One way to think about the DOGE effort is it's an outgrowth of 20 years of hardliner conservatives frustrated by their inability to get the votes in Congress to do what they want to do. 1/
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
This is exactly right. The long term arc of history is progressing to a multi-ethnic democracy. Not perfect, but closer than before. THAT is what they fear. THAT is why they have to resort to illegal, unconstitutional means. We need to stop them. We do that by taking to the streets.
This is best description I’ve seen that captures what is happening. It accuses dems of doing it too, but with a SCOTUS increasingly conceding to unitary executive ideology, clearly dems were right to run on “democracy is at stake.” But voters didn’t care, not enough anyway, and here we are.
it's simple. piling up court orders. telling law enforcement E.O. doesn't supersede court orders. then if scotus bend their knees, national divorce. not many alternatives. btw senate GOP is driven by their policy objectives? no way.
So what's that all about? They favor conservatism over democracy. Meaning they favor despotism? Why would they ever submit to democracy if that's true?
They don't tend to, that's the point. They pretend to, but they're always undermining democracy in every way they can. They never submit to an actually fair vote.
They haven’t submitted willingly to democracy—just take a look at gerrymandering, voter restriction laws, Bush v Gore, etc. They feel right now that they have the greatest opportunity to escape and discard the system in 60+ years.
Here is Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, someone people thought might be “serious” and “responsible” enough to vote against Pete Hegseth, telling people to stop bellyaching about ignoring the Constitution. There are no serious and responsible Republicans anymore.
How embarrassing to be a constituent in North Carolina?! Stop your bellyaching! This MF’er is basically telling you to become a docile citizen and go pro fascist!
or you can think of it as a bunch of billionaires and wannabe billionaire Congress members not caring who dies in their money grab - helping the less fortunate or citizens is beneath them -
THE WORD IS SELFISH
THEIR GOALS ARE GREEDY
AND THEIR ACTIONS ARE PROPELLED BY RACIST HATE
A variation on that theme is that it is an attack on and rejection of representative democracy that the Republican party is for now fully on board with, which is far more alarming than conservative frustration.
The Republican Party use POWER when they get it. If the Dem leadership would've used the Power they were given by 81.2 million voters by passing the voting rights act n Build Back Better that would've improved the lives of Americans n not use the filibuster as an excuse a Dem would be in the WH 2day
Making every single Democratic Senator fall in line to better the lives of Americans n not let the Corporate donors, No Labels lobby the so called Problem Solver's Caucus to block REAL progress for Americans.
Except Dems and Biden was the most productive legislative time in decades w real projects for the American ppl. They did not blast that enough and msm sucked up to lying Trump & republicans & convinced enough of US to believe his lies.
Yeah, ok, probably right. But what's even more right and even more salient is that it's an effort to consolidate power and money in rich, straight, White, fake Christian men. It's wokeness for White supremacists, and Musk keeps telling us that. It is a cancer that will destroy itself along with us.
I think it goes back to the ‘60’s. Generations of voters have been exposed to and absorbed, hardline politics/religion and now they’re ok with oligarchs running the usa.
oligarchs wrote the constitution ... we've lived in a plutocratic oligarchy forever. But I agree, the US has been lulled since the 60s to even revere wealth. We may be on a cycle of resistance to seek power equality. It may be our turn to NOT be ok and have to mobilize. Voters! Still, a shame.
What we are seeing is the digital equivalent of the burning of the Reichstag. Trump intends to create mass chaos & then declare martial law. He's a stupid sociopath & must rely on what has worked well in the past. In this case, that means reading from Hitler's script. I wish this were hyperbole.
One can lie as conservatives have always done. They are the people who reported in the 20 century that the 100 black towns incinerated as...race riots. Those lies are how you accepted a grifter like Trump. Gaslighting killed Democracy.
I understand the point that this is outside of the legislative process because they'd never have the votes. Bits of what their doing the GOP has wanted for years but the people driving this train, they want something darker. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/21/curtis-yarvin-trump
So all those people who came to our districts and talked to us for all those years were always liars and cheats? Kind of amazing every last GOP rep and senator is on board. Maybe there is more to that story that even the Dems won’t tell.
