Can the country be saved, or is it too late? This is the second installment of my podcast series examining these questions.
Today we’re joined by Jim Erdman, a retired CIA senior operations officer, Army Ranger veteran, and co-founder of Feds for Freedom, who initially joined the government after 9/11 out of a sincere desire to help the country and catch bad guys.
Looking back, Jim thinks that 9/11 was the breaking point for the U.S. That’s when elements within the government used and misused the trauma of 9/11 to dramatically expand budgets, surveillance, and executive powers while congressional oversight steadily eroded.
Jim’s personal breaking point happened during COVID. After initially trusting government institutions, Erdman says the pandemic response convinced him that multiple federal agencies abandoned ethical standards, entirely abandoned their missions to help their fellow citizens while coordinating right-stripping policies from the top down.
After many years of experience, Jim’s view is that the near-total lack of accountability for high-level people is one of the biggest problems we face. Whether they’re just really bad at their jobs and deserve to be fired, or have engaged in criminal activities, nothing ever happens. So, nothing ever changes. At least for the better. Things do change for the worse without accountability.
Washington DC, he says, is now operating a ‘blob’ that outlasts any particular presidency or elected official, and carries on with its own sets of incentives and no fear of being ousted by citizens voting or complaining.
So, can the country be saved? Yes, he says, if enough people stand up and demand that change. But he also recognizes the difficulties of that given the fact that our voting processes and systems are, shall we say, vulnerable.
Can the country be saved? Maybe. But first, some things will have to change. One of the main things is that we’re going to have to bring accountability back to the powerful.
Tune in for the rest.
Timestamps
00:00 The Government We Thought We Had
02:43 When The Government Changed
05:30 How The Patriot Act Changed Everything
08:28 The Bureaucracy Learns It Can’t Be Stopped
10:46 When An Intelligence Officer Started Questioning The System
14:50 Why Jim Joined The CIA
20:14 COVID Becomes The Final Wake-Up Call
24:56 The Federal Vaccine Mandate Revolt
32:05 From Counterterrorism To The Surveillance State
35:02 Why Nobody Is Being Held Accountable
43:39 Following The Money In The Epstein Case
46:53 Who Really Owns The Government
50:37 You Can’t Just Vote Your Way Out
55:02 Can America Trust Its Elections
01:01:06 Stop Bitching And Fix The Government
01:06:14 Who Actually Owns America
01:09:08 Is Money The Real Power
01:10:06 What Happened With Havana Syndrome
01:12:29 COVID’s Unintended Consequence
01:17:15 The Political Coalition That Got Lost
01:19:52 What Happened To Trump
01:31:09 The Alternative To Civil Conflict
01:33:17 Individual Responsibility And The Way Forward
01:35:31 Feds For Freedom
by davefairtex