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The Doge and the Fall of the American State

Picture a once-mighty empire, stripped to its underwear. Once hailed for its democratic values and global reach, the United States now staggers beneath the weight of its own contradictions—its institutions hollowed out, its alliances squandered, its climate left to burn. In the aftermath of a second Trump presidency, what was once dismissed as political theatre has morphed into a crisis so profound that even the most reluctant observers must confront the truth: the old order cannot endure.

A Theoretical Prelude to Revolution

Imagine a once-dominant superpower drifting into crisis: a state hollowed out, its institutions warped by conspiracy and self-interest, its foreign alliances traded for transactional pacts with strongmen, its climate responsibilities abandoned as profits trump survival. In this hypothetical aftermath of a second Trump presidency, the United States—long hailed as the pinnacle of capitalist ascendancy—finds itself stripped of legitimacy. Policies once cloaked in patriotic rhetoric now stand exposed as opportunistic gambits that fail to improve ordinary lives. Economic nationalism and xenophobia cannot mask stagnating wages, brittle supply chains, and collapsing social programmes. Meanwhile, a “Doge Department” of oligarchic tech bros’ advisors hijacks the economy, dismantling oversight and turning public wealth into speculative plunder. Ironically, these very actions, designed to cement elite dominance, intensify the contradictions of late-stage capitalism. As communities suffer climate-induced disasters, as allies lose faith, and as governing institutions devolve into theatre, disillusioned citizens begin to recognise their exploitation—laying the groundwork for revolutionary change.

The Second Trump Presidency: Hollowed-Out Institutions and Corrupt Alliances

The second Trump term amplifies pre-existing tendencies: self-styled “America First” policies morph into a blunt instrument of economic nationalism. Tariff wars raise consumer prices and squeeze domestic producers reliant on imported parts, while migrant crackdowns devour public funds yet fail to raise wages or safeguard jobs. Initially framed as patriotic measures, these policies show their true colours as distractions that mask deeper structural failings. Meanwhile, Trump’s admiration for strongmen intensifies. Rather than bolstering democracy or human rights abroad, foreign policy devolves into transactional manoeuvres. Diplomatic overtures are reserved for despots who promise lucrative business deals. Military aid to democratic allies is withdrawn unless it can offer immediate profit or political leverage. Global partners recoil as

As alliances with autocrats replace democratic norms, the state’s veneer of legitimacy crumbles, revealing profit and power as its sole guiding lights.

This cynicism erodes America’s post-war identity as a supposed defender of a “rules-based international order.” Allies, sensing the hollow centre beneath Washington’s bluster, seek alternative alignments. Markets, once soothed by the myth of American stability, shudder at the regime’s capriciousness. Domestically, communities that once granted Trump the benefit of the doubt begin to question the returns on their loyalty. If foreign withdrawals and bargains with kleptocrats do not translate into better living standards, what purpose does this grand show serve?

Ignoring Climate Catastrophe and Environmental Collapse

In parallel, environmental responsibility is all but abandoned. The scant climate regulations that survived Trump’s first term are rolled back entirely. Fossil fuel interests are given free rein, funding for climate science is slashed, and any remaining participation in international climate accords is scrapped. This willful ignorance of ecological reality compounds existing crises. Extreme weather events, crop failures, and resource scarcity punish working-class neighbourhoods first and hardest. Investors and elites shield themselves behind private security, fortified compounds, and “disaster-proof” enclaves, while ordinary households face spiralling costs, contaminated water, and erratic food supplies.

Ignoring climate catastrophe in favour of quick profits unmasks the state’s true priorities: wealth for the elite, hardship for the rest.

Here the moral bankruptcy is palpable. In theory, capitalism once promised betterment for all; in practice, it now delivers serial crises to the many and windfalls to the few. The administration’s alliance with resource-plundering autocrats only intensifies this pattern. Rather than mitigating the climate emergency, these partnerships treat ecological collapse as just another opportunity to amass private fortunes.

Neutralising the State for Elite Gain

It’s against this backdrop that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy present their (Musk’s?) so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (“Doge”). Far from a genuine public institution, Doge is a privately driven advisory committee claiming it can cut £400bn ($500bn) from the federal budget. Musk and Ramaswamy pitch this to an already sympathetic Republican majority on Capitol Hill, promising to streamline government but ignoring an important point that they lack the constitutional authority to form an actual department. As legal experts note, only Congress can create a department. Ironically, the government already has several—such as the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO)—dedicated to identifying, yes, you guessed it, waste and inefficiency.

