MAGA, MAHA and the Nanny State
An address at the Mises Circle in Phoenix, Saturday, April 26
Our Enemy, the Bureaucracy
“What bureaucrats and power elites always want is for the opposition to shut up and go away, to obey orders, to accept their assigned tasks.” —Murray N. Rothbard
We won’t shut up or go away.
Bureaucracy is both a weapon and a weakness for the modern state. While bureaucracy regulates, spies on, and controls almost every aspect of our lives, it is impeded by its own incompetence and waste. That’s why Mises said, in his book of the same name, “The ultimate basis of an all-around bureaucratic system is violence,” and “Of course, the bulk of the bureaucrats were rather mediocre men.”
Maybe we should be thankful for bureaucratic inefficiency because without it we’d suffer more bureaucratic violence.
Join the Mises Institute this April in Phoenix, Arizona, to expose the danger and waste of bureaucracy. Speakers include Dr. Robert Malone, discussing his provocative book PsyWar: Enforcing the New World Order and the role of psychological operations in bureaucratic control; Tom Woods, exposing the madness of covid-era “public health” authorities, which he documented in his book Diary of a Psychosis; and Tom DiLorenzo roasting the corruption and hypocrisy of our federal bureaucracy.
MAGA, MAHA, and the Nanny State
Robert W. Malone, MD, MS
There are fundamental fault lines between MAHA and MAGA, and in many ways they resolve into pro-regulatory big government initiatives versus promotion of deregulation/small government.
It is worth noting that the MAHA movement exists outside of Kennedy and the government, and encompasses many societal issues outside of the focus of the Trump administration. For instance, homesteading, medical and personal sovereignty, and personal responsibility for healthcare choices may all be outside of the MAHA whole-of-government approach. For this discussion, I am primarily concerned with the MAHA directives within the government. But MAHA is much bigger than that.
MAHA has emerged mainly from the left and, out of frustration due to the Democrat party corruption and rejection, has embraced the center-right. In turn, MAHA has been enthusiastically endorsed by MAGA and center-right populists, including many formerly associated with the Tea Party movement.
The arc of the Presidential campaign of RFK Jr. closely adheres to this narrative. Bobby started out seeking the Democratic party nomination as representing “Kennedy Democrats,” and announced a platform proposing a return to his legendary father and uncle's pre-Carter, pre-Ronald Reagan “New Deal” positions. But the Democrat party of today bears little resemblance to that of his father and uncle’s time, and the changes in National political thought on both left and right wrought by Reagan, Carter, and then the succession of the military-industrial corporatist Bushes and Clinton(s)-Obama-Biden on the left. To no one's surprise, apparently other than Bobby and his team, today’s Democrat party made it abundantly clear that there was no room for this Kennedy in the tent. So he decided to make a run as an independent, and Nicole Shanahan stepped up to bankroll and prop up the drive to get Bobby on the ballot in all 50 states - which was amazingly successful to the credit of all concerned. However, it was clear that, once again, an independent run would primarily function as a spoiler, in this case for the campaign of Donald J. Trump. After much advice, consideration, deep self-examination, and the disappointment of many of his supporters, RFK Jr. famously decided to pivot to endorsing and joining the candidacy of the once and future President Trump. The pivotal moment was RFK jr.’s empathetic phone call to DJT after the assassination attempt, which still reeks of a deep state operation much like what happened to Bobby’s uncle and father. And RFK Jr. did so in a spectacular manner, with a ringing endorsement speech that will live in history.
So, MAHA largely originates from the left, but the appeal crosses all party lines. Who does not want to be more healthy?
The initial MAHA mandate is to demonstrate measurable improvements in the health of US citizens within 12-18 months, with a particular focus on chronic disease and children’s health. One aspect of this effort will involve re-focusing the HHS on health promotion and de-emphasizing disease-specific treatment.
At its core, MAHA is predominantly pro-regulation. The logic is that we must use regulatory authority to improve transparency and eliminate that which leads to unhealthy outcomes. Examples include drugs with side effects that, when considered in whole, do not have a strongly favorable risk/benefit ratio. And glyphosate (Roundup) contamination of our grain and soybeans.
However, there is also a deregulatory aspect to the MAHA movement. For example, is unpasteurized milk really a health risk, and what health promotion properties are associated with unpasteurized milk? Similarly, the move towards backyard poultry and eating locally slaughtered grass fed beef. Or reexamination of the widespread US policy of fluoridating municipal water supplies. And there is also an investigational research aspect, for example, what are the drivers behind the explosion of autism, obesity, and other childhood chronic diseases.
To date, the MAHA movement has primarily focused on things that big government can do to promote improved health of US Citizens. Removing known toxins from food. Investigating autism causes. Questioning the pediatric vaccine schedule and revising the CDC VAERS vaccine adverse event reporting system so that truly informed decisions can be made concerning the safety and efficacy of vaccine products.
