DOGE vs FEDERAL LEVIATHAN

 

[Published on Newsmax]

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is igniting widespread support for a long overdue assault on bloated and obsolete Executive Branch programs and agencies.

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are applying advanced thinking and technology to eradicate unauthorized programs, “zombie” accounts”, and reclaim unexpended funds.  Their use of artificial or enhanced intelligence will reveal patterns of waste, fraud and abuse by mining years of Inspector General Reports and fraud hotline complaints. This pattern analysis will drive abolition, consolidation, and downsizing.

Finding the right court case and venue for overturning the unconstitutional Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (Public law 93-344) will be integral to reining in wanton spending.

Citizen Oversight: BUDGET BATTLES

DOGE can build a national movement, and internal government network, to fundamentally change the Federal Government’s mindset and culture for decades to come.  DOGE is posed to have more impact on America’s domestic policy than any other initiative since the 1960s Great Society.

A NATIONAL MOVEMENT

DOGE is the framework.  “War on Waste” (WOW) could be their battle cry. 

Everyone has stories of federal government waste, fraud, and abuse (WFA).  Finding federal waste is like “hunting cows”.  It is everywhere and obvious.

DOGE could ask Americans to “blow the whistle” on WFA.  An online form would identify the program, WFA evidence, and estimated cost.  Everyone who submits a credible WFA case would earn a digital “Waste Warrior” (WW) badge to proudly display.  Best WFA submissions, and the WW heroes who found them, could be featured each month, maybe on the DOGE podcast.  DOGE, WOW, WW, WFA merchandise could become cultural icons.

Grassroots WOW clubs and online communities could further embolden Americans to expose waste nationwide.  These could partner with existing government reform groups like Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) and Open the Books.

THE INSIDERS

DOGE needs to work through allies within the Executive Branch to find additional WFA and to implement tangible and lasting change.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) should be the central command center for implementing DOGE recommendations.   The appointment of Russell Vought is a terrific first step.  He will need to build a team within OMB to be fully effective.

Trump should reconstitute Ronald Reagan’s “Cabinet Council on Management and Administration” (CCMA) to drive DOGE reforms through the Executive Branch.  Reagan’s Counselor, Ed Meese, used the CCMA to hold agencies accountable for meeting domestic policy goals, cutting costs, and reducing personnel.  Each Cabinet Department and major agency had a full-time CCMA liaison to make sure these goals were met.

Insider whistleblowers are increasingly stepping forward.  They need to become the network to aid DOGE and identify additional WWs throughout the Executive Branch.

Another pro-DOGE network are career employees who have received graduate credits, degrees, and certificates from conservative academic institutions.  The Institute of World Politics (IWP), founded in 1990 by Reagan National Security officials, has seeded the defense and intelligence agencies with their graduates, all ready to make America strong again.  Since 2010, Hillsdale College’s Washington, DC campus has offered degrees in government to early and mid-career government employees.  Hillsdale College has been a bulwark of constitutional conservatism since 1844.

Trump’s non-career appointees, DOGE advisors, CCMA liaisons, and career allies need to make sure they quickly achieve full knowledge of Executive Branch operations.  The entrenched bureaucracy will fight reform with all resources at their disposal, which are substantial. 

One proven method is “management by walking around”.  It is amazing what can be exposed, and stopped, using this basic approach.  Early in the Reagan Administration, a political appointee visited ACTION’s loading dock.  They discovered crates of the book “Rules for Radicals” by Leftist Saul Alinsky being readied for distribution to community organizations across the nation. The shipment was stopped and the books either returned to the publisher or destroyed.

In another instance, a government warehouse manager asserted he needed to buy twelve additional forklifts to meet the tighter response time for shipping supplies.  A political appointee did a surprise inspection finding twenty inactive forklifts because there were not enough certified operators.  The manager was immediately fired.

Insiders can review contracts.  Outsiders must file Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests that will be slow-walked by the bureaucracy. 

Most federal contracts are poorly written and ineptly managed. This is intentional, as kick-backs and crony capitalism rule the day.  In one bizarre case, the General Services Administration (GSA) signed a multi-million contract to renovate the eighth-floor utility rooms at their headquarters.  An audit revealed the building only had seven floors. The contracting officer certified the fictious work was done, money was paid and split with the contractor. The contracting officer and contractor went to jail. 

Whether we love a program or hate it, we want every penny spent honestly, ethically, and effectively. 

DOGE could be the bi-partisan crusade that unites all Americans.

MUSK vs FEDERAL LEVIATHAN

 

[Published in the Sunday Guardian of India and Newsmax]

The United States (U.S.) must confront Federal Government spending.  U.S. national debt is now $35.7 trillion USD.  This is larger than the country’s $29 trillion USD Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Paying interest on the debt now exceeds $658 billion USD a year.  This debt service is becoming an increasingly large part of annual spending for the Federal Government.

Reducing the size and cost of government is a major priority for former President, Donald Trump.

He is promoting Elon Musk’s plan to find and cut trillions of dollars in Federal Government waste.

Musk will only succeed if he moves boldly and learns from the past.  His current plan to build a bureaucracy to fight bureaucracy will end in frustration.

The Federal bureaucracy has fended off countless similar efforts.

In 1982, President Ronald Reagan established something similar to Musk’s proposed effort.  The Grace Commission was charged with identifying and eradicating waste. Reagan first used the phrase, “Drain the Swamp” as part of the Commission’s mission.

