TRUMP VS THE APPARATCHIKS
During the Nixon Administration, arch conservative, presidential candidate and founder of the Conservative Caucus Howard Phillips headed two federal agencies, ending his executive branch career as director of the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) for five months in 1973, a position from which he resigned when Nixon reneged on his commitment to veto further funding for Great Society programs begun in the Johnson Administration.
Nixon’s appointment of Phillips as Director of OEO in January 1973 touched off a national controversy culminating in a court case in the US District Court in The District of Columbia (Williams v. Phillips, 482 F.2d 669) challenging the legality of Phillips’ appointment.
(The above two paragraphs from Wikipedia don’t tell the full story.)
Phillips went to the OEO with the intention of DISMANTLING at least that much of Johnson’s Great Society socialist agenda. That MAY have been why Nixon put the outspoken conservative in the slot as a feeler for how far he might go toward paring down the bureaucracy Johnson had ballooned to new and higher levels. We will never know. The bureaucrats at OEO knew what Howard was up to when this conservative firebrand was appointed and filed the lawsuit referenced above. Not content to wait for the court to render a decision, a delegation of OEO bureaucrats made it clear to Nixon that he would have “problems” if he allowed Phillips to remain and continue to pursue his take-down of the agency.
Nixon caved and dismissed Howard, allowing him to save face by presenting his departure as a voluntary act.
Which brings us to the mess currently developing for Donald Trump!
Since the Nixon Administration the “Deep State” bureaucracy has grown in size and clout by orders of magnitude. What we are now witnessing in Washington today is just the beginning of a full-on assault on Trump’s expressed goal of CUTTING THE BUREAUCRACY with the Beltway apparatchiks in full cry and fury in their efforts to frustrate his plan. That they are putting that effort AHEAD of the security of the nation seems to be of no concern to most of them.
Let me wrap this by reminding you that the PRIME DIRECTIVE of nearly every bureaucracy in history has been to expand its SIZE and POWER. Because most of them are not merit based, the way to move up is to continue to load the bottom with new people. That’s the size component. And the power part will be completely understood by anyone who has had an “experience” with the EPA, DOE, IRS, etc.
President Trump and those of us who support him are in for the ride of our lives. And HE is probably already asking himself “What in the hell is wrong with me? Why did I DO this?”
He did this because he loves this country and was deeply concerned with our direction.
We out here in “Flyover Country” should be equally concerned that his sentiment is not shared by the entrenched apparatchiks in the “Deep State”.
Buckle up!
Dick Bachert
It is scary. We knew “they” would not stop at anything. They have no choice but to fight to the death, because if we win, they are powerless. We need to make sure the only death is their power.