How the New Deal Ran a Tight Ship, and Built Some Too
Liberals want to make government do big things again, while the Right disingenuously claims the mantle of government efficiency. With a capable and trustworthy bureaucracy the New Deal's PWA did both.
By Bob Leighninger
We are currently facing a loss of faith across the political spectrum in the ability of government to do anything effective. This has long been dogma on the Right, perhaps most famously embodied in Ronald Reagan’s mantra: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” This dogma manifested, for example, as Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which promised to modernize the federal government by importing wiz-kid technocrats wielding AI, like a young programmer known by the online moniker “Big Balls.” DOGE simply became a conservative wrecking ball for a new generation, decimating government in DC and nationwide.
But a similar paralysis has overcome the Left through its decades-long fight against corporate and government exploitation. Two recent books, Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson and Why Nothing Works by Marc Dunkelman, have addressed this deadlock in public policy and are trying to restore confidence in government’s administrative capacity and bureaucratic efficiency. These qualities don’t attract a mass constituency and win elections on their own, but their absence hampers the ability for government to engage in bold efforts that do.
In that sense, bureaucratic efficiency isn’t quite a political concern itself. You don’t need a political affiliation or ideology to be a bureaucrat. In fact, it’s generally regarded as good if you don’t have either. But if your work becomes political, and simultaneously your efficiency is subject to doubt, then basic government is suspect and day-to-day administration becomes problematic, in which case you can forget about being trusted to undertake a large project that will require large amounts of money and exert sweeping powers.
