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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 20, 2023

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The sentiment that you couldn't do anything meaningful on the right because it would just get knocked down by liberal SCOTUS justices used to be common and the right remedied that via its own version of the long march through the institutions.

Except, AIUI, the permanent bureaucracy is >95% Leftist, and the only people "qualified" (meaning "credentialed by left-captured institutions") to be hired into it are even more solidly Leftist. Instead of Right-wing "action" from Congress or the President being "knocked down by liberal SCOTUS justices," it will simply be ignored by the 2-million-plus permanent Federal bureaucrats.

In 2017, I think Trump was under the impression that the bureaucracy would behave as though he was the CEO of the country

Indeed, I remember many articles from his term about that, including quotes from government officials about how this meant he was "acting like a king" and "didn't know how things work," and a lot of other statements implying that whatever your civic textbooks might say, the "experts" of the civil service are the ones who actually make policy, and the President's job is to merely put a face on it.

and could plausibly replace large amounts of that bureaucracy.

And that's where I disagree: I don't see any plausible way to replace any of the bureaucracy if it doesn't want to be replaced.

it seems as though the Republican plan for 2025 really does include a rapid shift in personnel

And my point is that that plan will necessarily fail, because, as things are currently constituted, such a personnel shift is in practice impossible.