Staff Reports
Nick Freitas’s BlazeTV interview with Dr. Kevin Slack lays out a blunt claim: over the past century Washington quietly handed real lawmaking power to an unelected administrative class. The episode — part of Freitas’s Making the Argument series — is worth watching if you want a plain-spoken case against the modern administrative state. It cuts past the usual Beltway euphemisms and asks the basic question: who really makes the rules that govern our lives?
The argument in plain terms
In the episode, Dr. Kevin Slack, Denman Chair of Politics at Hillsdale College, argues that Progressive‑era reforms and the New Deal “moved power from Congress and the states to an unelected bureaucracy.” That’s not a throwaway line. It’s the thesis. Nick Freitas, the BlazeTV host, presses the point from his experience as a state legislator: when lawmakers stop making hard choices, bureaucrats fill the void. The result is a system where agencies write detailed rules, enforce them, and then judge disputes — all with far less accountability than elected bodies.
Mechanics: how Washington got the cash and the power
Slack and Freitas point to clear turning points: the 16th Amendment and the rise of New Deal programs. The 16th Amendment gave the federal government sustained tax revenue it didn’t have before, and that revenue was the fuel for a bigger federal footprint. Agencies and programs multiplied. Legal doctrines and civil‑service reforms hardened a professional bureaucracy with real discretion. Historians debate the timing and the details — scholars at places like the Miller Center note it was a long process — but the broad outline is supported by basic history and archival facts (see National Archives on the 16th Amendment).
Why this matters to conservatives — and what to do about it
This isn’t just academic. An administrative state that writes its own rules without clear congressional checks undermines popular self‑government. If Congress prefers to punt, it should not be surprised when unelected officials step in. The remedy is old-fashioned and simple: Congress must take back its Article I responsibilities, reassert oversight, and pass clearer laws that limit agency discretion. Courts should enforce the separation of powers, and conservatives should stop treating “experts” as a substitute for democratic accountability. In short: stop complaining about the problem and start demanding that elected officials do their jobs.
The Freitas–Slack conversation is sharp, and at times provocative. Slack even frames America’s founding and the Progressive debate in ways that will unsettle some listeners. That’s the point: this argument forces us to choose between a government run by our representatives or one run by permanent administrators. For conservatives who care about limited government and accountable rulemaking, the choice is obvious — and it’s time to act like it.
