The Puppeteers: The People Who Control the People Who Control America by Jason Chaffetz
Summary and takeaways from the book.
Keywords:
Informed
Deep State
Corruption
Dec 1, 2023
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Work of government is being done by people outside of government-people who are invisible to the American public"
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Power is shifted from the state and local level to the federal level, from Congress to the bureaucracy, and in some cases from the bureaucracy to partisan outside institutions."
ISBN: 978-0063063044
Published: June 13, 2023
Pages: 432
Available on:
amazon
The author
Jason Chaffetz was U.S. representative for Utah's 3rd congressional district from 2009 until his resignation in 2017.
The author "chaired the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform from 2015 until 2017".
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Our federal government is a conduit[channel] through which rules are written and policies are made. But not by the people we elect.
Increasingly, the work of government is being done by people outside of government-people who are invisible to the American public, but who pull the strings, set the agendas, create the incentives, and write the rules we must all live by."
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The lack of accountability was being deliberately built into our system."
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...institutions that once served a core function in our representative republic have been insidiously compromised."
Who are the people who control America?
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While voters are focused on the “A Team” of federal, state, and local elected officials who are supposed to be running the country, the real work of governing is being handed off to the “B Team.”"
The author says: "
a congressman set up a meeting with a Senate-confirmed cabinet secretary to answer his questions".
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But when the congressman arrived at the office of the secretary, to the lawmaker’s chagrin, he found the secretary absent and senior staff prepared to take the meeting. The congressman, frustrated and offended that he was relegated to meet with staff rather than the high-profile secretary, expressed disappointment.
He told the staff it was unacceptable for the secretary to skip a meeting specifically booked for the two of them. He didn’t want to meet with the staff. He wanted to meet with the one in charge. He thought it was a waste of his time to meet with the B Team.
He expressed his irritation until one of the senior staff finally spoke up and told the congressman the audacious reality. “It’s true—we are the B Team,” he reportedly said. “You are meeting with the right people. We ‘B’ here before you, we ‘B’ here after you, and we ‘B’ the ones to make the decisions.
If something is going to get done, we ‘B’ the ones to decide, and we ‘B’ the ones to do it. We will give the secretary your regards.”".
It is the federal bureaucrats that control all the elected officials.
These unelected federal bureaucrats serve "partisan outside institutions".
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Power is shifted from the state and local level to the federal level, from Congress to the bureaucracy, and in some cases from the bureaucracy to partisan outside institutions."
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Powerful interests have concluded that the real power now lies in the substructure of American government—the bureaucracy and its many linked and loyal private sector appendages. Once-vaunted institutions of capitalism, charity, science, and justice have been infiltrated and transformed into political tools."
The author explains with examples how and why power is with the partisan, unelected, federal bureaucrats with Leftist agenda and ideology. The reader is encouraged to read the book for explanation and examples.
Change
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Now we find ourselves in an epic battle to protect our constitutional rights, our economic well-being, and our national sovereignty."
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When you stack up all the problems and challenges, and look at how heavily fortified is the system that perpetuates them, it is daunting. I hope we remember we don’t have to do this alone."
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It’s a systemic corruption that can’t solely be solved by voting differently in the next election".
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If we make the mistake of focusing exclusively on who wins elections, who donates to campaigns, and who counts the votes, we will lose."
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The bad policies are now on autopilot. And it’s going to take a much broader strategy to reverse the damage."
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What we need is a cavalry of committed people who collectively identify the problem and seek to provide the changes needed. What I learned along the way in writing this book is that simply electing people to Congress will not change things fast enough.
I am not here to negate or diminish the role and responsibility of the men and women who are elected to office, but it’s going to take more than that."
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We shouldn’t assume that Congress will fix all things. They never have."
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The author ends the book with a positive note and gives several concrete proposals to bring power back to the people.
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I would hope they would join the fight for less government, less regulation, and help us all pursue more freedom and liberty."
"The battle is eminently winnable, but only if we understand how to fight it.
We don’t beat this back by simply campaigning harder during election season."
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The answers to our most complex problems are found outside of Washington, D.C. They are found in our homes, in our communities, and with our friends and neighbors."
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