Possibly the most iconic phrase from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is “government of the people, by the people, for the people[.]” He echoed the sentiment of the founders, who by word and deed demanded such a government. From their list of grievances to their continued petitions to their cries for liberty, one theme in particular stands out to me: government must be responsive. Government must be run by the people, act in the best and noblest interests of the people, and above all, answer to the people.
Our Federal government has 535 legislators (435 in the House, 100 in the Senate), 9 Supreme Court judges, one President, and one Vice President. There are also 6 non-voting members of the House, representing the District of Columbia, and the American territories of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands (Wikipedia). That amounts to a combined 552 politicians.
By contrast, our Federal government employs almost 3 million people (USAFacts), has 15 federal departments and at least 223 federal agencies (counted by Domina Libertas from FederalPay).
This is a far cry from the small, local, and responsive government our founders imagined for us. Instead, it’s a self-replicating immortal monster incentivized to be as inefficient, expensive, and non-productive as possible.
How did we get here?
How Your Government Was Corporatized
Step 1
Your government started giving special benefits to a few special interests. How did this start? Well, it could be for a variety of methods. Prime examples include bribes; blackmail; the temptations of sex, money, and influence; or even future job security. If we’re going to be really technical, it was about power, whether your politician was seeking more power, or under someone else’s power.
Step 2
Your government grew. Because they were devoting time, labor, and resources to giving out special benefits, they needed more of everything to pretend to keep doing their original job—protecting your life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. And once some people start getting special benefits, then everyone wants some, so your government has to keep growing. Pretty soon, it is beyond the influence of normal, everyday citizens like yourself. In fact, it grows so much, it develops its own shadow government—a group of unelected people who wield enormous power and effectively run things.
Step 3
Because your government has become unreachable by normal people, if anyone wants anything done, they have to lobby. Lobbying requires significant time and resources to make anything happen, creating a second shadow government of wealth and social games to determine who has favor with the bureaucrats and politicians. Political influence is well on its way to being effectively kept to those who already have wealth and privilege.
Step 4
At this point, your government now has governments within governments, and is largely run by unelected people. Unless your goal is nearly unchecked power, this is very bad news. Because there is a general lack of accountability as well as a complicated system of connections and favors, corruption hasn’t just taken root—it’s spreading like a weed. A very, very happy weed.
Step 5
Your government has lost interest in the normal people. The majority of its time and resources are now devoted to lobbyists and special interests. It’s definitely a lucrative business. In return for favor while in office, once they step down, your politician could be guaranteed multi-million dollar book deals or speaking gigs, a seat on the board of directors for businesses they’ve helped out, or other delicious opportunities. Anything your government still does for the people is corrupted by lobbyists and done only because your politician will be seeking reelection. At this point, your government serves clients, not citizens.
Step 6
If your government serves clients, not citizens, it is effectively a business. Influence, access, legal action—even your very politician—are all for sale now. At a hefty price, of course. To the right bidder, the entire world is open. To normal people living paycheck-to-paycheck, things are significantly more difficult.
As a matter of fact, ideology itself is for sale now. Everything is just a vehicle for more power, from calls for lower taxes to the new war your government is considering starting. Something really… interesting, shall we say, that happens now is that all these actions have effectively the same moral weight. Starting a war is no different from a handshake at a gala or casting a vote to appoint a head of a tiny, obscure government agency.
Step 6.2
While none of this has been exactly good news, there is one decidedly bad piece of news: this entire process has happened so slowly that you and many of your fellow citizens have no idea how it actually happened. No one remembers how your government was actually supposed to work. Yeah, there’s this fancy piece of paper called the Constitution that details out the responsibilities and limits of each branch of government, but it’s hard to imagine any of it actually… you know, working. Besides, everyone has at least a little piece of a special benefit, usually welfare of some form, so it’s hard to get people to acknowledge that things need to change. Take their benefits, just don’t touch mine, because I actually deserve it.
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Methods For De-Corporatizing Your Government
At this point, you might as well start a foundation to lobby for a return to a constitutional form of government. If that doesn’t interest you, consider some alternatives.
Find A Dark Horse Candidate
Honestly, this is a huge part of the appeal around Donald Trump. Besides being very wealthy and definitely not middle class by any definition, he is a political outsider to Washington D.C. This outside perspective as well potential lack of corruption (of this variety, at least), appealed to a lot of Trump voters. It also explains why the shadow governments of bureaucrats and lobbyists are so determined to destroy him.
Cut Funding
Despite the revenue generated by lobbying, your government still needs your funding—in other words, your tax dollars. What’s remarkable is that your elected officials are actually in charge of government funding. Stopping the shadow governments could be as simple as just not funding them in the next federal budget. Of course, these immortal monsters are not going down without a fight, so it wouldn’t be easy, but it would be simple. It will require your elected politician to grow a backbone, but the good news is that the genuine threat of being replaced in the next election is decent motivation.
Talk To People
Lastly, and by far the most important, while it can definitely be overwhelming, studying how your government is supposed to work is very important. Once you know how it worked, and the principles by which it should be run, you can start sharing your knowledge with others. The more people who know about this, who really understand it, the better. True understanding is the first step towards taking action. In addition, the more people who know, the more people can pressure your elected representatives to take action, and help hold your elected representatives—and unelected bureaucrats—accountable.
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This may be a discouraging state of affairs, but the good news is that very few governments are truly beyond repair, and odds are, yours is salvageable. In fact, what looks like a horrible situation may very well be an incredible opportunity to create something remarkable. It’s going to be a lot of hard work, but it will definitely be worth it!
The biggest challenge when directly opposing a government is that you need enough people to resist at once. It goes back to that old question—what makes a successful revolution?
I think it comes down to a tipping point. We need a major event to push us into action, or a strong leader. Maybe it’ll be Trump and Musk, or maybe something big will happen soon. We must be ready for it!