Exactly. My Rep is Chip Roy. He has no ability to compromise. They are willingly trampling the Constitution to get what they're unable to get by following the rules.
Cutting taxes was as much about causing a deficit so they could argue that they needed to cut social programs as it was about reducing taxes to the electorate.
So cutting waste, graft, theft and redundancies is somehow strictly the domain of hardline conservatives.
I thought TDS was bad in this big cry room but MDS is worse.
So basically, as we know, we are dealing with toddlers throwing a temper tantrum in the middle of the Constitution. I think the toddlers need a time out and a nap.
If they had better, 𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘳 policies they'd get a proper vote from folks.
But instead they had to rely on votes from a monster of hate in the hopes they could control it once it got them into power.
I'd say they've already lost control of it.
Germans in the early 1930s made this very same mistake.
They're finding the unconstitutional cheat code of "if you hold a majority in the house of representatives the president can just Do Crimes and pardon other people who Do Crimes and then you just refuse to impeach him"
This can get much worse! The pardon power is the power to pardon somebody who commits murder in DC. I am specifically concerned about Democratic members of Congress. This can either actually be executed, or merely threatened, which would deny a democratic majority from meeting in Congress
Wow I didn't even think of that... indeed except for juveniles, all crimes in DC are federal so you theoretically could murder the Democratic caucus and be pardoned or have the DOJ case waived away by the President directly
The constitution article 1 section 5 prevents the House of Representatives from adjourning and relocating to any other place without the consent of the Senate, which I do not anticipate Democrats getting in 2026. Congress also has the power to compel attendance of absent members
Well, you know what? Democrats are frustrated that we can’t get the votes for universal healthcare. It’s frustrating. But I haven’t heard any Democrats advocate for an unelected billionaire to take over the Treasury in order to get it done.
Everyone in the American media can hyperventilate about this possibility and that possibility. But the truth is that the destruction of your constitutional democracy is happening right now despite all of the handwringing. It’s getting very close to too late.
When will the crunch come? With reconciliation (depending, I s'pose, on whether Vance rules on Byrd Rule PoO per the Parl or on his own), or on appropriations?
Of course even before FY 2026 bills, the FY2025 approps in March will fund agencies Trump will claim are dead. 🤷♂️
It's also indicative of the shift towards social darwinism that's not been reflected in the government so far. Basically, most of the "new wave" Silicon Valley billionaries are social darwinists - they believe that only the strongest, most cunning and most brutal should survive.
Elon Musk has held those beliefs for a long time and now that he's been given free reign over US government institutions, he's basically just implementing that view. Institutions protecting the weak from the strong? Dismantle. Help for the weak? Take away, give to the strong. And so on, and so on.
They also think it gives them deniability. They know these cuts are unpopular, so they don't have to go on the record making them. They hide behind the broad umbrella of "efficiency" and let Mu$k do the axe job, since he seems horrifyingly untouchable. F'ing cowards.
I figure there are GOP congressmen who are secretly against the coup and they plan to go along, wait it out, watch everything go in the toilet. Then the Dems come back into power and they can push for bipartisan work again and say they always wanted it.
Liberals have been frustrated by their inability to get the votes in Congress for more than 20 years, but you don't see them shredding the Constitution.
The political arc has done almost nothing but bend in conservatives’ direction since ‘80. What are you talking about? There have been social policy wins for progressives, but on balance, fiscal policy has been all wins for them since Reagan.
Right, but Heritage Foundation (and fellow travelers’) goal is to roll the US back before the New Deal. That’s what they call “winning.” Trump/Elon are talking about getting rid of the FDIC. Not popular. Never will be.
Sorry but that’s mostly been true just on taxes. Government spending has grown quite a bit in last 24 years. Medicare Part D, ACA, etc. and is near high end as % of GDP as baby boomers retired. The budget these people want is dramatically smaller.
Medicare Part D passed under Republican administration. The clause prohibiting price negotiations continues to high consumer costs and government spending.
Yes, and the hardline conservatives voted no on Part D and complained about it for years after. (Pence and RSC even proposed delaying it to pay for Katrina). This wing of party has been at war with Bush bigger govt wing since I started covering Congress 20 years ago.
