At OTB Steven Taylor has been musing about the separation of powers and Federal 51. See his posts here, here, and here. In the second of those posts a regular commenter here made an observation about which I’d like to comment:
I would just add that most people do not seem to understand how powerful Executive Branch and indendent agency rulemaking is. It really is shadow legislation, arguably a de facto fourth branch of government. I think the judiciary made a mistake in allowing this to grow to where it is today.
In the 230 years since we adopted the U. S. Constitution we have slowly been changing our system of government. Some notable milestones in that process have been:
- In Marbury v. Madison the Supreme Court arrogated to itself the authority, ungranted under the Constitution, to determine what the Constitution permits. That was later expanded by Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee, Cohens v. Virginia, and a dozen later decisions.
- The Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883 established the federal civil service, ostensibly placing it beyond party politics.
- The 16th Amendment, empowering the Congress to impose an income tax, had other, presumably unintended consequences.
- The 17th Amendment, which provided for the popular election of the Senate, also further diminished the reach of state governments.
- Wickard v. Filburn greatly increased the reach of the Congress.
- The Social Security Act of 1935 and the Social Security Act of 1965, which set up Medicare, redefined the role of the federal government in ways that could not have been foreseen.
- The considerable reforms in the earmark process that took place between 2007 and 2011 altered the role of the Congress.
Individually these rulings, laws, and amendments were intended to reform our system, to improve it. Corporately they have willy-nilly upset the careful “balance of powers”, granting far more authority to the president and the executive branch generally than could conceivably have been intended as well as granting greatly increased power to the federal government. I would also argue, possibly counter-intuitively, that the relatively small number of cases heard by the Supreme Court has altered the balance as well. The Supreme Court accepts just about as many cases per year as it did in 1950. I find it hard to believe that a country of 330 million people has the same number of cases of sufficient importance as to be heard by the Supreme Court as a country of 150 million people did. I think the riddle is more closely related to the workload the Supreme Court is willing to bear than to the number of cases it should be hearing, a profoundly undemocratic and illiberal outcome.
The effect of all of these rulings, laws, amendments, and practices has been to move power from state governments and the people to the federal government and from the federal government to the executive branch, particularly the civil bureaucracy. IMO major civil service reform has become a matter of pressing urgency. The contours of the needed reform are unclear to me but what is clear to me is that we are becoming quite authoritarian and, what’s worse, authoritarian in a way that is indifferent to the economy welfare of the country.
The Democrat Party is evolving into a totalitarian socialist party, and if they get the Presidency and both Houses of Congress they will change the way this country operates even more radically.
It is notable that Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s New Green Deal, which was widely mocked even by Democrats, actually has some traction. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has incorportated some of her ideas into policy goals for the City, such as a ban on new glass and steel skyscrapers, meatless Mondays and bans on red meat in schools and public institutions, and a commitment to transitioning entirely to renewables for electricity. Now you’re talking real radicalism, and just about all the two dozen or so Democrat candidates for the Presidency have either supported these ideas or are deafenly quiet about them.
If the Democrats win big in November 2020, we can also expect racial and ethnic quotas, attempts at suppression of free speech and censorship of the web, and more gun bans. Suppression of charter schools and home schooling is probable. And, of course, completely open borders.
It will be open season on Jews, too.
“It will be open season on Jews, too.”
Yup, but being Democrats they will require hunting licenses, which will cost a ton of money to help pay for all the govt programs. Then with banning all of the guns, the hunting is going to awfully difficult. You arent going to be able to shoot em. You are pretty much going to have to stab them and since all liberals are effete wimps that isn’t going to go well. (Really, we all know that only conservatives are real, manly men who know how to gut a moose. Or was that Sarah Palin? Both?)
Anyway, if I were Jewish I wouldn’t be too worried. The conflicting goals of the Democrats in their attempts to turn us all into serfs will keep them safe.
Back on topic. I think your target of the civil service is misplaced. We really need a Constitutional revision. It was written with the idea that politicians would prioritize the position of their branch of govt and/or their state. It was not written with the idea that party allegiance would predominate.
Steve
There’s a big difference between humor and mocking someone’s comments. I find Steve’s response to be more in the mocking category, as bob’s concerns are serious and certainly supported by increasing Democrat assaults on free speech in public and on the web, coupled with a “resistance†blinded by political ambition to take trump down, no matter the cost to the country!
Consequently, we are experiencing ramped up identity politics – involving race, class, gender – in hopes of sowing greater discord and division. Anti Semitism is on the rise. Open borders, illegal immigration is being ignored by Democrat controlled congress. Socialism is more acceptable and even courted by Democrat candidates. I find these trends, propelled by the Democrats, to be going away from the principles of Americanism, and back to a more controlled, Feudalist type society. Maybe that’s Steve’s cup of tea. It’s certainly not mine.
Of course it was mocking. He is predicting that Democrats will declare open season on Jews. I should take that seriously? Let’s guess which party had some of its members re-enact a Nazi midnight march. Who was that? I cant remember specifically, just that they were fine people. This old age sucks, but maybe I will remember later. I do know it is the same group that likes to use ((( ))).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_parentheses
But, I could be wrong. Please feel free to link to prominent Dem leaders who are calling for open season on Jews.
Steve
The struggle for supremacy between the President and his nominal underlings will shape the course this country follows for decades to come at a minimum. No matter what one thinks of this President, the bureaucrats cannot be allowed to continue to rule uncontested, because too many are narrow-minded and selfish, beholden only to themselves and their close friends and allies. They cannot see the larger picture what their lawless actions do and are being viewed.