Supreme Court Justices Sonta Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson provided a strong dissent of the more conservative justices overturning a 40-year precedent that gave deference to federal agencies when the meaning of statutes are ambiguous.  It will now be easier for businesses to bring lawsuits challenging agency actions.  They said this would cause “a massive shock to the legal system” by casting doubt on long-standing interpretations of law. (NBC Internet News).

The Heritage Foundation has provided a blueprint to Republican administrations for dismantling the so-called “deep state.”  The libertarian approach to government at all levels intends to do away with the power of federal agencies and cabinet positions of the Executive Branch to regulate business (i.e. “rich Republican donors”) to allow businesses to flourish without regulation, such as the need for protections for clean water, less protections for workers while on the job, less environmental protections while business does business (“as endangered species”) and less protection for consumers.  These changes would allow more harvesting of resources from Federal lands and diminishing of federal and agency oversight and including the Securities and Exchange Commission.  The implications for the nation are enormous.

The purpose of government has been defined in various ways:  one simple explanation is “to protect its people and keep society safe. A government should maintain order and stability.  If it fails to do this, a society will fall into chaos and its people will suffer.”  (Google).  Another, more specific definition says, “the main priorities of any government are protection of citizens, regulations of actions, and the preservation of good relations between itself and other states.” (Google)

None of these definitions discuss the nuances of what it means to have “good government” vs “bad government.”  Traditionally “good government” has liberated its citizens in “the pursuit of happiness” and not simply used their citizens as resources or “the means to produce wealth.”  The modern industrial state normally voluntarily harnesses the energy of its citizens and in return they receive payment which they in turn use to buy goods and services for themselves.  We can question and discuss how much work is “too much.”  We can celebrate those businesses which provide benefits for their employees (like health insurance, retirement savings plans).  We can, at least, for now, say we have federal guidelines that help ensure a safe workplace, and there are laws which govern what is overtime and the minimum wage.  We have OSHSA for workers’ safety.

If we change from what the Heritage Foundation and others call “the deep state,” what does that leave us, “a shallow state?”  As a nation, we are entering previously uncharted waters.  If we leave the “messiness of democracy” which is a slow deliberative process, in which ideas are debated for their worth “in the public forum” and instead adopt a project 2025 proposal drawn up by wealthy while men, will more than half of our citizens be excluded from the discussion?  The only way, in this case to enforce “the new order” will be to have an autocratic executive in charge who makes decisions for all the citizens.  Because of our fractured democracy, this strong executive will need to use existing authorities to enforce this new order, as the Police, the National Guard and the Military, all of which are available to be called out in an emergency.  It will not be difficult if both houses of Congress are of one party to concoct some type of national emergency to invoke “emergency powers for the strong Executive.”  The current plan of candidate Trump is to “start on day 1” following the election. We will recall at that time that the Supreme Court acquiesced their role as “protector of the people” and ceded this role to both houses of Congress and a strong executive without any checks on his power.  The current administration under President Biden is offering no challenge to this new plan.  President Biden should challenge this Supreme Court ruling on unlimited executive power by placing Donald Trump under arrest as “dangerous to the state, an enemy of democracy” and force the two houses of Congress to define what are the necessary powers of the Presidency and those which are not essential.  This would provide a test case for the Supreme Court which might later prevent Trump from weaponizing the Department of Justice and going after his “enemies” to punish them for perceived “slights to his overweening ego.”

Am I engaging in hyperbole to make a point?  I am not the first person to try to understand what is happening in our democracy!  Dark and dangerous times are coming with Trump at the helm of government!  The disenfranchised white men of power will finally get what they want!  But what about the rest of us?  The silent majority can now be called “the silent suffering majority!”

The average American citizen if more concerned about what he or she is having for the evening meal, whether he or she can afford a vacation this year and why interest rates are so high on used car loans than to be listening in the heart of the summer to rulings originating from the Supreme Court.

So, I offer this short commentary on July 5, 2024, the day after the celebration of our Independence from the British colonial rule to place my words in opposition and juxtaposition to the Heritage Foundation Project 2025.  As American citizens, we all want and hope for good government!  Buying a “pig in a poke”, an unknown so called “new revolution” of our American democracy and way of life feels in this case like we are being asked “to swallow a camel.”  I am not accustomed to trying to digest a camel!  The task, apparently, for the next four years will be determining how much diarrhea and indigestion this camel may cause.

The USA is now at full employment. The stock market is going up.  The wage being paid workers is rising in many cases, because there is demand for their essential skills.  This is an era when we have in place the most regulations for worker safety we have ever had.  Will our prosperity go away when we have “a shallower government?”  The proof as they say, “is in the pudding.”  Enjoy this new camel pate and the diarrhea which comes with it!

Bill Wilson, in service of democracy!