Does Your Vote Really Count?

Democracy vs. Bureaucracy Were you forwarded this email? [Sign-up to The Daily Reckoning here.]( [Unsubscribe]( [Daily Reckoning] Does Your Vote Really Count? - “If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal”… - The only good bureaucrat… - Then Jeffrey Tucker shows you how the administrative state governs America, and why it will be very difficult to take it back… Recommended Link [Strange 2021 Prophecy Rapidly Coming True]( [Read more here...]( America’s #1 Futurist George Gilder is telling American’s to “brace yourself” for the coming $16.8 trillion revolution. This same revolution could redefine millions of jobs and radically transform the way just about every major corporation does business. It could even change the way you get paid, save and invest for retirement. And, says George, it could make you exceedingly rich... [Click Here To See Why]( Annapolis, Maryland June 8, 2022 [Brian Maher]Dear Reader, “If voting changed anything,“ sneered anarchist Emma Goldman, “they'd make it illegal.” You may say it is cynical. You may say it is cancerous — and you would be correct. Yet can you say it is fully false? The "people" give the orders in democracy, say the civics books. Yet deeper probing reveals the American people wield limited influence over their governing affairs. Unelected and unaccountable judges, bureaucrats, pettifoggers, understrappers and jacks-in-office do the primary bossing. Does the Department of State take democratic input? The Department of the Interior? The Centers for Disease Control? Dr. Fauci bosses you. You do not boss him. And were you asked – for example – if invading Iraq in 2003 was a swell idea? Or if your tax dollars should bail out Wall Street in 2008? Or if you should be jailed down in your home during the plague year of 2020? Or if it is wise to risk nuclear war with Russia in 2022? It somehow all seems beyond all democratic agency, beyond all democratic control. It is simply the way the political machinery operates, a fellow shrugs. He cluck-clucks his opposition to it, he moans about it… but he is largely a man resigned. “This is a representative republic,” you shout, “not a democracy. We elect officials to whom we entrust these decisions. If we disagree with them, we get to vote the bums out next time. That’s how it works.” Just so. Yet when one bum goes out, another generally comes in. Not always — not always — but often enough. And if a good man somehow makes it in? He must acquire a taste for boot polish. He must go along with his party chieftains — else he will not get along. He will find himself in political no-man’s land, obscure and futureless. In most instances he succumbs. Thus we heave our civics book into the hellbox. And if "the people own the government," as the democratic gospel singers tell us, we suggest you test this theory: Approach the guardhouse at the nearest military installation. Demand immediate and unconditional access, asserting your rights of ownership. The reaction you receive will very likely refute the ownership theory of government. And democracy’s loudest drummers often believe in democracy least. These are the experts and weisenheimers among us, the Dr. Faucis of this world. They sob about this threat to “our democracy” and that threat to “our democracy.” Yet deeper examination reveals their commitment to democracy is highly… conditional. They do not trust “the people” to do the “right thing.” The Bible-thumpers will ban abortion if you let them vote on it, say the pro-choicers. The isolationists will pull up the overseas stakes, cry the American exceptionalists… and withdraw from the world. The gold bugs and the cryptocurrency kooks will topple the monetary system, laments our monetary mandarins. Anti-democratic hellcats will fan misinformation and disinformation among the rednecked and stump-toothed, yell the censors. Yet the entire lot of them sing hosannas to “democracy.” In reality, they believe no more in democracy than they believe in honesty. They believe merely in their power to push people around. We have quoted the great Mencken before — and today we will repeat him: The only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head. Put it in his hand and it's goodbye to the Bill of Rights. Below, Jeffrey Tucker shows you how the bureaucrat has had the gun in his hand for the past two years. Can Americans strip it from his hands… and place it against his head… where it properly belongs? Read on. Regards, [Brian Maher] Brian Maher Managing Editor, The Daily Reckoning Editor’s note: Are you tired of the wild volatility of the stock market, and how you constantly have to worry about your money? Then maybe it’s time you consider the [Gone Fishin’ Portfolio.]( It lets you essentially “set it and forget it,” by spending only 20 minutes a year tweaking your portfolio — and forget about it. It’ll give you the peace of mind you’ll never find by subjecting yourself to the market’s roller coaster ride. [Here]( our own Addison Wiggin discusses the Gone Fishin’ Portfolio with a real financial crackerjack. By clicking [this link]( you will receive a free subscription to The Wiggin Sessions and offers from us and our affiliates that we think might interest you. You can unsubscribe at any time. [Go here now.]( By submitting your email address, you will receive a free subscription to Wiggin Sessions and offers from us and our affiliates that we think might interest you. You can unsubscribe at any time. [Privacy Policy.]( Recommended Link [FDR did it first; Biden plans much worse…]( [Read more here...]