The deep state is on the ballot this November

One of the most consequential questions on the ballot this year is the fate of the federal bureaucracy. To be sure, the starkly different visions of former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden on such issues as defense, taxes, the border, and other topics will dominate the debate, but the destiny of the administrative state may eclipse all others.

For one thing, this latter issue deals with the very structure of government. And in a year when one side claims that democracy is on the ballot, the matter of the federal bureaucracy goes to the heart of whether government is acting according to the consent of the governed.