But your argument only makes sense if DOGE was an actual govt agency created by legal means. It may not be your intention, but it sounds like you’re saying “conservatives got tired of not winning enough legally, so they’ve decided to just do it illegally instead” as if that’s rational.
Just say fascists, lead by a Nazi-nepo baby and his bad of incels, are trying to destroy anything good the government does, steal everything for themselves and ruin the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans.
I don't think this is entirely correct. This is definitely what Musk wants the Senate R's to think but it's clear from his staffing and actions that he has a broader goal in mind beyond cost cutting whether for foreign influencers, crypto-state aspirations, or white nationalism and genocide.
The Senate R's might not be all that smart, but some of them (particularly ones who have been in Congress for decades) must realize what's going on—and still they support it. They must be afraid of something more than just being primaried.
I never said they were decent people. I'm just trying to understand their behavior. They clearly want single-party rule, but did they all really sign up for global economic collapse? For handing national security to clowns? For pulling the plug on all scientific and medical research?
No: they've been slowly & determinedly WINNING: eroding our ability to understand & stop them,defunding education, infiltrating school boards, funding a fire hose of disinformation, virulent troll networks, manipulating media: inexorably gaining power over decades as people failed to pay attention.
And the *substance* of what they ‘want to do’ is to be able to tell everyone else what to do, but not have anyone tell them what to do; they want to define gender or who you can marry, but don’t care to be told to wear a mask or get a vaccine.
Yes, Republicans want Congress (through gerrymandered districts) only to keep it away from Dems. GOP really wants to legislate through Exec & Court Orders which they’ve always said they hated. Frauds every last one of them.
This is not your father's GOP. Right wing populists took over the Republican party and their agenda is, in many ways, quite different from that of "traditional" Republicans.
Actually conservatives have gotten almost everything they’ve wanted since like 1980. But, like someone once said about the money hoarder, they’re “in the same situation as a world conqueror, who discovers a new boundary with each country he annexes.”
The rich have gotten everything they want. The WWC keeps stupidly voting GOP even though there's nothing actually in for them other than hurting people they don't like.
I think another way to think of the DOGE effort—and here me out—is it’s a fascist coup d’état from over 40 years of wanting to have complete control over the US government, society, and economy, without needing to negotiate in Congress or dealing with elections to limit or interrupt their power.
WE'RE HERE FOR THE RUMBLE.
It's a time for fierce compassion. Be fierce, do an activity everyday. It's self care. Be the rain, the howling wind, and the mountainous wave. Be the storm. Pass it on.
Deleting the Department of Education is not a new idea, but they don't have the votes to do that. Same with CFPB, USAID, food stamps, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and on and on. 2/
I think the legislative branch gave up their reigns to executive. The whole system is up side down. We legislate with EOs now. Why? Because the parties took over. Parties rule, not our legislative branches. I don’t think our system is supposed to work like this.
Yes, of course, because they are voting as a whole party not as individuals working for constituents. They follow party ideology.
And if we are as polarized as we are, nothing gets done. Digging deep down in crevices of my memory, I think Washington wasn’t a supporter of parties either.
. . . and their legislative window is closing. Just a matter of time before Trump's wish list for billionaires collides on Capitol Hill with the economic interests of working-class constituents.
99% of the time, Congress requires bipartisan supermajorities to do anything thanks to the Senate's 60-vote filibuster rule. It's very hard to kill something that one of the two parties likes. And getting votes is usually a question of spreading sugar, not broccoli. 4/
An interestingly underrated aspect of this is how discourse around killing the filibuster spiked during Biden’s term when Democratic priorities were stalled in the senate. I’m curious if the same discourse exists within the Republican Party.
Isn’t it also the case that members love talking about cuts in the abstract or when they know it won’t happen because they know their schools, hospitals, counties, cities, nonprofits, local businesses, etc - whether red or blue - will face big cuts and losses?
The Dems are at a disadvantage because their constituents tell them what policies they prefer. The Republicans have to listen to Leonard Leo and the self-appointed Minority Rule-rs. $ buys kompromat, $ buys espionage and sabotage, $ buys fake grassroots movements, $ buys compliance, $ buys souls.
