This episode explores the American bureaucracy, its history, and organizational structure from 1789 to 1930 divided into three eras: The Founding Era (1789 – 1828), The Spoils System Era (1828 – 1883, and the Civil Service Reform Era (1883 – 1930). The problems experienced by our bureaucracy during the Founding Era were minor compared to those encountered during the Andrew Jackson presidency beginning in 1829 with his introduction of the infamous “Spoils System” and his flagrant abuses of presidential powers and the rule of law. Jackson’s presidency, perhaps more than any other, is accurately compared to the Trump presidency but on a smaller scale.

This episode of Fixing America with J Mel explores the damaging effect that minority control, poisonous partisan politics, and mis- and disinformation’s has had on civic participation. That, coupled with Trump’s war on the press, independent agencies, and legislative and bureaucratic oversight has prompted Americans to doubt our democracy and distort its potential. There is a better way: Subordinate politics to governance.

This episode of Fixing America with J Mel highlights how Trump has attacked and damaged individual and societal freedoms, when freedom is most vulnerable, and the lessons we learned, or should have learned, about freedom and its preservation from our own history. And last, we explore how the scientific revolution made positive improvements to our philosophy of individual and societal freedom.