that can be offered those people...
push to eliminate public sector labor unions - you're either a public servant, or you aren't...
push for regulations on regulations, limiting the number and length of the rules bureaucrats can institute without a vote...
push for page limits on all legislation (no bill should be longer than the Constitution), so that every fifty-or-so pages of law must be openly debated and voted upon by our representatives.
The progressives will fight back hard from behind the walls of their administrative fortress, to be sure.
We're likely to lose.
But in that loss will be the hope that the American people, who've always cherished freedom and resisted tyranny, will see the naked emperor placed over them by the progressives, and will rise up to refound the nation.
It's only a hope, but I would love to see this happen without another bloody revolution.
The peace and prosperity of America, and the world she still leads, depends on a return to limited government.
But to get there, we the people will have a forbidding fortress to take down.
And that bureaucratic fortress has been built, brick by brick, by our progressive fellows.
Once you see the fortress for what it is, you realize that, despite the constant bombardment of messages to the contrary, progressivism definitely isn't progress.
by Michael D.
Hume, M.
S.
Source...