DOGE and the Façade of a Republic...

If you’d have asked a Roman citizen on New Years in the year 1 AD what kind of a nation he lived in, he’d have likely said a Republic.  And he would have been right.

That year, just a few years after Jesus was born, Rome was ostensibly a proud republic.  While they had a Senate, which was an unelected aristocratic, they also had Consuls, a two man quasi executive which was elected by representatives of the people. They had Tribunes, who were elected by the people (sans the aristocrats) and who acted as a check on the Senate and Consuls. And they had Censors, whose ultimate job was to oversee public morality and manage finances.

Most of those institutions had been in place for half a millennium and the Republic had a long history of increasing power for the common citizens as a balance to the elites. 

For the average citizen he looked around and saw a Republic. 

It was an illusion.  In reality the Republic, for all intents and purposes was gone.  You could make an argument that it ended around the end of the first century BC with the reigns of Marius then Sulla. You could make a stronger case that it ended around 60 BC with the advent of 1^st Triumvirate or in 48 when Julius Caesar defeated Pompey, eventually having himself declared Dictator for life. Most historians don’t quite count the Republic as gone at this point because the Senate still had real power.

By 27 BC, four years after Caesar Augustus defeated Mark Anthony at the Battle of Actium that was no longer the case. At that point the tables had shifted sufficiently that Augustus was an Emperor in everything but name. Offered the title of king, Augustus would refuse, instead preferring to be called Princeps Civitatis, or First Citizen, a man of the people.

The reality is that the Republic was dead and Rome was a tyranny (albeit a relatively peaceful one for the moment) where only one thing mattered, power, in the form of Legions.  And Legions Augustus had, and they were loyal to him, not Rome. 

But in the eyes of the common man, it looked like a republic because all of the adornments of a republic were still there, but what he didn’t see was the fact that Augustus pulled all of the strings behind the scenes. Because of his personal control over the critical legions and richest provinces, Augustus was the undisputed ruler of Rome and dictated who could fill critical posts – including himself as Consul and Censor – what edicts the Senate would pass and much else of what went on across the empire. But his Princeps title and the governmental window dressing gave the citizens the illusion of a republic. 

Once Augustus was gone, the façade disappeared and for most of the next 400 years it was crystal clear that power derived from control of the Legions and or the Pretorian Guard.  And at times they would literally chose the Emperor by auction.

If you’d have asked an American citizen the same question 2020 years later most would have said they lived in democracy and a few, a republic. Makes sense.  We had all the trappings of a democratic form of government.  We had elections, a President and a Congress and a SCOTUS appointed by said President, confirmed by that Senate that stepped in whenever the other branches overstepped their Constitutional powers.

But then the election happened that November and extraordinary inconsistencies made many think that the democratic form of government we thought we had wasn’t quite working.  This was followed by four years of something like a Twilight Zone episode. 

Then of course came the relatively inconsistency free election in November of 2024 and the inauguration of Donald Trump in January.  Finally, Americans felt like maybe they were in control over their country once again…

As soon as the new administration took office and unleashed its DOGE hounds however, it became clear that America was far less of a democratic form of government than anyone had ever imagined.

It turned out that yes, we could elect new members of Congress and even new Presidents, but that control was an illusion because behind the façade of democracy is a hardcore leftist bureaucratic machine that operates the government – and impacts much of the world – essentially separate from but funded by the government.

It turns out that our government has been spending more than $40 billion a year for decades funding leftist causes across the country and around the world. At home they’ve funded George Soros’ Tides Foundation as it sought to install leftist prosecutors and DAs across the country.   Abroad, working in concert with the CIA, the USAID funded revolutions and undermined governments around the world.  Not surprisingly, 95% of agency employees were leftists and 95% of the funding went to leftist causes, including media organizations.  Among other efforts were DEI, trans opera in Columbia, and Sesame Street in Iraq.  

Beyond USAID spending itself, the government is rife with spending that simply continues regardless of who’s in office. Senator Rand Paul in his 2024 “Festivus” showcased over $1 trillion in waste and abuse in the federal budget, funding things such as breakdancing, Girl-Centered Climate Action in Brazil and paying $10 billion a year in virtually empty buildings. This included Defense, Interior, State and virtually all departments and agencies. Mostly they funneled their billions of dollars through NGOs which are Non Government Organizations, but should really be called Not Government Officially because they give the CIA, State, Defense and others the ability to do things they’re either legally prohibited from doing or aren’t Constitutionally empowered to do.

Indeed, the EPA recently revealed that the “Biden administration was allowing just eight entities to distribute $20 billion of taxpayer dollars "at their discretion.”" Including $2 billion to Stacey Abram’s brand new green energy scam.

Leftists complain that DOGE is focusing too much attention on USAID as it’s only 1% of the government budget. That’s true, but that misses the point for two reasons. First, DOGE is looking at the entire government, it’s simply that USAID abuse has been so blatant that it’s basically low hanging fruit. Second, about 75% of the federal budget is non-discretionary, essentially meaning it gets spent regardless of who’s in charge, including things like Interest, Social Security, Medicaid, etc.  Of the remaining 25%, half is Defense. That means that of the 13% of the budget that’s discretionary, USAID makes up almost 10%!

In a recent Joe Rogan interview Elon Musk perfectly articulated why leftists – both in government and out – are going crazy. Suggesting this may be the most important revolution in American history since the original revolution, he said “Normally the bureaucracy eats revolutions for breakfast. This is the first time they’re not, that the revolution might actually succeed.” 

DOGE may still find itself eaten by the bureaucracy it’s targeted, but at least for the first time in decades Americans have an idea what’s being done behind their backs, and there’s someone in office who seeks to do something about it. When the façade of the Roman Republic fell it exposed a tyranny that would last four centuries.  We can only hope that exposing the cancer behind the American façade results in a stronger Republic that can last half as long.