Every so often, one party or another gets a trifecta that gives them a limited opportunity to force something through. That new thing is then only really vulnerable if the other party then gets a trifecta and unifies to delete it. 5/
“Force something through”? , “one party or another”? This reads like bothsidesism. Both parties do not take advantage of the occasional period of unified power to smash all the laws and throw out the Constitutional order.
This GOP trifecta is extraordinarily shaky, with the smallest House majority in close to 100 years, and the Russ Vought wing of the GOP — those that have wanted deep spending cuts for a generation — have lost again and again and again. 6/
they’re going to lose this time to, and after all their deluded stupidity and the resulting chaos works its way through the system and the damage becomes apparent they’re going to be permanently marginalized, the ‘trump shocks’ is their permanent destruction
This was really the point of that histrionic "Flight 93 election" article they wrote. "We keep losing in the system of fair and free elections with separation of powers, so we must destroy the system."
Thing is, they now know that their votes are unnecessary…
All that is ‘needed’ to run the country is an EO or a verbal order.
It’s easy when the party and the guy running the place don’t follow the Constitution or the law.
They’ll soon find out *they* are unnecessary…
This would be a bad way to think about it because it’s actually the end result of a carefully laid decades long plan that started with Nixon underlings, mainly Gingrich, and conservative idealogues, mainly Limbaugh. This is historical revisionism here dude
Well it’s kind of Schrödinger’s Tyranny at this point! We don’t exactly KNOW if you can “just do it”. But somebody’s really trying! The Fucking Around has definitely commenced, and now we await the Time of the Finding Out. When and if it arrives is the real thing, isn’t it?
Yeah just one of those paradoxes, or fundamental truths or whatever. Easier to break stuff than build stuff. Entropy is natural and organization is hard. You still want to be on the right side, so it is what it is.
I assume, but still wonder if, historically, the "right side" has always taken more time; that is, been the organized side. Just thoughts, which I tend to use to repress fears.
20 years? You haven't been paying attention. The New Deal triggered them 90 years ago. The Great Society moved the racist Dixiecrats to the Republicans. Then the Seven Mountains Mandate in '75, and, in '81, the Heritage Foundation's Mandate for Leadership, the precursor to Project 2025.
Better look it up quickly — before Google removes all references to it. Or, use the DuckDuckGo search engine. Go further and look up the Fellowship Foundation, a/k/a "The Family." That's a bunch or "Christians" in Congress and the Executive. Or Opus Dei, if you want to get really scared.
2/. Speaking of "The Family," they sponsor the Nat'l Prayer Breakfast, at which exalted "Christian" Donold Trump "prayed" (preyed?) the other day, what do you suppose they were "praying" for? Prob'ly wasn't democracy.
"It's a big club, and you ain't in it."
— George Carlin
True on culture in that, for example, pushback against DEI becomes a new push forward toward White Christian Nationalist hegemony. That passes the center at a full ass run and dives enthusiastically into alt right extremism=fascism. So it’s not the ordinary swinging pendulum but a change in gravity.
Roe v. Wade was overturned during the tenure of a Democratic president. Democrats were unable to pass the Equality Act through the Senate because members of their own party didn't want it. Joe Lieberman, who caucused with the Democrats, killed the public option in the ACA.
You're not wrong, exactly; the far right has had a hard time getting big-ticket items through Congress. But they've been slowly, steadily getting what they want since 1980, they just want more of it and faster.
Sorry but I think that take is just wrong. Hardline Rs wanted Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid cuts (Medicare and Medicaid have actually been expanded), they wanted a mini-me federal government - civilian workforce has never been higher - they didn’t want climate bill, ACA, Dodd-Frank
They also wanted to ban gay marriage in the Constitution, ban flag burning in the Constitution, end birthright citizenship, deport all here without authorization, mandate E-Verify, ban most abortions - there is a long list of items they have failed to get the votes to do.