Businessman, J. Peter Grace, formed the President’s Private Sector Survey for Cost Control (PPSSCC) as a separate organization funded by private sources. Over 150 prominent business leaders volunteered their time as overseers and members of the PPSSCC Task Forces. Its 36 task forces generated 2,478 recommendations that identified $424 billion USD ($1,243 billion in 2024 value) to be saved in three years. Congress ignored them all. 

Earlier government waste initiatives include the 1974-76 Commission on Federal Paperwork.  It was designed to assess paperwork burdens and implement the Paperwork Reduction Act.  The Commission employed hundreds of people to review government forms and processes.

This was my first job in Washington, DC.  As a graduate student at American University, I was a management analyst for the Housing Task Force.  One of my most surreal findings was a 36 foot (12 meter) long flow chart for applying to build government subsidized housing. The report’s 800 recommendations were issued and vanished.  Very few of the recommendations were implemented.

Vice President Al Gore led the “National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR)” initiative under President Bill Clinton.  It intended “to make the federal government work better, cost less, and get results Americans care about". During its five years, it was a catalyst for several operational changes, including the elimination of over 100 programs, the use of performance measurements, and expanding technology.

However, it promised savings of $207 billion USD never materialized.

There are other ways to rein in government waste.  They just haven’t been used.

Every year, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and 73 Department and Agency based Inspector General Offices issue reports.  Annually they uncover over $650 billion USD in waste.   These reports include recommended actions.  Virtually none of them are implemented.

One example: Improper payments (payments that are made incorrectly) cost the U.S. over $200 billion USD a year. The GAO estimates that the U.S. government has lost almost $2.4 trillion USD in simple payment errors over the last two decades.  No action has been taken.

Every year outsiders expose government waste.

Senator Rand Paul issues his Annual “Festivus Report” each December.  It focuses on dubious grants and contracts.  His 2023 report revealed the U.S. government paid $900 billion for worthless research, fraudulent claims, and subsidies to domestic millionaires and foreign tyrants. Some of his specific findings included: an National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to study Russian cats walking on a treadmill, Barbies used as proof of ID for receiving COVID Paycheck Protection Program funds, $6 million to promote tourism in Egypt, and $200 million to ‘struggling artists’ like Post Malone, Chris Brown, and Lil Wayne.

Dr. Rand Paul Releases 2023 ‘Festivus’ Report on Government Waste - Senator Rand Paul

Senator James Lanford issues his “Federal Fumbles Report” that highlights laughable waste.

Federal Fumbles - Senator James Lankford

Citizens Against Government Waste’s annual “Pig Book” illuminates questionable earmarks (now called Congressionally Directed Spending).

2024 Congressional Pig Book | Citizens Against Government Waste

The challenge is not finding the waste, but actually doing something about it.

There are steps that should be taken.

Step One – Clean House 

The U.S. Government’s Executive Branch includes mostly career personnel. They are selected through a competitive application process.  Once past a probationary period they can only be removed for cause. 

However, there are thousands of Executive Branch personnel who hold “policy positions” and are not eligible for career status protection.  These individuals are appointed by the President and his Office of Presidential Personnel (OPP).  They are “at will” employees and may be removed at any time for any reason.  The listing of these policy positions is known as the “Plum Book”.  It lists around 8,000 personnel that have limited or no career protection. 

As Director of Personnel for the Reagan Campaign and Transition, I looked at organizational charts for all career personnel who directly reported to policy officials or worked in policy offices.  There were also hundreds of agency and programmatic advisory boards and committees with their own support staff.  All of these people, upwards of 50,000, can be transferred or reassigned to clear operational pathways.

Only the Reagan Transition of 1980-81 completely cleared the policy and operational pathways.  This allowed the “Reagan Revolution” to move rapidly on a broad front to fundamentally change U.S. domestic and foreign policy.

An incoming Presidential Administration usually asks for the resignations from every political appointee from the prior administration.  However, some do not comply.  Other “holdovers” find career positions.  Some create consulting arrangements to remain on the public payroll.

The Executive Branch is awash with contractors. Many of them owe their allegiance to prior administrations. All have a vested interest in garnering more money for themselves.  A detailed review of these contracts and contractors can empty out large swaths of those loyal to the “status quo”.  Many of these contracts may be poorly written and administered.  Some may have no real value.  Ending these contracts will save billions.

Step Two – Take Control

A new President is like a ship’s captain.  They stand on the ship’s bridge to control its course.  In reality, this “captain” initially has no control beyond the bridge.  The size and complexity of the Federal Government hampers any change of course.  Too many activities have lives of their own, managed by individuals who are wedded to the “status quo”.

A new President needs to insert “Change Teams”, professionals skilled and committed to making the new Administration an immediate operational reality, into all Cabinet Departments and major agencies to instantly end the previous era.  This means full control of every key decision.  This covers all legal, regulatory, procurement, personnel, grants, and expenditures.

Nothing should happen until signed off by the Change Teams. 

Locking everything down also means revoking all delegations of authority and forcing every action, communication, and policy into the hands of the Change Teams immediately.  The Change Teams must literally patrol the corridors and rattle doorknobs to make sure no one is extending the actions of the prior era.  The first few days of Reagan’s Presidency found numerous examples of career employees refusing to yield.  In one case, a grant administrator had to be physically stopped from approving $350,000 USD of Carter era grants still sitting on his desk.

