While many Americans may be familiar with the three branches of government in the Constitution, fewer are aware of the fourth branch of government—a vast bureaucracy of “alphabet soup” agencies (think the IRS, FDA, DOJ, and many, many more) that technically answer to the president but enjoy civil service protections that make them hard to fire.
While unions and other protections for the civil service sound good in theory, they can be pernicious in practice. Many bureaucrats think of themselves as smarter than or superior to the American people and their elected representatives, a mentality that helps explain the “deep state” efforts against Donald Trump in his first administration.
In fact, a recent poll found that 64% of Washington, D.C.-based federal bureaucrats who voted for Kamala Harris say they will not follow a lawful Trump order if they consider it bad…