 

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I miss Rush Limbaugh...

I miss Rush Limbaugh.  During the Biden years I couldn’t help imagining him up in Heaven begging God to put him back in the game. Today I imagine him sitting in a bar smoking a cigar with Ronald Reagan and buying a round for the house every time a new EO drops. When he was here however there were a few things that he used to say that I loved because of their clarity.  He always pointed out that illegal immigration was all about votes and that Democrats were hypocrites on the issue.  He’d suggest that if it was really compassion that drove the issue, the solution was simple: immediately legalize them with the caveat that they could never vote.  Democrats, of course, never went for it.

He also used to use reductio ad absurdum to demonstrate the absurdity of Democrat policies.  My favorite had to do with minimum wages. When Democrats were first calling for a minimum wage of $15, then $20, Limbaugh would argue “why stop there” and suggest $50 or $200 an hour.  He’d of course demonstrate how that lunacy would impact the rest of the economy and things would simply go awry. 

I don’t know if he ever used the reductio argument on illegal immigration per se, but if so it would make perfect sense. As we know Democrats feel like anyone who makes it across the American border should be supported and become citizens.  Imagine how that would work out if the 42 million people in Latin America who want to move to the US did, or the 162 million who want to do so worldwide. That would be an absolute disaster. We couldn’t afford the schooling, housing, healthcare or food necessary to support them.  America can absorb immigrants, but not unfettered millions of them, most of whom need to be supported by the government (AKA taxpayers) and have little interest in assimilating.  America spent a reported $150 billion supporting illegals in 2023 (likely much more) and as a result towns and cities across the country had to cut basic services for citizens in order to do so. Now double or triple that, with its attendant cuts in services for Americans and the reductio quickly becomes absurd indeed.

The notion that the United States should or could support millions of people who cross our border illegally is simply insane. Well, technically it’s not exactly insane in that the people proposing it see it as a rational way to increase and sustain their wealth and power.  Democrats need ever more people dependent on them to overcome the rationality of actual Americans who increasingly see them for the grifters they are. 

What’s worse than the millions of people streaming across our borders is the fact that it’s been facilitated by, indeed driven by American taxpayers, through USAID and other government programs. Americans are literally spending billions of dollars a year in order to facilitate the invasion of their country by millions of illegals who then need to be taken care of by those same taxpayers!

Gad Saad, the author of The Parasitic Mind is writing a book called Suicidal Empathy where he is expected to talk about the west committing cultural suicide by importing tens of millions of non-westerners then essentially abandoning the fundamental concepts that underly western civilization in order to show empathy and avoid being called racists.

In one of Saad’s retweets is a chart showing crime statistics in Denmark.  It showcases the fact that immigrants from third world countries in Asia and Africa are committing violent crimes at an exponentially higher rate than Danes or citizens from other western nations, yet Denmark continues to import these high crime immigrants by the tens of thousands. Of course this same outcome is replicated throughout the west.  In the US, we’re told that illegals commit fewer crimes than Americans, but the truth is – if you disregard the fact that 100% of illegals are in fact criminals by definition – the only group against whom that claim is actually true is black Americans, who commit crimes such as murder at literally 10 times the rate of the majority whites.    

But we’re told allowing this migration from their broken countries is the “compassionate” thing to do…

Except it’s not. If one were to apply reductio ad absurdum to this situation the west will simply collapse and Europe will end up part of the Caliphate and America will become just another Latin American banana republic. How will that work for prosperity?  For freedom? For continued advances of civilization?  From the looks of Iraq, Turkey, Mexico or Venezuela, not particularly well. 

The truth is, if liberals really were interested in helping the disadvantaged from 3^rd world countries, they’d force those fleeing to remain and clean up their own countries.  Allowing those with the motivation and intestinal fortitude to make the trip across the Mexican desert in order to swim across the Rio Grande saps the spirit of their home countries. If they were forced to stay they would likely be the ones pushing hardest for change and improving their countries.

But they are not, because of western liberals.

These western liberals see themselves as the helping hand of God, rescuing the downtrodden, when in reality they are Satan helping to destroy the nations from which said downtrodden emigrated (and simultaneously the ones they immigrate to). 

In her outstanding 2010 book, Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa, economist Dambisa Moyo argues that western aid (at least the little that actually makes it to its destination) undermines much of Africa because it kills domestic farming and industry, often leaving the nations dependent on further handouts. 

Just as parks post signs saying “Please don’t feed the wildlife” because they don’t want the bears to become dependent on food from humans, so too the west should get out of the aid business. 

If the goal was to actually help citizens of 3^rd world countries, these liberals would embark on the long term journey of teaching them the precepts that underly functioning and prosperous nations:  Rule of law, free markets and private property, combined with limited government – things which many western nations have forgotten. 

And it is possible to do.  The Jews built a breadbasket and then a nation out of what was largely a desolate desert in the late 19^th century.  Hong Kong was a small city 60 years ago but today it’s a bustling world class (albeit Communist) metropolis.  The same holds true for Dubai – only faster! And indeed, changes can happen on a national scale, sometimes quite quickly.  Look at what’s been done in El Salvador in five years and Argentina in one.  It’s amazing what a people can do if motivated to do so. 

But sadly, most of the motivated people in the 3^rd world aren’t using that spirit to build their nations; they’re abandoning their homes for Europe and America… only in most cases to try and replicate the dysfunctional society they escaped in cushier environs.  And as the rapidly unfolding USAID scandal showcases, much of the money for that invasion is being driven by leftists and paid for by American taxpayers. No doubt Rush is watching from above saying “See, I told you so…”