Bringing in new people who are loyal and competent is vital.  So is finding and promoting their career counterparts.  Whistleblowers exposed many problems during the Biden-Harris Administration.  They should become key advisors for identifying career allies and ferreting out resistance.

Both Republican and Democrat political appointees complain that their career colleagues often hide, spin, or fake facts.  This is not partisan.  Careerists want to protect their power, turf, reputation, and pet projects.  In many cases, careerists go through the motions of supporting the new Administration without doing anything.  Discovering and thwarting “Malicious Compliance” is a major challenge. This even happens within the Office of the President as this organization is filled with career employees. 

The transition planning process needs to start identifying trusted colleagues ASAP.  These may be whistleblowers who will embrace change, and confidential sources who have already proven themselves credible to Congress and media allies.  This first wave of trusted professionals identifies those they trust, and so on, until there is a critical mass to substantively shift policy and operational direction throughout the Executive Branch.

Step Three – Follow the Money

Approximately $1.028 trillion USD remains unexpended among general accounts and $461 billion USD remains unspent in trust funds.  While these funds are technically obligated, the fact that they have languished for years raises questions about their use and management.  These funds can be reclaimed and reused.

Look for the accounting code “1941” on federal agency accounts.  This code is for “unexpired unobligated balances”.  Another database is expired grant accounts. The GAO uncovered 7,500 just in Department of Health & Human Services’ Payment Management System.  Thousands of lapsed grant accounts are briming with money that will never be used but can be reclaimed.

The late Senator, Tom Coburn, exposed these funds in a detailed report, “Money for Nothing”. Nothing was done.  The U.S. media ignored his findings.

Microsoft Word - MONEY FOR NOTHING June 6 - final

Another code is the “Current Services Budget”, or “Baseline” budget. This outlines how much it costs to maintain existing services at current levels. It factors in various cost drivers - cost of living increases, escalation clauses in contracts, etc. Funding above “Current Service” is a spending increase.  This is a built in “ratchet effect” to expanding government.

Step Four – Eliminate Programs

Congress is the headwaters of expanding government.  Every year new programs, entities, and reporting requirements are established.  Members from both parties jealously guard their progeny.

Reviewing which ones are obsolete and duplicative may shame some in Congress to let them fade away.  Some may have lost their protection as their creator has left Congress. It took years for the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process to eliminate obsolete facilities.

Abolition opportunities abound for those programs directly created by the Executive Branch.  These have no basis in law but are created under the concept of “management by news release”. One day stories that result in never ending wasteful activity.  Other programs are training projects to promote specific ideological ends, such as climate change, critical race theory, and transgender awareness.

Eliminating whole Agencies and Departments requires more courage than exists in Congress. 

Step Five – Reduce Personnel

Instituting a real hiring freeze will rapidly drop numbers through retirements and “churn” (people leaving government to take nongovernment jobs).  Special exemptions will be required as specific vacancies for performing real tasks arise.  These waivers should only be granted by the Change Teams. Do not conduct mass firings or “Reduction in Force” (RIFs).  This triggers an array of procedural impediments and legal actions.

Reagan’s General Services Administration (GSA) cut nearly two thirds of its workforce in three years using a hiring freeze without a RIF. No legal action occurred.

Congress establishes programs and organizations, but rarely details how they are staffed or managed.  This is the best opportunity to delayer, reduce, and consolidate.

The private sector has found that 2-5 layers of management are more than adequate to assure success. Corporate performance “dashboards”, knowledge management, and empowering/enabling front line workers led to abolishing the antiquated concepts of span of control, pecking order, and fiefdoms.  It is time for the Federal Government to join the 21^st Century and eliminate up to 23 layers of obsolete command & control supervisors, countless numbers of extraneous planning staffs, and unnecessary program overseers. 

Americans deserve value from every dollar spent. 

They rarely receive even $0.12 USD of value per $1.00 USD. 

Many dollars spent generate no value at all.

It is long overdue to fight Federal Government waste and win.

 

TRUMP's PERSONNEL BLINDNESS

 

[Published in Trump’s blind spot - The Sunday Guardian Live]

Republicans are rejoicing that Donald Trump says he has learned lessons from his first term and will unleash a full-scale assault on big government and the Deep State.  Democrats are raising alarms that Trump will exceed his powers to wreak vengeance and settle personal scores.  Trump’s recent musing about being a “one-day dictator” inflamed his critics and enraptured his supporters.

They will all be disappointed.

President Trump completely failed at personnel.  He never grasped the concept that “people are policy”. Unfortunately, Trump and his transition planners are already ignoring this maxim and heading for disaster.

Many of the people being discussed for Trump’s second term were ineffective in the first. Learning from one’s mistakes is a key to successful leadership.  It is not happening.

Trump and his Second-Term planners continually refuse to look to the Reagan Transition (1980-81) for inspiration and its leaders for advice.  The Reagan Transition is considered the best planned and executed transition in history.  Even liberal historians admit this. Its success was based on ideological alignment of all participants and a clear plan for how Reagan’s Revolution would become an operational reality. 

During the 2016 campaign and transition, Trump and his advisors repeatedly ignored those who led the Reagan transition.  Eventually, some of these experienced “Reaganites’ were allowed into his transition, but in minor roles.  Their detailed reports and recommendations were tossed aside.

