Hulk Will Smash
Elon Musk's Reform Style isn't Democratic and Threatens Vulnerable People
James Madison, the resident neurotic among the founding fathers, was stressed out about the many ways that a fledging democracy could get derailed. A democracy was considered a risky experiment back then, even one where only white male landowners could vote. He worried that America could fall prey to a charismatic demagogue, suffer a congressional takeover, and be ravaged by tyrannical factions.
However, Madison could not envision a scenario where an unelected billionaire tech guy would be holed up in a Washington office building along with some 20-something computer nerds. Chugging Diet Coke and Red Bull, these guys are restructuring the federal government with the assistance of AI algorithms and full security clearance.
The systems created by Madison to circumvent hasty decisions — checks and balances, separations of powers, rule of law — have been thrown out the window. Our government has been transformed into a tech start-up in just a few weeks after Trump’s election. Our democracy didn’t unravel gradually. Boom. It’s gone.
It’s widely acknowledged that the federal government is a big, sprawling mess. Without bothering with democratic procedures, Musk was given unprecedented power to streamline government and reduce waste. However, Musk’s reform style can be described as “Hulk Will Smash.” He’s ripping everything down too quickly, putting vulnerable people at risk.
The Federal Bureaucracy is a Mess
Honestly, the federal bureaucracy has been a mess for a long time. Our country’s method for solving problems is like chucking a bucket of water at a target that’s 50 feet away. Some water will reach the target, but most water will end up on the lawn. For a long time, people were satisfied if some government funds got to the right people. But after decades of bucket throwing, there is quite a large puddle in front of the target.
Let me give just one example. Between 2020 and 2024, the federal government gave states about $190 billion to distribute to local schools, which would then create new programs to support students who were adversely impacted by school shutdowns during COVID. An admirable goal, right?
However, nobody knows where all that money went. Poof. Gone. There was no oversight, no audits. Anecdotal reports say that schools spent some of those funds on summer school, tutors, and substitute teachers — expenditures that might have directly helped students.
However, schools might have also spent that $190 billion on items that had no impact on academics and didn’t help students who needed the most help, like roofs, marching band uniforms, and turf for the football team. In my school district, they spent a chunk of their ESSR money on air filtration machines.
Funds may have also gone to consultants who provided professional development of unknown quality. Incidentally, teachers earn credits for attending these classes, which then raise their union pay scales.
Truth is, we don’t know how all those billions were spent. We do know that $190 billion did not turn around COVID learning loss. Recent tests show that 70 percent of American students are not proficient in math or reading and haven’t returned to pre-COVID testing levels.
“Hulk Will Smash” Reform Style is Very Risky
Musk is trying to contain decades of spending sprawl in just a few weeks. He shut down the USAID yesterday. As he said, he was “feeding U.S.A.I.D. into the wood chipper.” Do we give him points for a Fargo reference? He’s also planning on taking apart the Department of Education, Medicaid, and more. He handed out early retirement packages to 20,000 federal employees.
His methods aren’t surgical. They aren’t about doing studies to examine the good and the bad. No, he’s smashing everything down and will rebuild as necessary.
“Hulk Will Smash” is not a great way to do government reform. Look, I’m all in favor of looking at government expenditures and making sure that money is ending up in the right pockets. But destroying everything is dangerous.
At my day job, I represent disabled and/or autistic children, young people, and their families. These folks are highly dependent on government programs through IDEA, Medicaid, and more. If their benefits disappear, the chaos will be massive. Local government cannot manage these needs.
And even if Musk doesn’t touch federal funding for special education and disabled adults, his bold methods have emboldened others who don’t want to support vulnerable kids. Oklahoma has a new bill in its legislature that will cut out school-based speech therapy, assistive speaking devices, and other related services.
Parents are very worried.
Government By Nerd
Madison could not have envisioned the swift pace of change happening at the hands of a non-elected government official. Musk doesn’t seem to be motivated by greed —he already has all the money — but by a compulsion to create something neat, rational, and streamlined like one of his rockets to Mars. He loves order and systems, more than he cares about the democratic process.
Heather Cox Richardson points out that Republicans currently control the three branches of government. Together, they could pass laws that did everything that Musk is doing. However, Trump and Musk aren’t bothering with all that voting stuff. Voting takes too long, they think. Why waste time when they can build condos in Gaza?
Richardson writes:
The replacement of our constitutional system of government with the whims of an unelected private citizen is a coup. The U.S. president has no authority to cut programs created and funded by Congress, and a private citizen tapped by a president has even less standing to try anything so radical.
I’m not the only one worried. Drezner writes:
Intentionally or not, the second Trump administration is engaged in a grand reverse experiment: rather than creating Galt’s Gulch outside the reach of the state, Trump has handed over the keys of the government to Elon Musk and his business associates. The question is whether it will work as intended or lead to an even greater cataclysm.
Spoiler alert: I think it’s gonna be cataclysmic.
Fun fact: One of the young dudes helping Musk with his smashing efforts is a computer geek from Nebraska who helped decipher old Pompeii scrolls. There’s some discussion on Twitter about how this guy must be autistic. He probably does have a “touch of the ‘tism,” and so does Musk.
Democracies create a mess. They do. Compromises are made. Favors are cashed in. All of it means that there is always some waste. I am highly sympathetic to those who want to make government more efficient.
However, if change happens too quickly without proper respect for 200-year institutions, I get nervous. When change threatens vulnerable young people, children, and families, I get mad. Then, I suppose, we’re going to have a whole lot of Hulks stomping around.
Related
For the past 15 months, I’ve been consulting parents with autistic kids about college and life after college. Next month, I’m moving to a new non-profit for autism. In the past six months, we wrote a business plan and bought a building. Yup, a whole building. Last week, we interviewed staff. I’ll be a vice president in charge of parent education and advocacy, starting mid-March. More info coming soon.
After the move, I’ll maintain my business newsletter, which you can check out here.
Tomorrow at 3:00 pm ET, I’m excited to do a LinkedIn Live Chat with Andy Rotherham, aka EduWonk, from Bellwether Associates. We’ll talk about special education, education policy, and more. Join us!
Feb. 6 — LinkedIn Live Podcast with Andy Rotherham, Bellwether Associates
At the risk of sounding pedantic, to the best of my knowledge, neither Musk nor any of the 6 engineers working for him, have an approved Security Clearance of any level. As someone who used to work with Classified material, this is even more worrisome.