When people voted to drain the swamp, they knew the alligat…

When people voted to drain the swamp, they knew the alligators - the high-profile D.C. power players, special interests, and safe seat senators-for-life - would be a problem. They underestimated the vast horde of smaller critters squirming in the muck at the bottom of the swamp.

When people see budgetary line item boondoggles, they\u2019re momentarily outraged\u2014but they should think through how the money will be dispersed, and by whom. There\u2019s a massive industry for spending USG money out there, and people should know about it. https://t.co/1MBeTuaMDP
— David Reaboi (@davereaboi) December 23, 2020

As @davereaboi pointed out, the ecosystem that feeds on the endless torrent of deficit-fueled D.C. spending is vast beyond belief, and it has tentacles that reach around the world. That ecosystem has multiple layers, and every one of them will fight to keep Big Gov money flowing.

@davereaboi There are entities wholly dedicated to spend money spent by entities that spend money spent by entities that spend money spent by entities that spend money from D.C. Many are invisible to taxpayers. Some are foreign operations utterly beyond the reach of American voters.

@davereaboi And even when an outsider comes along and dislodges a few swamp creatures, we find another massive ecosystem dedicated to breeding and replacing them. Most people in the heartland have no idea how vast is the machinery that produces manpower for the permanent bureaucracy.

@davereaboi Pluck out one parasite, and a swarm of fresh parasites is ready to flow in and replace it. Educational institutions and bureaucratic recruitment systems are working around the clock to embed the ideology of statism in legions of aspiring government employees and NGO staffers.

@davereaboi The engine of Big Government can never be cleaned because it can never be halted. Any attempt to slow the system down, so the bureaucracy can be trimmed and tightened, will be met with deafening screams of outrage. Hostages are immediately taken and threatened with doom.

@davereaboi And when you try to replace the heavy hitters at the top of the system, you discover the statist media ecosystem will help them fight back with devastating effectiveness. "Leaks" spring up everywhere. Fanciful allegations from unnamed sources are reported as hard fact.

@davereaboi Even if you succeed in replacing some of the big swamp creatures, you'll find nothing but like-minded candidates to replace them. Slip in a real outsider who thinks outside the box, and the media will declare them "unqualified" and tear them to shreds.

@davereaboi Outsiders who hang on to their seats at the top of vast D.C. bureaucracies will find themselves relentlessly undermined by their subordinates, who will slow-walk policies, allocate resources according to THEIR agenda, and unleash a geyser of damaging "leaks" to Swamp media.

@davereaboi And now the Swamp has Big Tech on its side, repeating the hideous pattern around the world of authoritarians repurposing the Internet into an instrument of control over the people, when it was supposed to be mankind's great unstoppable engine of intellectual liberation.

@davereaboi What outsider could the people vote into office who would come into office with an efficient, organized, dedicated army of appointees, deputies, and staffers able to meet the vast legions of the Swamp in open battle and defeat them, at every level of every agency?

@davereaboi What outsider could invade the Swamp with a revolutionary organization, backed by a disciplined and unified political party and capable media warriors, and ALSO be able to fight the Swamp's vast international network of dependent organizations?

@davereaboi If dollars are bullets for political war, the Swamp has huge ammo dumps across the country and around the world. If billionaires and influencers are generals, the Swamp has them lined up shoulder to shoulder, in domestic and foreign legions. It has a standing army of staffers.

@davereaboi One reason for our modern mania of credentialism is that the Swamp wants to ensure only people who agree with its ideology are standing by to replace those who get bounced out of office by reformers. Reinforcements for any who fall in political battle are always ready.

@davereaboi It really is almost impossible to fight this system, because it's more influential than any conceivable alliance of liberty-minded voters, and it's richer than most of what remains of the private sector - especially since the biggest "private" players support the Swamp.

@davereaboi But if we really want to take another shot at it, we should invest these next few years building up a system of candidates, appointees, programs, and media that can fight together as a team. Let us marshal our forces and choose our beachheads before we try invading again. /end

When people voted to drain the swamp, they knew the alligators - the high-profile D.C. power players, special interests, and safe seat senators-for-life - would be a problem. They underestimated the vast horde of smaller critters squirming in the muck at the bottom of the swamp.

More from John Hayward

More from Politics

You May Also Like