In political as in family systems, problems in life often arise from issues of poor communication, rather than from deep psychological disorders. The French proverb in the title of this paper underscores both the persistence and complexity of human paradoxes and represent an indictment of Democrat control in America’s political system. Indeed, we find that the more something changes, the more it remains the same. Such conditions more directly pertain to how our American government transitions or digs its heels in after elections. Every four years our federal elections exhibit how political language and human emotion influence our ability to change or maintain our political compass, and our direct experience with such political realities.
The French saying plus ca change, plus c’este meme chose translates to mean the more something changes, the more it remains the same. It was borrowed from a book about the nuances of paradox and change by Watzlawick, Weakland & Fisch. They offer an important proposition about human change—that solutions to our problems are inherently embedded in the problems themselves. From it I derive the proposition of today’s Democrat paradox—“The more Democrats attempt to retain the same worn and disproven policies the less they will be seen as changing them in a positive manner.” In other words, their solutions for change have become the problem in and of themselves.
Anyone following the federal government, especially for the past five decades, sees a wholesale increase in its size and scope. For virtually any issue or need, there is a government agency dedicated to addressing, but not necessarily fixing it. Yet, many of the problems that federal agencies have been invented to solve, have gotten worse rather than better under these agencies.
DOGE’s Blunt Force Trauma
It was Donald Trump’s insight into the federal government’s gross inefficiency and wastefulness in his first four-years as president, watching the proliferating ineptness and inefficiency during Joe Biden’s single term that has sparked his commitment and willingness to take even more positive action that should lead to substantial government improvement both now and importantly in the foreseeable future. His first step toward improvement was establishing DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) and run by Elon Musk, a non-politician. It has scared the hell out of both progressives and even some RINOS in our federal government who have been subsisting on federal entitlements.
The first pilot program is auditing 16 agencies’ unused/unneeded credit cards. According to DOGE, 4.6 million government credit cards alone totaled $40 billion in spending last year. After just three weeks, more than 200,000 government credit cards have been de-activated. At the start of the audit, there were ~4.6M active cards/accounts out of a total of roughly 4.6 million cards active at the time of the audit's start. Musk believes there is still significantly more work to do. Putting this into perspective, Musk sees his goal as shrinking the size of the federal government and cutting off any waste or inefficiency, saying that "there are still almost twice as many credit/purchasing cards as people in the government, and the card limits are $10,000!” In addition to cutting credit card waste, DOGE has recommended the firing of more than 200,000 federal workers, with about 75,000 accepting the Trump administration's offer to voluntarily resign. These measures have turned Democrats and some voters cataplectic because of the fear and uncertainty spreading through many federal agencies as the department slashes their workforce.
Of course, many on the left, including news agencies, state that these tactics aren’t really saving the government money. President Trump, however, has indicated that the administration is considering a plan where 20 percent of the savings would be distributed as dividends to the public, while another 20 percent would go toward reducing the national debt. But to the naysayers, no amount of savings could be enough even if a portion went back directly to the public, paying off some of our $36.22 trillion national debt, 30 percent of which is held by foreign nationals like China, Japan and the United Kingdom. Does anyone really believe that owing China money is a viable debt position for America?
The Nature of Paradox
Government has always been a very important part of stable societies but it is being increasingly undermined, both intentionally and unintentionally, from within (our extant Democrat political system) and by foreign actors (China and the Middle East) that wish us harm or worse. We are surrounded by new things (inventions, policies, threats on a daily basis, yet Democrats demonstrate a serious lack of vision for the future. Townhall recently covered a poll of Democrats revealing “The Democratic brand is still not where it needs to be in terms of core trust and understanding people’s challenges.” The following paradoxes for Democrat constituents was uncovered: “Especially alarming for Democrats were findings around voters’ views of Democrats and work. Just 44 percent of those polled said they think Democrats respect work, while even fewer — 39 percent — said the party values work. Only 42 percent said Democrats share their values. A majority, meanwhile — 56 percent — said Democrats are not looking out for working people. Only 39 percent believe Democrats have the right priorities.” With leaders like Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Kamala Harris, these results are hardly surprising. It’s as if these Democrat constituents are signaling the paradox that “they’d never dream of belonging to a party that would have them as members.”