What is the Swamp?
And does it like being drained ?
This swamp we keep hearing about is really nothing more than that huge part of the Government that never goes away. Washington D.C. and it’s countless agencies are huge and grow larger, year after year. These are the career professionals that run the government. They are in it for the long haul and do not come and go with elections as our representatives do.
Their power is great over every aspect of our nation and our lives: Law enforcement, international relations, the military, immigration, taxes, education, housing, the environment, the economy, employment and the courts to name a few.
They have great latitude to interpret and selectively enforce the laws and create their own regulations that serve as law. They are considered the experts in their field. The problem arises when this mammoth beast, over time, becomes unresponsive to the people it was created to serve. And why would it not?
Why would an expert take the opinion of we the neophytes over their own?
And if we should ever believe their size should shrink or that we do not need them at all? Well, that’s a big problem.
No, the swamp doesn’t like being drained one little bit.
Any organization is very much like an organism. It may have a great sense of purpose and possess much knowledge – but its prime directive is survival. It always wants to grow in size and power and when its existence is threatened it will fight to the death.
It is notable that when the people or those they elect want change it never seems to actually happen. That can be because our representative has become part of the swamp and doesn’t actually want change or change the status quo inertia of the bureaucratic state. They are experts in bureaucratic counter-measures. Often we can not see what they are doing to keep things the way they are or how they are attacking those who challenge them.
Senator Schumer famously said President-elect Trump was being “really dumb” for picking a fight with the intelligence agencies. “Let me tell you: you take on the intelligence community – they have six ways from Sunday at getting to get
back at you”.
And Chuck was absolutely right. The Alligators in the swamp bite back hard.