This is so important, and yet almost impossible to make people care about. I have a friend who runs a federal agency (sub-cabinet level) and is doing a terrific job, making excellent progress for stakeholders, but “Govt Agency Succeeds” is not a story that gets published.
Some reduce the 2024 campaign to a contest between two old men, but it's a choice of two slates of federal appointees who'll impact your life in a million ways.
Biden has staffed executive agencies with excellent choices who are doing good work. Trump will empower an army of Stephen Millers.
I also wonder about Kevin’s supposition that it will “affect people’s lives in a million ways.”With some significant exceptions, like the VA and Medicare, most people don’t interact with the Fed Govt directly. And those that do tend to only notice when things go wrong.
I flew across the country the other day. That is an industry where competent federal regulation has benefitted the many millions who travel by air every year in the US. I for one don’t want some blithering Trump toady running the FAA.
An excellent example. I’m typing this on a commuter train, which only runs because of Federal transportation subsidies, inspections and regulations. But pace Mussolini, nobody notices if the trains run on time.
Losing all our Ag workers to deportation. Losing flood control & wetlands to developers. Losing standards in food & drugs & water & air. Buildings & roads & bridges falling down from shitty standards. Bird flu rampaging unchecked, vaccines elective.
USPS. Accurate food labeling. Food safety. Workplace safety standards. Labor laws. Banking security. Access to national parks (deeply beloved and widely used). Clean water and air. Emergency management and disaster relief. People don't always *realize* it but they interact with fed stuff every day.
We actually agree, in that I am stressing the "realize it" part. Nobody goes outside, say, in LA, notices they can see the Santa Monica mountains, remembers how rare that was the case in the 60s, and says, Thank Goodness for the EPA!
So the solution is to make people aware of it. Which is what many of us are trying to do.
Also, people have sure noticed the times in recent years that the federal government has been shut down for any length of time...
I used to go to music camp in the San Bernardino mountains in the late nineties, forget the 60s, and we would hike to a peak and look down upon a literal solid looking floor of smog cloud.
Now you can see the city from there. That cloud is just *gone*.
As a kid who grew up in Claremont, where it was normal to not be able to breathe at the end of the day because of smog, I’m astonished by the clean air. People really don’t realize how gross it used to be.
Yep. And here in Utah our state-level elected officials brag about how much cleaner the air is compared to a few decades ago, then act as if they're the ones who deserve credit for it, and file their next lawsuit opposing federal regulations.
I do! (though it was the 70s, not the 60s). Lots of us remember how bad it was back then (though usually we do so only when someone brings up smog in LA and we go all “You shoulda seen it back when I was a kid” on them).
Here here! The PDX metro area violated clean air standards almost every day in 1970 due to tailpipe emissions. Now? Almost never! And there is vastly more cars on the road. Thanks to CAL emission standards and Oregon DEQ.
I mean, I've only lived here since 1997, but I DO actually think that! The smoggy days aren't yellowish like they used to be, and are more often just plausibly atmospheric vapor/ haze.
This overlaps with Michael Lewis' "Fifth Risk," in all the smaller government programs that just quietly make drastic improvements in things like search and rescue.
Everyone who files a federal tax return, or who has social security or Medicare deals with the federal government directly. Millions of people get food stamps and farm subsidies and other federal benefits either directly from the federal government or administered by the state with federal funding.
Yes, that’s true. But as you say, Medicaid and food programs are administered by states.And while the WH is trying to get people excited about improvements at the IRS, it’s a tough row to hoe. Meanwhile, how many citizens interact directly with HUD or DOE or Commerce?
I don’t think the idea is to get voters excited about Biden’s IRS, but to show them using past evidence that Trump’s IRS would be likely to come for you, your family, and everything you hold dear.
Citizens don’t even interact with state government for the most part. The states may set many of the rules and procedures, but recipients of Food Stamps and Medicaid interact with county employees, not state workers.
Worked in a hospital during the Obamacare debate & there were a number of Senior Citizens on Medicare who wanted to warn me against "government controlled healthcare" & then in the next breath tell me that I should try to get me some Medicare because of how it changed their lives for the better.
It is not just the direct interactions, though. It will be the knock-on effects that people might not even associate with a particular government agency. You'll have the library closures and changes to education, but you might also have worse roads, less access to parks, travel restrictions, etc.
With a normal incoming admin you are right, but Trump is making plans to install loyalists, persecute and prosecute his imagined enemies and deport 11 million people. It has a much greater chance of impacting "ordinary" people than is usual.
That's true, of course, and it's related in direct ways to current attempts to degrade democracy/voting.
In his first term, Trump knew that he had to convince people he was working for them... thus, for example, his putting his name on stimulus checks.
abcnews.go.com/Politics/ins...
I will also guarantee if Trump is president and Don Jr gets convicted he will absolutely pardon him. He'll go to a podium as angry Trump "a miscarriage of justice like you wouldn't believe folks". And the NYTimes headline will be, "Experts have serious questions on Don Jr case."
I mean, I'm pretty shocked that he was the first to do that. Seems to be a pretty basic political move
Even the Secretary of Transportation in NC when I lived there made sure her signature and face was on the inspections posted in elevators!
I keep telling people about how much big busniess mergers this administration has worked to blocked and consoumer protection it works on. they all respond with "I didn't know about that but that is good."
I think a part of that is also the idea from many older dem politicians that the government actively caring about customer service and drawing attention to their work is some kind of uncouth politics. Make the connection for them! We're doing this for you! We got you money back from the airlines!
In Prof. Kruse’s example he’s specifically talking about 2024. We’ll all notice a difference between a government of Lina Khans or a government of Stephen Millers.
I’m watching how the FAFSA mess up this year has completely upended a lot of young people’s college planning. If the entire DOE gets blown up as they are planning, the impacts will be catastrophic and far reaching and felt by so many in so many different ways.
This is where I currently land.
Actively do what you can to impede the government's ability to function. Then rant, complain, and campaign about how ineffective and inefficient the government is and why we should have less protections and regulations.
You mean like that time when Trump appointed Rick Perry, a person who wanted to abolish the Department of Energy, to lead the Department of Energy?
Or that other time when Trump appointed Betsy DeVos, a person against public education, to lead the Department of Education?