Instead, Trump relied on former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus.  Trump felt he had to reward them for defending him at critical points in the 2016 Presidential Campaign.  However, they filled his transition and White House with their friends drawn from Bush, McCain, and Romney political circles.  These Christie/Priebus cronies never respected Trump or supported his populist, “America First” policies.  They went onto to undermine Trump at every turn.

Trump was his own worst enemy.  He shut out potential allies among the Reaganites and welcomed anti-Trump activists.  He compounded his mistakes by not filling key positions, thinking this crippled the bureaucracy.  Instead, it empowered the Deep State players, as no one was monitoring them.

The result was Trump never achieving operational control of the Executive Branch.  Obama holdovers remained astride key functions. “Washington Swamp” operatives pursued their own agendas.  Disloyal appointees, even among his senior staff, leaked sensitive information and ingratiated themselves with the opposition media.

There were attempts during Trump’s final year in office to correct these strategic mistakes.  They failed.  Biden was handed the gift of leftist programs, policies, projects, hires, and contracts that were started while Trump was still in office.  Trump’s last wave of loyalists was blindsided because there were too few placed in the wrong places.

Except for judicial appointments, Trump’s legacy was swept away.  America, and the world, are suffering the consequences.

The opportunity to bring fundamental, and lasting, change to the Executive Branch during Trump’s second term is already slipping away.

Planning for the next Republican Administration is fragmented among five competing organizations: The Heritage Foundation, the Center for Renewing America (CRA), Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI), Personnel Policy Organization (PPO), and the America First Policy Initiative (AFPI).

Besides duplicating effort, these five entities are competing with each other to raise millions of dollars to finance their operations.  They conveniently ignore that volunteers prepared for the 1980 Reagan Revolution and that the Reagan Transition’s federal support was supplemented by only $2 million in private funds from his “Kitchen Cabinet”.

The Trump Transition money chase has led to leaking detailed plans to the media. News outlets have published insider accounts of private meetings and decisions. The transition planning groups hope donors will be impressed with their proposed actions and write big checks. It is like General Eisenhower leaking plans for the Normandy Invasion to promote WWII War Bonds.

Leaking details may inspire donors, but it allows opponents to develop counter measures. It violates timeless wisdom, “boast when coming from battle, not going to it”.

They are ignoring a fundamental truism: change occurs because there is a mandate.  These competing organizations, along with Republicans everywhere, need to be making the case for their revolution.  Otherwise, they may not gain traction for their plans, and even lose the 2024 election.

Trump’s key strategy is to remove merit system protections for thousands of career government employees.  His advisors dismiss the fact that this could be derailed by Congress (if in Democrat hands) and the courts.  However, retroactively removing protections is probably unconstitutional.

Trump likes “blunt instruments” to get his way.  Reagan’s appointees “sweated the details” to establish complete control of the Executive Branch.  His appointees, and their political staff, thoroughly studied each agency and methodically implemented substantive and sustainable change.

Establishing a compelling mandate for change, and effectively implementing it, can be summarized by the “SARS” strategy: Stop; Abolish; Reverse; Streamline.

Every day, until the election, a vivid case must be made to:

-       Stop Biden’s Leftist assault on America. Detailed lists of executive orders, policy memos, budget plans, regulations, court cases, hires and contracts must be compiled and exposed.  Every agency and program must be searched.

-       Abolish every entity and program started by Biden and Obama.  We must roll back big government back to at least 2009.

-       Reverse Biden/Obama decisions, especially personnel.  Most Americans don’t realize there are countless advisory boards within each department and agency that shape policy.  Their members are selected by agency heads not the President. Reagan established a special unit to select loyalists for these panels.

-       Streamline the Executive Branch. Republicans should cite hundreds of reports generated by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the 74 Inspectors General among Departments and agencies. Each one exposes waste, fraud, and abuse, which can guide revolutionary change.

These “SARS” actions are opportunities to educate and motivate voters to elect a Republican President, Senate, and House in 2024.  Ignoring them places America’s future in jeopardy.

Scot Faulkner served as Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives. He was Director of Personnel for the 1980 Reagan Campaign, served on the Presidential Transition team, and on Reagan’s White House Staff.  He currently advises corporations on strategic change.

 

 

GERALD CARMEN - LEGACY OF A LEADER

 

In March 1980, President Ronald Reagan asked Jerry Carmen to lead the General Services Administration (the GSA).

At the time the GSA was the Federal Government’s most corrupt and wasteful agency. 

Jerry’s mission, direct from President Reagan, was to clean-up the GSA or shut it down. 

Three years later the GSA had dropped from 36,000 employees to 12,000, thanks to the most thorough hiring freeze instituted under Reagan.

The GSA’s duplicative offices and obsolete operations were gone.

In its place was the best run Federal Agency in 1984. 

Jerry saved tens of billions of taxpayer dollars.

This is how bad it got. 

An employee cabal orchestrated an insider contract scam to renovate the 8^th Floor Utility Rooms at the GSA Headquarters Building.

It wasn’t until they requested a contract extension that people remembered the GSA Headquarters only had seven floors.

Jerry created a secure “war room” where we placed the entire GSA organization on its walls.

We then rolled plastic sheets over the personnel charts.  Using grease pencils, we “x-ed” out offices and operations that were flagged by Inspector General Reports and Whistle Blowers, marking them for extinction.  

