When Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts termed the think tank’s Project 2025 “the second American revolution,” the Left went into meltdown — something it has been doing daily over the past few weeks.
Roberts’ comments about a second American Revolution came while most Americans were enjoying backyard barbeques and watching fireworks celebrating the first American Revolution. Tossing off the yoke of oppressive government is imbedded in our DNA so what Roberts said was not very, well, revolutionary.
Ensuing coverage of Project 2025 was predictably distorted and demonized by Left-wing politicians and the sycophants in the legacy news media. In a nutshell, the goal of Project 2025 is to greatly diminish the role of the unelected bureaucrats in the executive branch frequently referred to as the deep state.
The Left has used the deep state to preserve and expand its power even during Republican presidential administrations. It is very much aware of the importance of maintaining its regulatory hold over every facet of our economy and hence our everyday lives. That Heritage has devised a vehicle for not only diminishing — but reversing — that power strikes at the core of the Left’s control of the federal government.
Exacerbating the Left’s reaction to Heritage’s blueprint for bringing the administrative state to heel is their loss of power and the looming loss of power in the other components of the federal government.
For many decades the Supreme Court of the United States was populated by activist justices who formed the last line of defense for Left-wing policies. The high court now sports a judicial majority guided by the Constitution rather than by political ideology. The result is a slow but steady erosion of the deep state’s powers.
The recent session of the high court resulted in rulings adverse to the deep state. Most notably the court ruled unconstitutional the so-called Chevron deference which gave federal agencies the power to adjudicate disputes arising from their own regulations. In effect for the past 40 years, Chevron was the equivalent of having the referees employed by one of the competing teams. As a result of the Chevron decision, such disputes must now be resolved by the judicial branch.
Congress has frequently purposefully passed vague laws ceding to regulatory agencies the job of filling in the details. The Supreme Court is saying that Congress must be more precise, especially when broad-based economic factors are at issue. In so doing the high court is taking power from unelected bureaucrats and returning it to our elected representatives.
The Left is also facing a loss of congressional power. This year one-third of the seats in the U.S. Senate are up for election. Democrats hold twice as many of those seats as Republicans. Currently, Democrats hold a one-seat majority in the upper chamber. Republicans are certain to flip the U.S. Senate seat in West Virginia. Ohio and Montana are states with incumbent Democrat senators up for election this year that were won by Donald Trump in 2020 and thus represent opportunity for Republicans.
Add in Democrat-held seats up for election in states won by Donald Trump in 2016 — Arizona, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan — and a formerly reliable Democrat seat in Maryland at risk due to the popularity of former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan — and odds are Republicans will win a senate majority.
Republicans currently hold a slim majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. There has been considerable jousting in several states over the drawing of congressional district lines, but that has essentially ended in a stand-off. Control of that chamber remains a toss-up.
Adding to Left-wing angst has been the implosion of President Joe Biden’s candidacy in the wake of his disastrous debate performance. Democrats have now engaged in weeks of infighting over whether or not Biden should remain at the top of the ticket. With the even less popular Vice President Kamala Harris as the most likely alternative, Democrats are currently in a death spiral with their nominating convention just weeks away.
Add all of this together and the deep state becomes the Left’s last bastion of power. Project 2025 flips the script and replaces the socialist agenda of the Left with policies designed to empower free markets and restore individual liberty. Thus the “Second American Revolution” renews the spirit of 1776.
Lowman S. Henry is Chairman & CEO of the Lincoln Institute and host of the weekly American Radio Journal and Lincoln Radio Journal. His e-mail address is lhenry@lincolninstitute.org.
No comments:
Post a Comment