The Rise of the Administrative State: How the Republic Was Hollowed Out

For most Americans, the idea that we live in a free republic governed by elected representatives is a comforting, if misinformed, belief. It’s the fairytale we were told in grade school, reinforced by civic holidays, and repeated every two to four years when we step into a voting booth.

But here’s the hard truth:

You don’t live in a republic anymore.You live in a regime.

And it wasn’t taken by physical force. There were no tanks in the streets. No burning of the Capitol. No foreign occupier raising a new flag over Washington.

It happened through paperwork, process, and propaganda. Through decades of laws you never read, regulations you never voted on, and bureaucrats you’ve never heard of. 

This is how the Administrative State rose—quietly, deliberately, and with full intent to replace the Founders’ vision of government with something colder, more permanent, and far more dangerous.

What Is the Administrative State?

Let’s be clear: the Administrative State is not a conspiracy theory. It is a documented fact of modern American government.

It is the vast, unelected network of agencies, departments, commissions, boards, and regulatory bodies that wield real power in this country—power to tax, regulate, surveil, punish, and even jail you. And they do it without your consent.

This isn’t representative democracy. It is rule by bureaucrat.

The Administrative State is the Leviathan in real time. A government not of, by, or for the people—but above them, ruling them. 

Where Did It Come From?

The seeds were planted in the early 20th century by the Progressive Statists—those smug, Ivy-League social engineers who believed the Constitution and its machinery were outdated and the American people, the dirty little peasants, were too ignorant to govern themselves.

Woodrow Wilson, the high priest of this movement, laid it out plainly: “The bulk of government is not legislation, but administration.” In his 1887 essay The Study of Administration, Wilson argued that experts should run the government, free from the “corrupting influence” of politics.

Translation? Strip the real governing power from elected officials and hand it to unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats.

And that’s exactly what they did.

• Under Wilson: the foundations of the modern bureaucracy were laid.

• Under FDR: the New Deal exploded the size and scope of federal agencies.

• Under LBJ: the Great Society embedded the idea that government must “care for you” from cradle to grave.

All the while, Congress—lazy, weak, and complicit—kept unConstitutionally sub-delegating more legislative authority to the executive branch and its ever-growing network of “experts.”

What Does It Look Like Today?

Look around. The Leviathan is fully grown, and still growing.

• The EPA regulates your car, your farm, your stove.

• The FBI targets parents at school board meetings.

• The DOJ is weaponized against political dissent.

• The CDC rewrites public policy without ever standing for election.

• The IRS is hiring tens of thousands of more agents—not to go after billionaires, but you.

This is not government by consent. It’s coercion in a suit and lab coat.

These agencies write their own rules, interpret them however they want, and enforce them with impunity. And if you dare question them? You're labeled a conspiracy theorist, an extremist, or worse—an enemy of the state.

Why It’s So Dangerous

The Administrative State violates the core structure of the Founders’ Republic. The Constitution separates powers—legislative, executive, judicial—so that no one branch can become tyrannical.

But the Administrative State combines all three and in many ways, has created its own fourth branch of government, one never envisioned by our Founders.

It writes rules (legislative), enforces them (executive), and adjudicates disputes (judicial)—often within the same agency.

That is tyranny by design.

And it’s been blessed by decades of weak-willed politicians and rubber-stamp courts under doctrines like Chevron deference, which until it was recently overturned, gave agencies the benefit of the doubt when interpreting laws they themselves enforce.

Imagine a referee who plays for one team, writes the rules mid-game, and ejects anyone who complains. That’s your government now.

Can the Administrative State Be Dismantled?

Yes. And it must be.

It was built by men and it can be dismantled by men. But only if we reject the lie that it’s legitimate.

The administrative state is not constitutional. It’s not democratic. It’s not American. And it sure as hell isn’t working for you.

We need elected officials with the spine to:

• Freeze hiring and cut budgets at every federal agency

• Bring back the separation of powers and reassert legislative authority

• Shut down agencies that have no constitutional justification

• Fire every last non-essential federal employee and remove those positions from federal rolls.

We don’t need more “managers.” We need fighters.

This Is the Fight

American Leviathan—the book, the documentary, this Substack—is about more than exposing the problem. It’s about building the resolve to confront it.

This isn’t a polite disagreement between gentlemen on the floor of the Senate. This is regime change politics. And one side is already ruling like it’s won.

But the Founders didn’t build this country to be ruled by experts. They built it to be ruled by the people.

It’s time to fight like they did.

Stay loud. Stay informed. Stay ungovernable.