The Journal of Politics 2019 81:3, 767-789
”the steady state in current U.S. politics has been a common neglect of the infrastructure of government”
This work puts the current president’s efforts to deconstruct the administrative state (i.e., the agencies, people, and processes of the executive establishment) into context. Analogous to their neglect of the nation’s physical infrastructure, I explain why Congress and the president rarely have incentives to tend to the care and feeding of the departments and agencies of government, particularly the parts that provide few direct benefits to key electoral interests. I describe the health of the administrative state before Trump’s presidency to illustrate the cumulative effect of these incentives. I then turn to reviewing the Trump administration’s actions to deconstruct the administrative state. I illustrate how the president’s approach is consistent with the actions of previous presidents and how he departs, notably positioning himself as president but not chief executive. I conclude with implications for the quality of governance in the United States and some modest proposals for reform. constitutioncenter.org/… dcs.megaphone.fm/…
(11/11/2016)
Maybe Trump will get confused and accidentally do a good job of governing. You don’t know he won’t. You literally have no idea what he believes about anything. He’s been on both sides of every issue. All his opinions exist in a Schrodinger’s-cat-like state where they might potentially be correct. Maybe he was only constantly spouting giant untruths because he literally didn’t know or remember what was actually true, not because he was executing some sort of sinister plan. Does he look like a man who has carefully studied Stalin’s Big Lie? He does not look like a man who has ever read an entire book about anything. Maybe he won’t remember to ban Muslims from the country. Update: nope looks like nope.
[…]
No. There is nothing inevitable about it. You will have to fight, every day. You are angry that you did not know.
4. Depression
Maybe if you don’t get out of bed ever again the Trump presidency will not happen.
5. Acceptance
No. Not that. Never that.
The death toll amounts to 12 airliners crashing every day for two months. Yet Americans are hardly awash with shared grief.
— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) May 22, 2020
Is it too abstract? Incomprehensible?
Our look at an atomized, compartmentalizing country at a grim milestone — w @Noahbiermanhttps://t.co/EjkZDW8Krr
"The COVID pandemic has made it abundantly clear that our excessive focus on foreign military threats—real and imagined—have left us naked and vulnerable for the real challenges of this century–pandemics and climate chaos." https://t.co/JzEH6aqaEN
— The Nation (@thenation) May 27, 2020
https://twitter.com/PZavinsky/status/1238257365541171201?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Why is Russia's reported death rate from the coronavirus so much lower than in the US or UK? One reason may be that one out of every three doctors surveyed say they have been told to attribute deaths by covid-19 to another disease. https://t.co/nOcKFdq92R
— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) May 22, 2020
At strip clubs across the country, dancers face not only a drop in employment but also discrimination and stigma as they search for relief.https://t.co/lQCHW5kdmt
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) May 27, 2020
How about asking Michael Cohen he’s just home writing his book maybe he could shed some light on this story ??? https://t.co/rZSsHNFh3t
— K MAC 🌻🟧 (@KMAC65522871) May 27, 2020