( On April 5, 1933, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102 — changing the U.S. dollar forever… On March 9, 2022, President Biden signed Executive Order 14067 — which could change the dollar again, into something much worse… See the potentially sinister outcome of Biden’s new executive order. [Go Here Now]( The Daily Reckoning Presents: “The administrative state is THE government. Elections? They provide just enough difference to lead people to believe they are in charge”… ****************************** Elections Won’t Fix This By Jeffrey Tucker [Jeffrey Tucker]Americans have limitless faith in democracy. In the early 19th century, that charmed Alexis de Tocqueville. His book Democracy in America still rings true today because not much has changed. The entire country can be in ruins and even then, most people figure that it will all be improved or even solved come November. It’s been going on for our entire history. As a people, we believe our elections are what keep the people and not the dictators in charge. Surely some of this faith is necessary simply because it is the only option we have. The sitting president and his party are in deep trouble now, and most observers are predicting a rout in the midterm elections, granting us two additional painful years of inflation plus recession unfolding amidst what will surely be a brutal political stalemate and cultural upheaval. Then November will come again and with it another round of trust that the new president will figure something out. This faith in our elected leaders is belied by the experiences of the last 30 months. To be sure, the elected politicians are nowhere near blameless in what unfolded and they could have done far more to stop the disaster. Trump could have sent Fauci and Birx packing (maybe?), the Republicans could have voted no on trillions in spending (did they really have a choice?) and Biden could have renormalized the country (why didn’t he?). Instead they all went along… with what? With advisers from the bureaucracies, the people who have de facto ran the country for this entire grim period. Once Trump gave the green light to lockdowns, the permanent bureaucracy had all it needed. In fact, this happened even before Trump approved it: The Department of Health and Human Services had already released its lockdown blueprint on March 13, 2020, a document which had already been weeks in the preparation. After the March 16 press conference, there was no going back. The “deep state” – by which I mean the permanent nonappointed bureaucracy and the pressure groups to which it answers – was running the show. The administrative state has probably not enjoyed such a good run since World War II or perhaps much earlier, if ever. These were certainly the salad days. Merely by assigning a bureaucrat to type on a screen, the CDC could cause every retail business in the U.S. to install plexiglass, force people to stand six feet apart, make the human face publicly invisible, close or open whole industries at will and even scrap religious services and singing. To be sure, these were mere “recommendations” but states, cities and corporations deferred for fear of liability should something go wrong. The CDC provided the cover but acted pretty much like a dictator. We know this for certain given the CDC’s response to the Florida judge’s decision to declare the transportation mask mandate illegal. The response was not that the mandate was both compliant with the law and necessary for public health. Instead, the agency and the Biden administration too rallied around a simple point: The judge’s decision cannot stand because courts should have no authority to override the bureaucracy. They actually said it: They demand total, unchecked, unquestioned power. Period. This is alarming enough but it speaks to a much larger problem: a hegemonic bureaucratic class that is not controlled by the political class and believes that it possesses total power. The implications extend far beyond the CDC. It applies to every executive agency of the federal government. There’s something called the Chevron doctrine of deference to the agency. It holds that whenever there is a question of an agency’s interpretation of the law, the court should defer to the agency and not to a strict reading of the law. Here is where we find the amazing revelation: This egregious rule came about only in 1984! The case in question was Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. and the issue concerned the EPA’s interpretation of a congressional statute. John Paul Stevens wrote in the majority opinion: First, always, is the question whether Congress has directly spoken to the precise question at issue. If the intent of Congress is clear, that is the end of the matter; for the court, as well as the agency, must give effect to the unambiguously expressed intent of Congress. If, however, the court determines Congress has not directly addressed the precise question at issue, the court does not simply impose its own construction on the statute... Rather, if the statute is silent or ambiguous with respect to the specific issue, the question for the court is whether the agency’s answer is based on a permissible construction of the statute. Recommended Link [[Proof] Facebook’s Plan to Take Over $14 Trillion Industry]( [Read more here...]