WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 300 million Americans’ Social Security data was put at risk after Department of Government Efficiency officials uploaded sensitive information to a cloud account not subject to oversight, according to a whistleblower disclosure submitted to the special counsel’s office Tuesday.
So once the dust settles what is the new govt to do? Too many turncoats to prosecute?
A new government is not just going to magically appear. The current one (and by that is meant the entire GOP) is not going to leave voluntarily, and they are certainly not going to let you have a fair election about that.
So the dust will settle once this current regime has been forcefully ousted, not before. So talking about “after” is a bit premature, the talk should be about what to be done to get rid of them in first place.
This administration and the Supreme Court have been systematically shredding the constitution and destroying the rule of law. They have declared the president to be above the law, are eroding the limits of executive power at every opportunity, and have essentially declared that the rights of the people can be ignored without consequences.
This might seem great to an authoritarian when they are in power, but the flipside is that it fundamentally changes the moral equation faced by the opposition. Normally those who actually have principles and want to maintain the rule of law are going to show restraint and reinforce the norms. But when the other side responds by becoming an even bigger threat, there must be a tipping point after which the danger of using unjust powers against your opponent are outweighed by the danger of allowing them to continue damaging civilization and risking their return to power.
The gerrymandering situation in California and Texas is a perfect example of this. In principle, gerrymandering should not be allowed. But if we want to protect democracy, it is more dangerous to let one side cheat than it is to respond in kind.
I would like to believe that we will be able to close pandora’s box and return to something resembling normalcy some day. But with each new abuse of power and each attack on the laws and norms that are supposed to keep the government in check, it gets harder to see a way out that isn’t horrific in its own right.
You’ve basically written what I’ve been trying to process and put into words for a long while now. Thanks for the fantastic commentary.
If the country survives, what they should do is rip the whole thing apart and start again. Like a second republic with a new constitution or something. There is no coming back from what’s happening with the institutions.
The government is going to say that the government is not efficient and capable enough to handle this. Yes, that’s a self-fail but their voters eat it up anyway. The solution, they say, is privatization and Trump gives the whole thing to his buddies. And then you’ll have to pay a premium tier subscription to get a timely response, most likely AI generated, from what used to be a government function.
That’s what we said in the 1860s, and look what happened: We allowed them to continue telling lies for another 160 years until they tried once again to make their lies our truth.
No, this time we need to prosecute the traitors. We’ve got time.
It should happen, but it won’t.