Once personnel actions were recorded, we erased the notations.

When Leftist Congresswoman, Pat Schroeder, demanded our work files we were able to honestly say there were none.

Jerry was “laser focused” on his mission.

A Union official met with Jerry to protest the hiring freeze.

A few minutes into the meeting, Jerry picked up the bowl of Jelly Belly candy on his desk and began picking out and eating the red ones.

The Union official noticed this and commented, “You really like those red ones.  What makes them so special?”

Jerry answered, “The meeting is over when the red ones are gone”.

Jerry’s main achievement was creating a business-based culture grounded in honesty and integrity.

The Director of the Springfield Supply Depot called Jerry declaring that he needed to buy 12 additional forklifts to meet the new work deadlines.

Jerry immediately drove himself to the Depot.  He rushed past the guards and raced through the warehouse counting twenty idle forklifts. 

The Director was immediately removed from his position and fired within the week.

Jerry embodied the commitment to excellence, the courage of convictions, and the bravery of a true leader. 

Jerry’s accomplishments, and how he accomplished them, will inspire generations to come.

COUNTRY HEIST

 

[Published in the Sunday Guardian of India]

Americans are bewildered.  Everywhere they look the Left is prevailing.  Every day, the Left makes progress throughout the political landscape.  At the same time Republicans seem to no longer be Republicans.  Real conservatives fight holding actions but remain steps behind the Left’s next offensive. The victories are silenced behind a wall of Leftist media.

This is happening by design, based upon a century old strategic plan. 

To better understand what is happening consider the truism that “Life imitates art”. 

“Money Heist” is a terrific series.  It is the most watched Netflix series in history, topping the charts in 190 countries. For five seasons, this Spanish language thriller has drawn in its audience with plot twists, sex, humor, and iconic Salvador Dali masks. A mastermind, the “Professor”, plans and achieves two audacious robberies by preparing years before they occur.  He positions people, structures, tunnels, and equipment that come into play at the right time. Spanish security officials remain baffled and outwitted at every turn.

“Money Heist” delivers great entertainment, but it also delivers great insights.  The Left achieved their heist of America with decades of planning and positioning in advance of their takeover.

In 1927, Stuart Chase, one of the founding members of President Franklin Roosevelt’s (FDR) “Brain Trust”, met with Stalin and Trotsky to gain inspiration for taking over America. In his 1932 “New Deal” book Chase mused, “Why should the Russians have all the fun of remaking the world?” Citizen Oversight: THE TERRAFORMING OF AMERICA

Guided by Chase’s vision, the Left set about to methodically capture America’s cultural levers.  Hollywood fell first. Most news media fell by the late 1960s. Print media was corrupted from the start. Pro-America outlets, like Time Magazine, succumbed as their conservative founders retired or died. Academia was conquered during the 1960s in the wake of the “free speech movement” and then the anti-Vietnam War protests.

Corporations were colonized by the Left starting in the 1970s through control of Human Resources. The Left’s insertion of people resulted in Wokism and Environmental Social Governance (ESG) dominating leading businesses.

During the 1980s, the Left targeted 13,452 school districts. Leftist teachers replaced moderate pro-American teachers as they retired.  These Leftist teachers promoted revisionist history supported by new textbooks like Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States”, which became the standard high school textbook for a generation.

Once history became the Left’s “etch-a-sketch” they could alter facts at will.  They methodically demonized all that is good about our nation through the 1619 Project, Critical Race Theory (CRT) and their variants. Citizen Oversight: THE LEFT’s FINAL SOLUTION

The Left downplays commemorations that reinforce American exceptionalism and our founding values.  They have inserted competing anniversaries that are a drumbeat of Leftist iconography. Citizen Oversight: ASSAULT ON JULY 4th

Mundane commemorations, such as “Heritage Months” for various demographics, have become vehicles for Leftist indoctrination.  In West Virginia, the most conservative Republican state, public school leaders promoted Che Guevara as their 2022 role model for Hispanic Heritage Month.

Conservatives bear some blame.  They never made September 17, Constitution Day, a national holiday.  They allowed President Nixon to eliminate Washington’s and Lincoln’s Birthday for the generic “President’s Day”.  The goal of featuring two stellar role models of leadership and integrity got diluted with the likes of Buchanan, Filmore, Harding, and Pierce.

Americans did not see the Leftist tsunami coming. Today, the Leftist echo chamber is supported at all levels of government and society.

Conservatives are outmaneuvered constantly. The recent fiasco in the Tennessee legislature is emblematic. Two disruptive Leftist legislators were expelled only to be reappointed and feted at the White House. Worse, Republicans didn’t expel a third legislator because she didn’t fully participate in events that triggered the expulsion.  However, she was White, the two who were expelled were Black, leading to charges of racism.  Doesn’t anyone “war game” these things?  Every move and counter move was predictable.  Republicans fell into a very obvious trap.

The Left is many moves ahead on a wide range of fronts.  They are promoting Jimmy Carter for “sainthood” in anticipation of his death. They have rioters at the ready the next time a White policeman kills a Black.  They buried the truth about Russiagate, Obamagate, January 6, Covid, and countless other lies told to Americans. Congressional Republicans have witnesses who lie or not show up.  Documents are withheld or redacted beyond recognition. Impeachments will fall short of the 66 votes needed in the Senate to convict. Michelle Obama is waiting in the wings if Biden stumbles. 

