Opinion: Presidents a distraction from issues

Is Joe Biden still the U.S. president? Will he soon be forced out, by using the 25th Amendment, due to his cognitive decline? Is he physically healthy enough to continue in the position or to survive his term? Will Kamala Harris be any better? 

Interesting times.

What you may not realize is how little it matters. U.S. presidents have always been figureheads; this has become more obvious over the years. Presidents hold little power; most of it is exercised by unelected bureaucrats and those in intelligence agencies who tell the presidents what they’ll be allowed to do.

There’s a joke making the rounds that America is running out of conspiracy theories because they’re all being proven true. This is more accurate than most people want to admit.

I know “The Deep State” sounds like a conspiracy theory, but if you think rationally for even a minute, you’ll see it has to be how things work.

A president  takes office and changes the head of some agency, choosing among candidates for the position who have been pre-approved to pick from. The agency doesn’t change, its agenda speeds up or slows down.

My go-to example is the unconstitutional BATFE. This agency may change the ways in which it violates natural human rights, but it never relinquishes power willingly. It never admits its policies are all unconstitutional and therefore criminal acts. No, it simply speeds up, slows down, or picks a new target.

This is how something on the edge of the Deep State works. Now imagine how it is for nameless agencies which are completely hidden from public view. It’s worse than you can imagine.

The most any president  can manage is to ask an agency to double down, to concentrate more on something else, or do what it does a little differently. So far no president has had the ethical courage to start abolishing these agencies. 

Nothing really changes; it just gets a new paint job and the doorknobs get updated. Even if every employee were replaced the agency has a life of its own and will continue doing what it does.

Whatever your feelings on the topic, the truth is the president  is neither the problem nor the solution. Some are worse than others, but they are mostly a distraction to keep you from seeing who the real enemy is. The root problem must be dug out and burned before liberty can thrive.

Farwell’s Kent McManigal champions liberty. Contact him at:

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