“And suddenly, I realize that all of this, the gun the bombs, the revolution – has got something to do with a girl named Marla Singer.” – Fight Club
Elon Musk wants to send millions of people to Mars. He’s either a genius or the most creative serial killer of all time.
I fully believe that the biggest impact of Trump’s re-election is D.O.G.E.
I’ve long (at least 8 years) publicly maintained that the United States is due to end in its present form. My earliest time for this to happen is 2025, and the latest I’d expect it to come is around 2040. The three most likely candidates for the resulting body have been:
- An American Caesar
- A Civil War
- Peaceful Balkanization
There are many different reasons I believe this is likely still inevitable. The cultural split is deep. The financial imbalances and utter lack of control of spending is immense. The diversity we’re supposed to “tolerate” is nothing but division.
It’s really clear to see – the forest really is made up of trees. And our forest is on fire. How’s that for a tortured metaphor?
However.
D.O.G.E. is here.
What is D.O.G.E.? It’s the Department of Government Efficiency. In characteristic humor, Elon has selected one of the funniest memes of the 2010s for one of the most serious jobs of the 2020s. I don’t go into depth on the origin of Doge, but the first time I saw Doge was on this poster:
Would a missing poster for Schrödinger’s cat say it would pay extra if he was found dead and alive?
D.O.G.E. is important. It’s a shot across the bow of the managerial state. During this election cycle, someone (I don’t have a reference as to whose idea this was) noted that when the GloboLeft said “our democracy” they were really referring to “our bureaucracy”. This is an amazingly astute observation.
How can the GloboLeft whine and complain that democracy somehow failed when they lost the election and the popular vote? Because their faith isn’t in the electorate, and they feel nothing but contempt for more than half of the voters. I’m okay with that, since as long as they keep playing the game that way, we win.
But the managerial state has been growing in the United States since (more or less) Woodrow Wilson. The idea came with the money from the income tax – the United States Government was a thing to be administered, as were the people. As most people in the country and as most administrators were explicitly Christian, at least something was holding them back.
Now?
Not at all. The managerial state exists to grow the number of managers. The tragedy in Waco was almost entirely due to the ATF attempting to create a nice big sexy raid right before budget time to show how important that they were and justify their need for more money and more employees. The managerial state exists for itself.
How do you stop a Department of Education that doesn’t educate anyone, or a Department of Energy that has never produced any energy?
D.O.G.E.
I hope they get badges and walk into the FBI and yell, “Respect my authoritayyyyyy!” This would be followed up by, “So, what would you say it is that you do here, Special Agent Johnson?”
D.O.G.E. is set up to make government more efficient. When Musk bought Twitter®, he eventually fired about 80% of the employees and ended up with a company that was focused on the product, rather than on hiring more employees.
In September of 2023, there were about 3 million federal government employees. Eliminating about 2.4 million of them would be a good start, but it’s far from enough. The crazy spending that those government employees enable is over $6 trillion dollars per year.
Much of this money is money that comes from the people and companies that live in a state that is sent to the fed.gov and then recycled back to the states. How does that add value? Not sure, but it does increase the power of the federal managerial state, so they’re for it.
D.O.G.E. will, presumably, start taking a machete to this mess and remove a large chunk of federal employees and of federal spending. Since government doesn’t actually produce anything, those fired employees will have to get jobs where they have the ability to actually create value. And, if spending is cut as drastically as it should be, there will be a recession.
A big one.
Maybe we can hire Bob to build a wall to keep Dora from exploring.
Elon himself mentioned this – defanging the managerial elite and stopping fed.gov from spending will be a big dislocation on the economy as a whole. This will be destabilizing on the country, but since the big destabilization from the economic trajectory we’re on will be worse, I’m calling it a potential win. It will be worth the pain.
The reason this is an off-ramp is that it is, essentially, a bloodless revolution. The path that we’re on is unsustainable, and only drastic action will change the outcome. D.O.G.E. is just exactly that type of drastic action. Combined with actual repatriations of illegals and a dismantling of the power structures the GloboLeftElite have created within big companies (a very big ask) we just might get on the right path, again.
Do I think D.O.G.E. will work?
Ultimately, it faces long odds. The managerial class has maintained power for over a century, and they really are the Deep State and will react with great violence at any perceived loss of power. Waco was just them looking for a higher budget. The ATF along with the FBI will kill women and children without remorse for a 2% increase in power. And they will investigate themselves and find that they did nothing wrong.
Inside of a month, the ATF would consist of one guy torching all the ATF 4473 forms that the ATF has if Brandon Herrera was in charge. He also promised he’d donate all his pay to no-kill doge shelters.
The biggest chance Trump has to save the country is to act fast and without mercy before the immune system of the GloboLeftElite has the time to react. No, the FBI won’t be talking to his appointees like they did with General Flynn.
Ever.
Trump has one chance to make the rubble bounce. He’d better act quickly.
They’re going to fight back. And this is our last chance.
I would love to see it succeed but I doubt it will have more than a symbolic impact. I have watched Republicans talk about cutting the Federal government for decades and never done more than slightly slow/delay the growth of the leviathan. We certainly don’t need a Department of Education that has never taught a single child or a Dept of Agriculture staffed by people that have never been on a farm. That doesn’t mean we will be able to reduce their size much less eliminate them entirely.
It would be great if they made a difference but I doubt it will happen. Fingers crossed I am wrong.
The bureaucracy / democracy meme came from Bill D’Agostino…
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1853887450365735153
…and he’s right. Here’s a couple o links to show what DOGE is up against…
https://www.usgovernmentmanual.gov/ReadLibraryItem.ashx?SFN=Myz95sTyO4rJRM/nhIRwSw==&SF=VHhnJrOeEAnGaa/rtk/JOg==
…and here’s a breakdown of just where 2 million or so of them are located…
https://www.opm.gov/about-us/open-government/Data/Apps/Agencies/
…but wait, there’s more…
https://www.usa.gov/agency-index
It’s a termite mound of unbelievable complexity eating up the foundation of freedom. Here’s hoping Elon and Vivek raid every nook and cranny.