( No matter how you feel about it, you can’t deny that Facebook has fundamentally changed the world we live in. Now Mark Zuckerberg is changing Facebook’s name and rebranding completely - and I’ve discovered the key reason behind his SHOCKING decision. It’s all because of a new tech breakthrough that will revolutionize how human beings live, work and interact - just like Facebook did nearly 20 years ago. Now, one legendary tech researcher is giving away his #1 way to play it... long before Zuckerberg’s creation goes mainstream. [Click Here To Learn More]( All of this begs the question of what is permissible, but the critical thing is the dramatic shift in the burden of proof. A plaintiff against an agency must now demonstrate that the agency’s interpretation is impermissible. In practice, this rule has granted tremendous latitude and power to executive agencies to rule the whole system with or without political permission. And keep in mind what the chart looks like: [IMG 1] The lower two-thirds of this chart is increasingly the government as we know it, and its power is unaccountable to the president, to Congress, to the courts or to the voters. From what we know about the operations of the FDA, DOL, CDC, HHS, DHS, DOT, DOE, HUD, FED and so on throughout every combination of letters you can think of is that they are typically captured by private interests powerful enough to buy themselves influence, complete with revolving doors in and out. This creates a governing cartel that is a formidable force against democracy and freedom itself. This is a major and highly significant problem. It’s not clear that Congress can do anything about it. Worse, it’s not clear that any president or any court can really do anything about it, at least not without facing a barrage of brutal opposition, as Trump learned firsthand. The administrative state is THE government. Elections? They provide just enough difference to lead people to believe they are in charge, but are they? Not according to the organization chart. This is the real problem with the U.S. system today. This system cannot be found in the U.S. Constitution. No one alive voted for it. It just gradually evolved – metastasized – over time. The last 30 months have demonstrated that it is a real cancer eating out the heart of the American experience, and not just here: Every country in the world deals with some version of this problem. Americans’ romance with democracy continues unabated and right now, everyone I know is living for the great day in November when the existing crop of elected leaders can be shown a thing or two. Good. Throw the bums out. The question is what should the new class of elected leaders do about this much deeper problem? Can they do anything about it even if they had the will? Keep in mind that it pertains not just to the public-health bureaucracies but to every aspect of public life in America. It’s going to take far more than a few elections to fix this. It is going to require focus and public support for a restoration of a genuine constitutional system in which the people rule with their elected leaders as their representatives, without the vast meta-layer of state control that pays no attention to the comings and goings of the elected class. In sum, the problems are much deeper than most people realize. These problems have been on display for the public in these past two-plus years. During this time, American life as we knew it was upended by an unaccountable administrative bureaucracy – in Washington but with reach into every state and city – that ignored the Constitution, evidence, public opinion, the pronouncements of elected leaders and even the courts. Instead, this machinery of coercion ruled in concert with a network of private-sector actors, including media and financial companies, that have outsized influence and routinely use these agencies as weapons in their own economic interests at the expense of everyone else. This system is indefensible. Experiencing it firsthand in the 1950s, Dwight Eisenhower decried the entire machine in his farewell address of 1961. He warned of the “danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.” It is the task of statesmanship, he said, to uphold “the principles of our democratic system – ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.” Uprooting the entrenched, arrogant, hegemonic and unaccountable administrative state that believes it operates with no limit to its power is the great challenge of our time. The public is probably nowhere near aware of the full extent of the problem. Until voters themselves figure it out, the politicians will have no mandate even to test a solution. Regards, Jeffrey Tucker for The Daily Reckoning Ed. note: Are you tired of the wild volatility of the stock market, and how you constantly have to worry about your money? Then maybe it’s time you consider the [Gone Fishin’ Portfolio.]( It lets you essentially “set it and forget it,” by spending only 20 minutes a year tweaking your portfolio — and forget about it. It’ll give you the peace of mind you’ll never find by subjecting yourself to the market’s roller coaster ride. [Here]( our own Addison Wiggin discusses the Gone Fishin’ Portfolio with a real financial crackerjack. By clicking [this link]( you will receive a free subscription to The Wiggin Sessions and offers from us and our affiliates that we think might interest you. You can unsubscribe at any time. [Go here now.]( By submitting your email address, you will receive a free subscription to Wiggin Sessions and offers from us and our affiliates that we think might interest you. You can unsubscribe at any time. [Privacy Policy.]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you for reading The Daily Reckoning! We greatly value your questions and comments. Please send all feedback to [feedback@dailyreckoning.com.](mailto:dr@dailyreckoning.com) [Jeffrey Tucker]( is an independent editorial consultant who served as Editorial Director for the American Institute for Economic Research. He is the author of many thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press and eight books in 5 languages, most recently Liberty or Lockdown. He speaks widely on topics of economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture. Add feedback@dailyreckoning.com to your address book: [Whitelist us]( Additional Articles & Commentary: [Daily Reckoning Website]( Join the conversation! 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