Instead of offering substantive oversight, Doge promises recommendations filtered through billionaires who have vested interests in government contracts, regulatory climates, and sectors of the economy. Under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Doge must present a charter and conduct its deliberations in public. Yet the notion that these magnates—whose own companies profit from federal contracts—can shape policy without direct accountability or confirmation hearings becomes a chilling example of oligarchic capture.

“When economic policy becomes a gambling table for oligarchs, communities awaken to the reality that the system is rigged against them.”

Doge is a duplicative and extra-governmental entity designed to bypass traditional checks, proposing to reorder federal spending without the scrutiny that comes with actual public office. A parallel subcommittee, led by Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, aims to implement Doge’s suggestions. Though a few Democrats, like Jared Moskowitz, join in the name of non-partisan efficiency, the underlying intent—privileged elites guiding federal priorities—remains clear. The efficiency the billionaires champion often translates into cutting public broadcasting, trimming international aid, and even challenging workplace arrangements for federal employees. All the while, the greatest expenditures—like Social Security, Medicare, and defence budgets—remain politically untouchable, highlighting the hollow ambition of the project.

Doge is like a Silicon Valley startup pitching the ultimate “government unicorn”—a sleek, data-driven creature of pure efficiency and profit—that, in reality, can never exist. It’s another fever-dream of the tech utopia, chasing a mythic beast that dissolves the moment anyone tries to bring its gleaming promises into the messy world of public life.

Seeds of Revolution

Marxist theory predicts that when a ruling class can no longer govern effectively in the old manner, and when the oppressed cannot bear existing conditions any longer, revolutionary possibilities surface. Here, as the facade of “America First” patriotism fractures, workers will realise the emptiness of nationalist rhetoric. Tariffs and border militarisation will not bolstered wages or made life secure; they have merely stirred resentment and divided communities. Climate disasters will continue to batter front doors, proving that denial does not grant immunity. The pivot towards autocrats and the gutting of domestic protections make plain that profit—not liberty or prosperity—drives these policies. It’s disaster capitalism writ large.

As illusions crumble, people cast aside the idea that immigrants are to blame or that foreign wars serve humanitarian ends. Instead, they see a system engineered to serve oligarchs and their pockets while leaving the vast majority vulnerable. In this moment of revelation, Community organisers, labour unions, and mutual aid networks fill the void left by a discredited state. Digital platforms, once dominated by corporate propaganda, are repurposed for radical critique, knowledge exchange, and strategic coordination. Environmental activists join forces with labour organisers and cultural workers, building alliances that cross ethnic and national divides.

Disillusioned and emboldened, citizens move beyond hollow patriotism, forging new solidarities that challenge the very foundations of capitalist rule.

Towards a Revolutionary Break

The slow burn of discontent, accelerated by environmental catastrophes and the stripping of state functions, the stage for a revolutionary break is set. Citizens must understand that the crises besetting them are not aberrations; they are the predictable outcomes of a system designed to protect elites. The Doge Department’s deliberate sabotage of public oversight, the courting of authoritarians, and the disdain for climate realities all combine to spotlight the necessity of structural overhaul.

With old illusions stripped away, communities must envision new forms of governance rooted in genuine popular sovereignty. Worker-owned co-operatives, people’s councils, and sustainable planned economy replace the predatory logics of extractive capitalism. Impoverished by false promises, citizens will turn to each other for mutual support, gradually realising that liberation cannot come from the very institutions engineered to subordinate them.

Conclusion

This scenario, while speculative, synthesises tendencies recognisable in contemporary politics: the fascination with strongmen, the denial of climate science, the hollowing out of institutional checks, and the oligarchic capture of economic policy. By intensifying these traits, the hypothetical second Trump presidency reveals the system’s naked cynicism. Ironically, such blatant inequity and disregard hasten the birth of class consciousness and revolutionary ambition.

What emerges is a stark lesson: the more aggressively elites manipulate power for their own gain, the clearer it becomes that the status quo cannot endure. In the shock of disenchantment and the shared recognition of exploitation, communities find the courage and clarity to challenge capitalist hegemony. Thus, the very forces that sought to entrench the old order’s dominance end up seeding the landscape of its undoing.


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