Not everyone sees Trump or Musk as an existential threat to the American federal bureaucracy. In the March cover story of Harper’s, their Washington DC editor Andrew Cockburn argues that this latest war against the American state is “futile”. He expresses skepticism that DOGE’s efforts to dismantle the Federal will succeed, suggesting courts will likely block them as they did during Trump's first term. He predicts Musk's influence will diminish and that Trump will eventually sideline him. Cockburn also underlines the "contractor state" where much government work is already privatized, making structural change difficult. He criticizes Democrats for lacking energy and ideas, and suggests they need to disconnect from corporate interests and address issues like housing affordability and insurance costs to reconnect with voters.
Here are the 5 KEEN ON takeaways from our conversation with Andrew Cockburn:
Cockburn believes Trump's attempts to dismantle the federal bureaucracy will likely fail, as the courts and bureaucratic resistance will eventually prevail, just as they did during his first term.
He predicts Elon Musk's influence in the administration will be temporary, with Trump eventually sidelining him as other courtiers like Kash Patel assert their authority.
The "contractor state" (privatized government functions) makes structural reform difficult, as contracts can't be easily canceled without legal challenges.
Cockburn sees a fundamental crisis in the Democratic Party, describing a lack of energy and clear ideas at their recent convention, with leadership disconnected from working-class concerns.
He suggests Democrats need to divorce themselves from corporate interests and address real issues affecting Americans, like unaffordable housing, exploitative insurance practices, and the impact of tech companies on local communities.
Andrew Cockburn is the Washington Editor of Harper's magazine and the author of many articles and books on national security, including the New York Times Editor's Choice Rumsfeld and The Threat, which destroyed the myth of Soviet military superiority underpinning the Cold War. He is a regular opinion contributor to the Los Angeles Times and has written for, among others, the New York Times, National Geographic and the London Review of Books.
Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.
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