But behind that is the potential for the MAHA initiative, if institutionalized and bureaucratized, to morph into another overbearing set of nanny state mandates. To make the point, I often use the example of the person who loves McDonald’s Hamburgers consumed with Sugary Coca-Cola. You know who I am talking about. Should the State mandate that such a person not eat these things, despite the clear-cut health risks? Should the State outlaw cigars? And what about regulating foods? Where should MAHA draw the line? What principles should be applied to guide these decisions? What is the proper role of small government as it relates to food and drug regulation?
This really involves the boundaries between individual sovereignty, libertarianism, Murray Rothbard’s anarcho-capitalism, and the utilitarian/socialist logic of modern “Public Health”. The modern “public health” enterprise seeks the greatest good for the greatest number and is driven by narrow analysis of large data sets to identify, regulate, promote or mandate specific “health care” interventions such as vaccines- while often disregarding other related issues including long term, unanticipated or difficult to predict consequences.
A “public health” enterprise that seeks to achieve optimization of collective health outcomes rather than optimizing health opportunities coupled to respect for individual autonomy (choice). A “public health” enterprise that has repeatedly used top-down management via government, insurer, and health management organizations to require and deploy pre-approved treatment protocols rather than individually optimized health management and promotion, reflecting each patient's complexities. One size fits all, and do what you are told. An expansionist Public Health enterprise and bureaucracy that has come to fully embrace Socialism and Socialist logic. Enforcing a “one size fits all” “Greatest Good for the Greatest Number” logic at the expense of individual liberty of thought and deed via a centralized global “command economy”-based bureaucracy now routinely alluded to as the “One World Order” by the European Union.
Consider seat belt mandates. Like many big government initiatives that stand at the top of slippery slopes, there is a general consensus that it is right and proper for government to mandate seat belts be installed in cars. But is it right to legally require their use when driving? Next comes motorcycle helmets. Same issues, but slightly less clear. Cigarette smoking? In all three cases, the argument is made that irresponsible health behaviors by individuals cost all of society due to increased health care and insurance costs (including publicly subsidized costs), and loss of person-years. The same logic then can be applied all the way down to whether the State should mandate your dietary choices, which is why I use the McDonald’s hamburger example. Should we “allow” citizens to experiment with nutraceuticals and health supplements that are not officially endorsed by the FDA?
And there we go, right straight to nanny state medical fascism. But seatbelts save lives. Air traffic controllers save lives (most of the time, with some recent exceptions). You get my point.
If MAHA is to transition from merely a populist uprising and set of immediate grievances to a new, transformed and sustainable set of public health enterprise policies, we need to take some time to think about and define acceptable limits on the role of the State in promoting, advancing and in some cases mandating limits on infringement of individual sovereignty and autonomy.
Immediate short term interventions are absolutely necessary, and I applaud the use of both the bully pulpit as well as executive orders. But if MAHA is to become more than just a populist uprising, and to result in sustainable long term policy changes, it is also important to take the time required to examine, define, and develop public support for the boundaries between the proper role of a Constitutional Republic - based federal government, the constitutional role of individual States (which are constitutionally responsible for regulating the practice of medicine), and both the sovereign rights of the individual and the global right to truly informed consent to medical interventions.
To drive home this final point, as a component of his commitment to no longer “walk on eggshells”, the US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has recently stated that the COVID genetic “vaccines” were experimental medical products, and that the “vaccine mandates” were illegal. These mandated experimental products were associated with severe adverse events including myocarditis, stroke, and death, and the US bureaucracy actively suppressed the ability of those who were either forced or willingly accepted these products to obtain informed consent. These actions were violations of the Nuremberg accords, and there must be accountability and consequences.
The greatest good for the greatest number has become a logical fallacy. For a while it seemed to work but when you look at its 21st century incarnation in particular it has been become badly corrupted. . The history and reality behind vaccines is perhaps the best example in modern times. The entire topic of “Public Health” needs to be deconstructed as it is practiced today. Public health is good when the objectives are clear, make sense to everyone and are transparent in implementation and the results measurable. We have wonderful examples - Clean water, sanitation(especially modern sewers, sewage treatment and waste management), clean air in places with local air polution, antibiotics, advanced surgical procedures, efficacious pain management, food safety and finally public education on straightforward matters of health -all of these areas represented great progress in public health and all were largely in hand in developed countries in the 20th century. Things seemed to go down hill from there, particularly with allopathic western medicine which morphed into monetized sick care and then monetized sickness in all of its aspects, an evil that we are living with to the great detriment of so many people. This is the area that now needs to be right in the center of the crosshairs.
Hegseth is the deep state operatives nightmare. Now that he has declared government mandating the jab of experimental drugs required to keep your job in the military and even contractors who had to comply as illegal let’s see what they’ll do to shut him up. He left a multi million dollar TV gig to take on this behemoth government agency tells me he’s a first class patriot. He has my respect.