Principles and interests

Democrats are losing their sanity over Trump's reliance on the "unelected" Elon Musk—through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—to drastically downsize the administrative agencies.

- KOLI MITRA

But it's funny that none of these critics had such concerns for years and years when the same departments—also run by unelected bureaucrats—were increasing their operations and budgets, completely obscured from the public view and unable to account for billions of dollars of already spent (or lost?) public funds.

Don't get me wrong, I do think it's problematic (and, shall we say, "extra-constitutional") to have someone who is unvetted by the legislature or other democratic mechanism, to have so much control over policy, not to mention access to private data relating to millions of civilians. But that part of the picture is NOT actually new! A faceless, unaccountable bureaucratic machine (the "deep state," as the dissidents call it) was already exercising "much control over policy" and had unfettered "access to our private data" for a very long time. At least this time around we know who is in charge and is answerable for the results. DOGE is run by a known individual, controlled by an (elected) president, and its activities are publicly acknowledged.

Most importantly, the agenda of this unelected bureaucracy, apparently, is to reduce unelected bureaucracies. So, it seems very odd to me that THIS is the point at which so many have suddenly become concerned about unelected bureaucratic power!

Of course, it isn't just the Democrats whose principles are conveniently stashed away when it conflicts with their interests. MAGA Republicans who have spent years constantly complaining about government interference in the market now insist that the government should get intimately involved. The most common recent complaint has been about "DEI" policies (which favor certain minority groups in academic, professional, and public benefit contexts, ostensibly to combat historical disadvantages). It was supposed to be un-American because of its anticompetitive nature.