Many of you have heard of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy at the federal level. It is a commendable effort and much needed to reduce the tyranny unleashed when a government uses its power to target the people who elected it.
But wait—it’s not necessarily the elected officials who go after and suppress citizens. It’s the elected officials hiding behind unelected agencies and bureaucrats. These unelected agencies function as a fourth branch of government, wielding unlimited and unaccountable power while teaming up with power-hungry elected officials.
Unfortunately, while these federal agencies and corrupt politicians need to be dismantled, the average citizen rarely interacts with federal agencies in Washington, D.C. Individual citizens are more affected by these same unholy alliances at the state and local levels. State and local officials often have a greater impact on suppressing self-governance and freedom than federal officials. This country was founded on a unique system of self-governance and sovereignty, where citizens’ rights come from God—not government.
Let’s look at South Carolina and local politics. South Carolina’s marginal tax rate is one of the highest among red states. Yet, the state ranks in the bottom 10 in education, health, violent crime, and roads. Spending has increased almost 60% over the past four years, while the population has grown just 4% during the same period. So, where is the money going?
It’s funding the "agency state," which has grown to 103 agencies—so many that they are now out of office space. These agencies harass and intimidate citizens with 36,000 pages of regulations and counting. Remember, the U.S. Constitution began as a seven-page document. Citizens experience these regulations daily through permits, approvals, codes, ordinances, and endless rules dictating what they can and cannot do.
Local governments, once tasked with protecting citizens’ ability to self-govern, now act as enforcers for these bureaucrats. I share my brief personal story, not to play the victim but to illustrate how, while I can afford—through the grace of God—to stand up to these government bullies, the vast majority of people, especially the poor, elderly, and small-business owners, cannot. They are the ultimate victims.
As many of you know, the entire agency state descended on my family because we concluded that the government lacked a viable plan to protect the shoreline. I chose to build a protective structure on my property, well landward of the legislature-passed jurisdictional setback line. Before my case, the state had never claimed jurisdiction over private land beyond the setback line.
The environmental agency, along with certain local city officials working behind the scenes, bullied us by filing “emergency” actions in an administrative court (part of the executive branch, not the judicial branch) and then postponing these actions at least four times. They also dumped 20,000 pages of discovery on us to drive up legal costs.
When my wife and I personally reviewed these documents, we found that at least 80% were duplicates, copied between three and 17 times. These required expensive attorney reviews. The documents included irrelevant materials, such as a video of broccoli being chopped on a kitchen counter and publicly available manuals copied multiple times.
Disturbingly, I also discovered that some island residents, encouraged by the agency, acted as agents of the state. City officials, rather than assisting citizens, acted as spies. Assistant Administrator Doug Kerr speculated on ways the agency could claim my protective structure would impede the Army Corps’ work. Kerr also provided pictures and narratives of other residents who, in his opinion, could be violating agency edicts.
Councilman Hahn frequently sent narratives to contacts at the nonprofit Coastal Conservation League, a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization. Hahn made baseless claims, including, “He had concrete trucks lined up all night on Ocean Blvd”—a blatant lie. The Coastal Conservation League uses taxpayer-subsidized funds to target the very taxpayers who subsidize them.
How can normal citizens stand up to these endless assaults on due process? The short answer is they can’t. They are forced to give in.
If federal reform is to benefit citizens, it must extend to the state and local levels. The solution is clear: dismantle these agencies, return money to citizens through tax cuts, and restore the rule of law.
Citizens should govern themselves within a framework of constitutional laws administered by elected officials accountable to the public. Disputes must be adjudicated by the judicial branch—not the same branch that creates and enforces the rules.
All communications by public officials regarding citizens should be transparent. Instead, we have unelected agencies colluding in secret with power-hungry politicians and radical groups posing as nonprofits.
Marxism and communism seek to make people dependent on government rather than God. This is fundamentally opposed to the principles upon which this nation was founded. As the Declaration of Independence affirms, “All men are created equal” and “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.”
It is time for us to rise together, restore God’s rightful place, and reclaim the principles of self-governance and freedom.