Is anyone planning counter moves?

Conservatives once had the upper hand. They outmaneuvered the Left in the run up to the Reagan Revolution and they defeated the Soviets.

The Reagan Revolution was years in the making.  Conservatives established a real movement starting after World War II.  First came the philosophical provenance.  Publications, like National Review and Human Events, were forums for ideas to be tested and refined.  Organizations, like the Foundation for Economic Education, broadened and deepened the ideas of liberty.

Activist groups, starting with the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) and the American Conservative Union (ACU), operationalized conservative ideas. The Fund for American Studies (TFAS) became the vehicle for recruiting, educating, and credentialing the cream of the young conservatives.

The “New Right” took these foundational elements to a whole new level.  Richard Viguerie, Howard Philips, and Paul Weyrich forged a network of conservative teams that met regularly to plan and implement actions to derail the Carter Administration.  Kingston was the strategic hub from which Stanton (national security) and Library Court (faith issues) spread activism to ever expanding circles of influence.  These collaborated with issue specific groups and leaders, like Phyllis Schlafly. Serving as a link to the conservative intelligentsia was the Heritage Foundation, led by Ed Feulner.  

The “fighting on the outside” network supported the “inside fighters” led by M. Stanton Evans, a colleague of William F. Buckley and author of YAF’s Sharon Statement – the ultimate conservative manifesto.  Evans launched a generation of insider “demolition experts”.  Monday Club brought all key leaders together at the Hawk & Dove Restaurant. The Chesapeake Society was the strategic hub for Members and staff from 75 offices to wreak havoc on House Democrats.  The Dirty Dozen conducted similar guerilla actions in the Senate.

The Conservative Movement was based upon timeless concepts of liberty, free market capitalism, limited government, and a bold anti-Communist foreign policy.  It found its voice in prominent conservative Senators and Congressmen.  Ultimately, it rallied around national leaders.  Senator Barry Goldwater was the “proof of concept” candidate for successfully thwarting the establishment Republicans to become the Party’s Presidential nominee in 1964.  His most famous surrogate, Ronald Reagan, burst on the national scene with his election eve “Time for Choosing” speech.  Reagan made the “proof of concept” a vibrant reality by winning two terms as Governor of California and two landslide elections for President of the United States.

The Reagan Revolution changed the world because it had built a massive infrastructure of dedicated activists who were ready, willing, and very able to make conservativism an operational reality.

This infrastructure was most clearly manifested in the defeat of the Soviet Empire and the destruction of the Soviet Union. Stan Evans’ Sharon Statement boldly declared America stand for “victory over rather than coexistence with” Communism. Conservatives took this to heart and moved on a massive global front.  Legions of covert agents were brought out of retirement by William Casey, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). They fanned out to create chaos and destruction throughout the Soviet world.  Legions of “overt” agents of influence took over global forums that were once the domain of State Department apologists and Leftist academics.

Reagan sent Bill Wilson, the leader of his Kitchen Cabinet, to the Vatican.  Wilson supported Pope John Paul II's desire to free Poland, his home country, and the millions suffering under Soviet oppression throughout Central and Eastern Europe.  This allowed Reagan, along with his close ties to British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, to forge a “Big Three” that stopped the Soviet’s Carter era momentum.  They then coordinated a strategic offensive that activated the millions living under Soviet oppression. Not since World War II had such an alliance been so effective.

The lesson is clear, defeating the Left can be done and has been done. We need to remember this. 

We also need to watch riveting fiction to learn how to do it again.

Scot Faulkner served as Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives. He was Director of Personnel for the 1980 Reagan Campaign, served on the Presidential Transition team, and on Reagan’s White House Staff.  He currently advises corporations on implementing strategic change.

LESSONS NOT LEARNED

 

[Also published on Newsmax]

Trump’s supporters are stirring.  They are aghast at the Biden era, feeling it is based on years of lies, conspiracies, and “fake news”.

Trump’s detractors continue to stir.  They hope relentless investigations will lead to Trump in handcuffs and ultimately in jail. 

Both sides want “payback”.  The anti-Trumps want finality and an object lesson, that assures no outsider ever again gets close to draining the Swamp.  The pro-Trumpsters want to retake the Legislative Branch in 2022 and the Executive Branch in 2024. 

Trump’s “populist revolution” will only succeed if he and his supporters learn lessons from the last four years.

“Republicans hold office.  Democrats hold power.” mused Mark Steyn on a recent Fox News show.

Trump and his supporters must understand this in all its manifestations, should they ever hope to achieve their vision.

Trump failed at the very basic level of wielding power.  He ignored the maxims: “People equal policy” and “Personnel is policy”.  Adhering to these maxims allowed the Reagan revolution to eradicate the Soviet Union and its empire, while shifting America’s political center of gravity for the first time since 1932.  Adhering to these maxims allowed the Gingrich revolution to reinvent Congressional operations for the first time since 1789, while re-establishing a competitive Legislative Branch for the first time since 1932.

Reagan’s and Gingrich’s revolutions made removing their opponents their first order of business.

All Carter appointees were removed within the first weeks of Reagan taking office.  Their badges were confiscated, and their security clearances revoked.  A team went door-to-door throughout the White House and Executive Office buildings assuring every Carter person, every pro-Carter careerist, every pro-Carter detailee, and every pro-Carter contractor were marched out the door.  Careerists were reassigned, contracts were cancelled.  

