Wordsmithing is a powerful tool of the left. It is applied not only to matters of gender, race, and class, but to the nature of government itself. The left’s concept of “democracy” bears no relationship to that envisioned by the founders.
As our society, driven by technical advances, has become more complex, so has the size and regulatory role of government. Cabinet departments have grown from the original three — State, Treasury, and War — to the present fifteen. We also have independent executive agencies (IRS), independent regulatory agencies (SEC, Federal Reserve Board), government corporations (USPS, FDIC), and presidential commissions (9/11, Commission on Civil Rights). These all include sub-agencies numbered in the hundreds. The federal government employs 2.7 million full-time equivalents (FTEs). Federal, state, and local government employees constitute the largest workforce in the nation, comprising over 13% of all those employed. Add in the rotating pool of civilian contractors.
Government growth is in itself not inherently undemocratic, unless in its growth it loses sight of its original commitment to government of, by, and for the people provided by elected representatives. Unfortunately, that has indeed been the case. Policy generation by the executive and legislative branches of government has dwindled over the years.
In our nation’s infancy, early presidents issued less than five Executive Orders (EOs) per year. As the nation and government grew, the number of EOs issued increased to 200–300/year in the first half of the 20th century. Since then, however, EO generation has fallen precipitously to an average of ~40/year by the last four presidents. Policy generation by the legislature has followed a similar trajectory. In the mid-seventies, Congress enacted 700–800 bills/year. Its output has fallen progressively. The present 118th Congress (1/2023–1/2025) has enacted just 82 bills.
Policy generation now is largely a function of the federal agency bureaucracy, which has been delegated to do the “spade work” by the executive and legislative bodies. The federal agencies create, implement, and enforce policy through regulations, which are legally binding. In establishing policy, they function as an intermediary between elected officials and concerned private sector lobbyists. Although the number of regulations issued by these agencies has declined over the decades, their increased complexity and scope has delivered an increasing socioeconomic impact, creating a “regulatory state” aura.
So, what is the nature of this unelected “deep state”? Ensconcement is prominent. Median term of employment is 7.5 years as opposed to 3.7 years in the private sector. Private sector employees are six times more likely to be fired. (Joe Biden, upon taking office, immediately reversed Trump’s Schedule F, which made it easier to fire federal employees.) Is it politically neutral? Well…that’s a secret. But money talks. In the 2016 election, 95% of federal employee donations went to Hillary. In 2020, 60% went to Biden, with Trump managing to glean support from the DOD and DHS. Positions of control tend to attract leftists, as to academia and media, and so to government bureaucracies. So we have an entrenched, leftist bureaucracy setting our cultural, social, and economic course…bringing lawfare, open borders, identity politics, media control, youth radicalization, anti-nationalism, religion, and nuclear family destruction.
This is the new Democrat party’s concept of “our democracy”. Our evolution to this state of affairs has to an extent been facilitated by complacent, opportunistic Republicans content with living off the spoils. But along comes the MAGA Party, committed to resurrecting the founders’ concepts, eliciting the Trump Derrangement Syndrome in its political adversaries.
When the left laments that Trump is a threat to “our democracy”, they mean “their democracy”…and indeed he is.
