Building a New Status Quo

Sometimes you want officials to adopt a policy simply because it is good. A child tax credit, because there are few causes more worthy than fighting child poverty. Banning a particular pollutant, because poisoning the air we all breathe is in fact bad.

Then there are things we want officials to do because they can fundamentally change the status quo. Rather than passing a law banning a particular pollutant, you pass a law creating the EPA and granting it the discretion to investigate, regulate, and in some cases ban pollutants. Now you have created an organization that can begin developing subject matter competence and issuing regulations through a process distinct from legislation. That changes things in a way that a simple ban for a particular pollutant would not.

Passing new regulations through Congress is one thing. Creating the FTC is another.

For a century, conservatives have lived with the status quo of "the administrative state," a beast they have longed to slay. But its place in that status quo was too entrenched, the risk of aggressive action against it too risky from an electoral perspective. So they slowly undermined its foundations and capacity over a period of decades.

Now they are shooting their shot, although to my eyes that shot looks not so much like devolving all administration to 50 co-equal republics, but rather more like converting a competent administrative state into an incompetent personalist one.

It does not appear likely to succeed in this ambition by 2028. But the negative side, the destruction, has already succeeded. The pre-Trump status quo is dead. Whatever else he has accomplished, that is a done deal.

We will need to rebuild, and when we do, it shouldn't be simple fix-up job. It should be a Reconstruction grounded in good, liberal values.

That is exactly what we are proposing with The Reconstruction Papers.

Let's fix the presidency. Let's guarantee the republican form of government. Let's end the perpetual explosion of college tuition rates, and build the best system of scientific discovery possible. Let's squarely face the thorny problem of people living in high climate risk areas.

You can find all this and more in The Reconstruction papers. Please pre-order a print copy today. You will be able to read the PDF very soon.