Social spending as share of GDP has slowed since 1980 and is lower than almost every other rich nation. As for “culture” it depends what you mean. Most of the liberalization has taken place within a libertarian ideological framework of individual freedoms at the expense of collective solidarities
Spending is near all-time highs as a % of GDP, marriage equality is law of land, libertines getting their way (slowly) on marijuana, etc. A very long way from PMRC and the Meese Report. Support for interracial marriage was 50% in 1996 it is now ~90% and rising. But pendulum now swinging …
The pendulum isn’t swinging, it’s being yanked backward by those who fear its course. This isn’t a natural shift but a forced, frantic jerk against progress. History shows such resistance is fleeting; the pendulum always reclaims its momentum, often with greater force.
spending lots of money is what the GOP loves to do when its for wars. they got to cut Social Security, IRS, and other agencies to the bone, where they functionally don't have the manpower to do work
I think the filibuster really only protects the senators from having to take an actual stance on legislation.
It’s easy to say you support something when you know it doesn’t have 60 votes to pass. They keep the filibuster to prevent real reform, which the majority of the country is clamoring for.
One of the bigger issues isn't the 60-vote rule but the inability to get a vote on popular legislation at all. Without unanimous consent it can take a week or more just to bring a bill or even *an amendment* up for a vote. In the old days, filibusters were extremely rare. Now it is every day.
Lucrative tax breaks, immigration exceptions, preferential intellectual property laws, liability immunities. They always want more. There’s never enough with freaks like Andreesen, Theil, Musk.
That’s why when Dems are back in (either by force or by vote) they should change the structure of government, making it effectively illegal to have unpopular opinions
I think the degree to which Republicans sign off on the destruction of the major research institutions in their states will be instructive. That's a pretty clear cutting off the nose to spite the face move - not seeing signs they'll step in.
Comments
American conservatives cheat: 1789-present.
https://archive.ph/0dOP6
Democracy is ok as long as they can control it.
40 years of losing the popular vote is pretty solid evidence that they could not.
Putin has known the feckless, incompetent Tea Party Reps gaining power would be the thing that destroyed America.
He funded them.
THE WORD IS SELFISH
THEIR GOALS ARE GREEDY
AND THEIR ACTIONS ARE PROPELLED BY RACIST HATE
https://bsky.app/profile/504spyboy.bsky.social/post/3lgxx6g5wr22u
How do you think they shpuld have gotten around it?
I thought TDS was bad in this big cry room but MDS is worse.
Republicans have been trying to cut welfare since Reagan said “welfare queens from Chicago were driving Cadillacs”
But instead they had to rely on votes from a monster of hate in the hopes they could control it once it got them into power.
I'd say they've already lost control of it.
Germans in the early 1930s made this very same mistake.
Keep fighting!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFZHYw3shkf/?igsh=MXZ6czZuc200enNyZQ==
That's the whole game: they want to be aristocrats.
omegas
geeks
extraordinaire
Of course even before FY 2026 bills, the FY2025 approps in March will fund agencies Trump will claim are dead. 🤷♂️
https://billmoyers.com/content/the-powell-memo-a-call-to-arms-for-corporations/
This is no conservatism.
John Adams could smell this bullshit 250 years away
See Constitution Article I Section 8 Clause 18:
https://oversight.house.gov/report/a-constitutional-obligation-congressional-oversight-of-the-executive-branch/
https://www.thenerdreich.com/reboot-elon-musk-ceo-dictator-doge/
🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯
Project 2025 is just their latest iteration of his master plan for a christofascist theocratic state based on dominionism and manifest destiny.
Welcome to the United States of Gilead.
Going to spring training (FL west coast) at the end of the month
It's a time for fierce compassion. Be fierce, do an activity everyday. It's self care. Be the rain, the howling wind, and the mountainous wave. Be the storm. Pass it on.
This way is much closer to the truth.
And if we are as polarized as we are, nothing gets done. Digging deep down in crevices of my memory, I think Washington wasn’t a supporter of parties either.
All that is ‘needed’ to run the country is an EO or a verbal order.
It’s easy when the party and the guy running the place don’t follow the Constitution or the law.
They’ll soon find out *they* are unnecessary…
Wild shit.
"It's a big club, and you ain't in it."
— George Carlin
It’s as if women count for nothing.
Harris opted to campaign with Cheney.
The only trans person in Congress is a Dem who called trans issues a distraction.
That's just 2024, Steven.
It’s easy to say you support something when you know it doesn’t have 60 votes to pass. They keep the filibuster to prevent real reform, which the majority of the country is clamoring for.