A Vision to Fix Things
Voters have revolted. But laws and institutions don't change just because people are angry. Appointing rebels to run agencies won't change their massive legal superstructures.
Real change in American democracy doesn't happen by diktat from the top. Change requires a vision for a better system, backed by broad support of public opinion. That's why FDR had his fireside chats.
What's the new vision? The best hope for a new vision might come from Elon Musk's efficiency commission. Most of the failures of government are failures of implementation—porous borders, years-long infrastructure permitting, wasteful procurement, poor schools, endemic homelessness, and a general breakdown of authority needed to make anything work sensibly and fairly.
What's needed, in our view, is a new operating vision: Replace red tape with human responsibility and accountability. Scrap the huge rusty operating structures that grind out decisions slowly, often contrary to public needs.
The new administration should resist the temptation to slash and burn the bureaucracy. Firing lots of people will not fix the underlying system, and just cause more paralysis. Changing public operating structures to re-empower human responsibility, on the other hand, will be a historic event in the quest for good government. As a side benefit, paper-pushers won't be needed when there's a lot less paper to push.
Here's Philip Howard's column in The Wall Street Journal that summarizes this vision for the new Department of Government Efficiency.
Since the election, a number of columnists have suggested Philip serve as an adviser to an efficiency commission, including Bret Stephens in The New York Times, Joe Klein in his Substack Sanity Clause, and Quin Hillyer in the Washington Examiner.
Here's a report of a civic benefit where Philip was honored.