Part of our core mission? Exposing the Left's blatant hypocrisy. Help us continue the fight and support the 2024 Year-End Campaign now.

December 12, 2018

Video: Who Are the Most Powerful People in America?

Monarchy is making a comeback — though not in the way you think.

If someone suggested to you that Americans should reject representative government and return to the rule of kings, you would laugh.

“This is America,” you would say. “In our revolution, we got rid of monarchy.”

And, of course, you’d be right – but only to a point. Monarchy is making a comeback – though not in the way you think.

Let me explain.

A king is one person. Get rid of him and you might get your freedom back.

But what do you do when the nation has come to be controlled by thousands of little king – almost supreme in their specialized fiefdoms – who have vast power over your life, much as a king might?

Good question, because that’s what we’re up against.

This regime is called the “administrative state.” Its little kings are unelected “bureaucrats,” officially known as “administrators,” “secretaries,” or even “czars.” And, make no mistake, they are very powerful. Their decisions affect us every day. The FDA, the FCC, the SEC, and so on and so on.

Put together almost any three or four random letters and chances are you’ve stumbled on a government agency. These agencies and the people in them shape our lives – often for the worse.

Many farmers in California lost their livelihoods because the Fish and Wildlife Service decided that the delta smelt (a tiny fish) was more important than the farmers’ water supply. That decision may have been right, or it may have been wrong. My point is simply that the decision should have been made by our lawmakers – who are accountable to us at the next election.

Those farmers are among the millions of hard-working people directly hurt by the administrative state.

And many more millions have been indirectly hurt – such as all those discouraged from even starting a business by miles of bureaucratic red tape.

This is not an argument against government regulation per se, but against regulation imposed by bureaucrats rather than by our elected lawmakers whom we can hold accountable at the next election.

Here’s the larger danger: As bureaucracy grows, individual freedom diminishes.

How did we get into this mess? And, more importantly, how do we get out of it?

America’s Founders recognized the problem. They didn’t like being told what to do by people they hadn’t voted for. They built all kinds of protections into the U.S. Constitution, starting with its very first line after the Preamble:

“All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.”

All legislative powers, not some.

This means only Congress can make the nation’s laws. Congress thus cannot divest itself of that power to a bureaucracy. And that’s how America operated for most of its first hundred years.

This changed when many Americans – such as Woodrow Wilson – fell in love with centralized bureaucratic power.

Wilson was a university professor before he moved into politics and eventually became president in 1912. A self-described “progressive reformer,” he was impatient for power.

He wasn’t interested in persuading the American people to come over to his point of view – that would take too long. So instead, he aimed to shift lawmaking power out of Congress and into the hands of a professional class of government workers – in other words, bureaucrats.

Franklin Roosevelt (who served in Wilson’s cabinet) perfected his mentor’s vision when he became president. For him, as for Wilson, there were few problems administrative power couldn’t solve.

FDR’s presidency produced an alphabet soup of new government programs that vastly expanded the administrative state. And since then, it has grown even more dramatically.

Congress still passes laws. But it leaves it to the bureaucracy to fill in the gaps. And these gaps can be enormous.

Consider, for example, the Affordable Care Act of 2009 – what came to be known as “ObamaCare.”

The bill itself was over 2,500 pages, but Congress left much unspecified. So, career government officials – elected by no one – went to work. And by 2013, there were an additional 10,000 pages of regulations

So, how do we rein in these faceless monarchs?

First, Congress should actually do its job and take responsibility for the laws it passes. Don’t hold your breath. But they at least could do this: Congress should end legal immunity for bureaucrats who abuse their power. If they know they can be sued, they’ll be a lot more sober about imposing rules others have to live by.

Second, the courts should do their job. They must follow the law. That means protecting our constitutional freedoms, including our right to representative government. No more bureaucratic rule-making.

And, finally, we have to do our job. We must assert our freedom – in conversation, on the web, and in the courts.

We don’t want to be ruled by a king – or thousands of little kings.

As the Founders would have said, “No regulation without representation.”

I’m Philip Hamburger, professor of law at Columbia Law School and president of the New Civil Liberties Alliance, for Prager University.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.