The Doing and Undoing and Redoing and Undoing of American Policy

Being outraged used to be easier. You could look at a policy or an announcement or something happening in the world and if you disagreed with it, you could voice your opinion or join a march or write a blog post. The thing you were unhappy about, though, was pretty unlikely to change within 24 hours. We don’t really live in that world anymore.

A recent piece from The Atlantic talks about the rapid undoing of policy that has become a hallmark of the current administration:

"The administration’s claims to monarchical power are a real threat to America’s constitutional order. But its executive orders and policy feints are so haphazard and poorly articulated that they amount to a kind of autocratic takeover written in smudge-able crayon: terrifying, cartoonish, and vulnerable to erasure, all at once … The substantive problem with the MAGA agenda isn’t just that too much is happening for any median voter to follow; it’s that too much is un-happening for employers, investors, and consumers to know what the hell to do about it."

In this world, confusion seems to be the name of the game. Shifting blame, taking credit and rapidly changing course has become the story itself. Of course, that makes it hard to write about or think about. More importantly, it makes it impossible to plan your career or future or investments. This is uncertainty by design.

It all seems a bit like driving down a windy road with a poor driver. With every turn, he knows what’s coming and so he is the only one who keeps from feeling sick. Everyone else just can’t wait to get themselves out of the car and back onto solid ground again.