The best way to push back against the Deep State is to appoint individuals to DISMANTLE it. That means, a much smaller CIA. A much smaller FBI. A much smaller State Department.
I agree with you. Unfortunately, that rarely happens until there is a complete collapse.
Yes, it’s actually a simple numbers game of inertia. Let’s say we have 24 million federal, State, and local employees in 2017 — we can argue if it’s 22 or 24 million, but these estimates are all clustered pretty close together in this range. Population has increased about 5-fold since 1900; but government employment has increased about 24-fold since 1900, DESPITE efficiencies one would expect with computerization and telecommunications — i.e. if government efficiency had improved we’d have a lower ratio of public:private sector workers.
So that’s about 16.5% of the ENTIRE US workforce! About one in six! In some States, figures are above 20%. These individuals, are highly motivated to vote for bigger government. And this figure, does not even count all the other jobs dependent on government: the ‘industrial’ segment of the military industrial complex, lobbyists, etc. It also doesn’t include all the *dependents* relying upon those government paychecks, who will also reliably vote for bigger government (spouses, children, etc). I certainly believe we should have a viable defense and nuclear arsenal, but not the corrupt military-industrial complex Eisenhower warned of. Of course, we now also have a corrupt corporate-government complex as well: crony capitalism instead of free markets.
Like a colleague of mine at work said last week, what’s the difference between the good old boy right winger in the rural county who takes money for NOT growing crops on his farm, and the left wing welfare queen in the inner city? They will BOTH vote for continued government subsidies and ever larger government. In one case, we pay more for food as a result of government agricultural policies, in the other, we lock up 1/2% of our population in prisons because they had s~~~ty parents and went to s~~~ty inner city public schools. I would add another category too: the ‘corporate’ welfare recipient, big companies that get special breaks and crowd out start-ups and smaller companies who DON’T have the political clout to get UNequal treatment under tax and regulatory laws.
Like I told my colleague, if you want to tax rape me for property taxes, don’t give me a vote for which jack*ss is on the school board, just let me decide WHICH school I want to send the stolen loot to: vocational, public, or private/charter. I called it ‘My DOLLARS, my CHOICE!’. And then THAT school gets my tax revenues, the other is STARVED OF IT. He laughed his a** off because he knew I’d never have such a choice, nor would he, at the ballot.
The media distracts us with bulls*it about how ‘America is divided’. America is NOT divided politically, the vast majority of Americans LOVE big government and WANT more of it. Remember, they may differ over WHO they want subsidies to go to, not WHETHER they want free markets, or a big Government, highly regulated command-and-control economy.
IGMOW (I Go My Own Way) 2 years, 3 months ago.