At the same time teams of Reaganites took complete control of core operations within every department and agency: the Executive Secretariats and the offices of Legal Counsel, Personnel, Finance, and Procurement.  Legions of Reagan appointees instantaneously overwhelmed the Executive Branch, methodically reviewing every recent and pending action, ending and reversing those not in full accord with the Reagan agenda. This included personnel actions, training, contracts, grants, legal actions, regulations, publications, meetings, and anything else of substance.

In some agencies, such as the General Services Administration (GSA) the center of government corruption under Carter, every employee was assessed and a new agency culture, complete with new position descriptions, hiring & promotion criteria, administrative processes, and accountability systems were put in place.  Pro-Reagan whistle blowers, investigative media, and congressional oversight professionals identified those careerists who were trustworthy to build viable cores of competent loyalists deep in every nook and cranny of the Executive Branch. 

The Gingrich Revolution began the same way.  Within an hour of becoming Speaker, every top administrator and administrative assistant was fired and walked out the door. Their files were seized, their security clearances revoked.  New House rules and reform legislation eradicated forty years of “kleptocracy” that robbed public funds and furnishings from the Capitol.  A new management team completely reinvented Congressional operations propelling the 18^th century work culture and processes into the 21^st.

In both cases, Reagan, Gingrich, and their operational teams, had a “sense of urgency” that drove them to clear the landscape of the old guard and ways.  They had a clear vision and detailed plans. They never blinked.  They never stood still.  They never leaked.  They never tolerated disloyalty.

Unfortunately, Trump and his team did the opposite.  They were told, in detail, by Reagan and Gingrich alums, what needed to be done.  They heard but never listened or learned.

The result was Trump never having control over his Administration.  Obama holdovers ran the White House correspondence unit for the first two years.  Obama, Clinton, and Deep State operatives remained in control of everything.  Those who were terminated never had their ID badges or security clearances removed.

Trump was too trusting of Swamp dwellers.  His Transition was run by Bush and Romney operatives.  His White House was filled with RINOs.  Confidential information, even from small meetings, was leaked to the media within minutes.

 Trump’s holding back on making appointments was “penny wise but pound foolish”.  He never had overwhelming forces in any department or agency.  He never had control of core operations.  That is why his initiatives withered after he signed Executive Orders.  There was no one there to implement them. On the other hand, political holdovers and anti-Trump bureaucrats ran rampant.  They derailed pro-Trump efforts while allowing ongoing Obama/Clinton policies, personnel actions, training, contracts, grants, legal actions, regulations, publications, and meetings to continue unabated.  

Despite this, Trump hobbled regulations, made foreign policy strides, and had legislative victories. Unfortunately, they are all being reversed in the Biden era.

Imagine what Trump could have done had he learned the lessons of Reagan and Gingrich?

 

 

REAGAN's REVOLUTION

[Part of Constituting America’s 90 Day Study - Days that Shaped America]

The election of Ronald Reagan on November 4, 1980 was one of the two most important elections of the 20^th Century.  It was a revolution in every way.

In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) decisively defeated one term incumbent Herbert Hoover by 472-59 Electoral votes.  His election ushered in the era of aggressive liberalism, expanding the size of government, and establishing diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.  Roosevelt’s inner circle, his “brain trust”, were dedicated leftists, several of whom conferred with Lenin and Stalin on policy issues prior to 1932.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan decisively defeated one term incumbent Jimmy Carter by 489-49 Electoral votes.  His election ended the liberal era, shrunk the size of government, and rebuilt America’s military, diplomatic, economic, and intelligence capabilities.  America reestablished its leadership in the world, ending the Soviet Empire, and the Soviet Union itself.

Reagan was a key leader in creating and promoting the conservative movement, whose policy and political operatives populated and guided his administration.  He was a true “thought leader” who defined American conservatism in the late 20^th Century.  Through his writings, speeches, and radio program, Reagan laid the groundwork, and shaped the mandate, for one of the most impactful Presidencies in American history.

The road from Roosevelt’s “New Deal” to Reagan’s Revolution began in 1940.

FDR, at the height of his popularity, choose to run for an unprecedented third term.  Roosevelt steered ever more leftward, selecting Henry Wallace as his running mate.  Wallace would run as a socialist under the Progressive Party banner in 1948.  Republican Wendell Willkie was the first private sector businessman to become a major party’s nominee.  Willkie had mounted numerous legal challenges to Roosevelt’s regulatory overreach. While losing, Willkie’s legacy inspired a generation of economists and activists to unite against big government.

As the allied victory in World War II became inevitable, the Willkie activists, along with leading conservative economists from across the globe, established policy organizations (“think tanks”) and publications to formulate and communicate an alternative to Roosevelt’s New Deal.

Human Events, the premiere conservative newspaper began publishing in 1944. The Foundation for Economic Education was founded in 1946.

In 1947, conservative “free market”, anti-regulatory economists met at the Mont Pelerin resort at the base of Mont Perelin near Montreaux, Switzerland. The greatest conservative minds of the 20^th Century, including Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, and Milton Friedman, organized the “Mont Perelin Society” to counter the globalist economic policies arising from the Bretton Woods Conference.  The Bretton Woods economists had met at the Hotel Washington, at the base of Mount Washington in New Hampshire, to launch the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

Conservative writer and thinker, William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review on November 19, 1955.   His publication, more than any other, would serve to define, refine and consolidate the modern Conservative Movement.

