Let's hear it for the Administrative State

A plug for expertise. The Deep State starts at home

Wow! Thanks to all of you who just joined me on Substack, and welcome to Alive! with Joy. (“Alive!” because at 84, I still am very much so; “with Joy,” because that’s my name—and despite the challenging times in which we find ourselves, I still try to find joy, humor and beauty every day.) 

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Let me tell you a story about the old days, back when I had a role we called “home-maker.”

A great deal of the home-maker role involves administration. It is not glamorous, but someone has to do it, and I was a one-woman “administrative state,” overseeing many important household departments single-handedly and with panache:

• Department of Health and Human Services: Locate and contract with qualified doctors and dentists; set up regular appointments; follow through with their instructions on tooth-brushing and medicine-swallowing; acquire nutritious foods and prepare healthful meals.

• Department of the Budget: keep income and expenses balanced; pay the bills; vet all purchases to get the best deal; prepare tax returns.

• Department of Agriculture: determine what crops would best suit our taste buds and soil conditions; plant, weed and harvest at the proper times.

• Department of Education: locate good schools; secure transportation to and from; purchase school supplies; monitor children’s progress. 

• Department of Justice: set a moral code of conduct; monitor children’s behavior for adhering to said code; deliver praise or punishment as necessary. 

• Department of Homeland Security: purchase and train a dog to protect our home (a failed program—dog a total wuss)

Molly, AKA the Mollster

By the time I resigned from my position, I’d accumulated a great deal of expertise, and had come to rely on many other experts who supported my work. I chose them for their qualifications, not their political views. 

Fast forward. For the past ten years I’ve lived in a condo building of 160 units in Portland OR. Because we exist in a community, it’s stupid for each of us to administer only our own apartment, so we rely on the administrative expertise of a management company. As a group, we’ve hired them to keep the building running smoothly, to turn off errant 3am fire alarms, and in turn they’ve hired experts to take care of the details. Note: their politics were unimportant as long as they did the job.   

Everyone participates in layers and layers of the administrative state, AKA the DEEEP STATE. In order for our lives to function we rely on people who know what they’re doing. Otherwise we’d be reinventing the wheel every day. 

This is true at every level of organization—our homes, businesses, our cities, our states, and our nation. Alone we can’t manage fire protection, sanitation, water & electricity, street repair, police, zoning, the courts, the highways, air safety, health care systems—you name it. So we elect or hire people to do it for us as a group.  

Are you with me so far? 

We’re currently faced with a situation where 49.9% of us voted for a man who has, shall we say, novel ideas about who should help him administer the disUnited States. Rather than choose folks with experience and expertise for these powerful positions, he wants folks who (he believes) love him the most. [Whether they actually love him or are just drooling for the power is TBD.] 

Screwing up in one of these positions could mean economic disaster, deadly pandemic, or World War III… in other words, these folks would be responsible for matters of enormous global importance. So far the president-elect has chosen:

• Pete Hegseth, a co-host of weekend Fox & Friends with some “issues,” to run the Department of Defense—overseeing millions of service members and a budget of only $800 BILLION. Zero experience besides National Guard service.

• Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Security—NATIONAL SECURITY—like protecting us from the nefarious intent of nations like Russia and China. Zero intelligence experience. Many are concerned that she is in fact a Russian asset. 

• Matt Gaetz for Attorney General—in charge of the Dept of Justice. Here’s a guy hated by everyone in his own party, who resigned from the House just before the Ethics Committee could release a damning report on his sex-trafficking and drug use issues. 

• Robert F Kennedy, Jr for Director of Health and Human Services. Anti-vaxxer conspiracy-theorist former drug, alcohol and sex addict. Are you fucking kidding me? (=AYFKM!) Zero science experience. In charge of the nation’s health?

Most worrisome—extremely worrisome: the president-elect wants these folks to be confirmed as recess appointments rather than by the Senate, AND he tried to forego FBI background checks. Why? because it’s doubtful that any of them would pass. (Including the felonious president-elect himself, who could not qualify to flip burger at McDonalds!). I mean…. WTF!!! and AYFKM!!!.

What could possibly go wrong?

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PUT YOURSELF IN THE WAY OF BEAUTY

For newcomers, I never end a post without something beautiful to look at. “Put yourself in the way of beauty,” was one of the last things Cheryl Strayed’s mom said to her before she died of cancer in 1991.

I look for something beautiful every day. This is the trunk of a tree in my neighborhood.

Take care of yourselves. We need each other.