The most fundamental change was realigning conservatism with the international fight against the Soviet Union, which was leading global Communist expansion. Up until this period, American conservatives tended to be isolationist.  National Review’s array of columnists developed “Fusionism”, which provided the intellectual justification of conservatives being for limited government at home while aggressively fighting Communism abroad.  In 1958, the American Security Council was formed to focus the efforts of conservative national security experts on confronting the Soviets.

Conservative Fusionism was politically launched by Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ) during the Republican Party Platform meetings for their 1960 National Convention.  Conservative forces prevailed. This laid the groundwork for Goldwater to run and win the Republican Party Presidential nomination in 1964.

The policy victories of Goldwater and Buckley inspired the formation of the Young Americans for Freedom, the major conservative youth movement.  Meeting at Buckley’s home in Sharon, Connecticut on September 11, 1960, the YAF manifesto became the Fusionist Canon. The conservative movement added additional policy centers, such as the Hudson Institute, founded on July 20, 1961.

Goldwater’s campaign was a historic departure from traditional Republican politics.  His plain-spoken assertion of limited government and aggressive action against the Soviets inspired many, but scared many more.  Kennedy’s assassination had catapulted Vice President Lyndon Johnson into the Presidency.  LBJ had a vision of an even larger Federal Government, designed to mold urban minorities into perpetually being beholding to Democrat politicians.  Goldwater’s alternative vision was trounced on election day, but the seeds for Reagan’s Conservative Revolution were sown.

Reagan was unique in American politics.  He was a pioneer in radio broadcasting and television.  His movie career made him famous and wealthy.  His tenure as President of the Screen Actors Guild thrust him into the headlines as Hollywood confronted domestic communism.

Reagan’s pivot to politics began when General Electric hired him to host their popular television show, General Electric Theater. His contract included touring GE plants to speak about patriotism, free market economics, and anti-communism. His new life within corporate American introduced him to a circle of conservative businessmen who would become known as his “Kitchen Cabinet”.

The Goldwater campaign reached out to Reagan to speak on behalf of their candidate on a television special during the last week of the campaign.  On October 27, 1964, Reagan drew upon his GE speeches to deliver “A Time for Choosing”.  His inspiring address became a political classic, which included lines that would become the core of “Reaganism”:

“The Founding Fathers knew a government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So, we have come to a time for choosing ... You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream—the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order—or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism.”

The Washington Post declared Reagan’s “Time for Choosing”: "the most successful national political debut since William Jennings Bryan electrified the 1896 Democratic convention with his Cross of Gold speech."  It immediately established Reagan as the heir to Goldwater’s movement.

The promise of Reagan fulfilling the Fusionist vision of Goldwater, Buckley, and a growing conservative movement inspired the formation of additional groups, such as the American Conservative Union in December 1964.

In 1966, Reagan trounced two-term Democrat incumbent Pat Brown to become Governor of California, winning by 57.5 percent.  Reagan’s two terms became the epicenter of successful conservative domestic policy attracting top policy and political operatives who would serve him throughout his Presidency.

Retiring after two terms, Reagan devoted fulltime to being the voice, brain, and face of the Conservative Movement.  This included a radio show that was followed by over 30 million listeners.

In 1976. the ineffectual moderate Republicanism of President Gerald Ford led Reagan to mount a challenge.  Reagan came close to the unprecedented unseating of his Party’s incumbent.  His concession speech on the last night of the Republican National Convention became another political classic.  It launched his successful march to the White House.

Reagan’s 1980 campaign was now aided by a more organized, broad, and capable Conservative Movement. Reagan’s “California Reaganites” were linked to Washington, DC-based “Fusionists”, and conservative grassroots activists who were embedded in Republican Party units across America. The Heritage Foundation had become a major conservative policy center on February 16, 1973.  A new hub for conservative activists, The Conservative Caucus, came into existence in 1974.

Starting in 1978, Reagan’s inner circle, including his “Kitchen Cabinet”, worked seamlessly with this vast network of conservative groups: The Heritage Foundation, Kingston, Stanton, Library Court, Chesapeake Society, Monday Club, Conservative Caucus, American Legislative Exchange Council, Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress, the Eagle Forum, and many others.   They formed a unified and potent political movement that overwhelmed Republican moderates to win the nomination and then buried Jimmy Carter and the Democrat Party in November 1980.

After his landslide victory, which also swept in the first Republican Senate majority since 1956, Reaganites and Fusionists placed key operatives into Reagan’s transition.  They identified over 17,000 positions that affected Executive Branch operations.  A separate team identified the key positions in each cabinet department and major agency that had to be under Reagan’s control in the first weeks of his presidency.

On January 21, 1981, Reagan’s personnel team immediately removed every Carter political appointee.  These Democrat functionaries were walked out the door, identification badge taken, files sealed, and their security clearance terminated.  The Carter era’s impotent foreign policy and intrusive domestic policy ended completely and instantaneously.

Reagan went onto to lead one of the most successful Presidencies in American history. His vision of a “shining city on the hill” continues to inspire people around the world to seek better lives through freedom, open societies, and economic liberty.