Director Ari Aster ’s “Eddington,” which has inspired more heated discussion than it ticket sales, drops us unpleasantly back into an America at the peak of COVID-19 hysteria.

Our putative protagonist is Joe Cross, well-intentioned but beleaguered sheriff of the small desert outpost of Eddington, New Mexico.

Aster’s previous films resolve with satanic forces claiming victory over well-meaning innocents just trying to grapple coherently with temptation and strife.

Already burdened with a psychologically fragile wife (Emma Stone) and a live-in, conspiracy-obsessed mother-in-law (Deirdre O’Connell), Cross must now keep the peace for a populace bitterly divided over masks, social distancing, and business closures, while facing down BLM riots. His downtime doomscrolling (remember the black squares on Instagram?) offers no relief.

Six-feet showdown

Cross himself is COVID-skeptical, to the say the least, which puts him at odds with Mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal), the kind of slimy, fake, media-savvy politico who could give California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) a run for his money.

Watching the first half of this movie in 2025 is enjoyably cathartic. Even the audience at the screening I saw — in an art-house theater in liberal Chicago — cringed at the movie’s virtue-signaling adults and their brainwashed teens. The biggest laugh came when a father, having just been subjected to a rant from his son about “white abolition,” blurts out, “Are you f***ing re****ed? YOU’RE white!”

I doubt I have to remind anyone that only a few years ago, these reactions would have been very different.

Truther or dare

From our vantage point in 2025, Cross seems to be the most levelheaded man in town, a flawed but decent public servant trying to make sense of a world gone mad. Finally, we think, a belated but nonetheless welcome jab at the liberal delusions that held sway in our country for the last decade.

That’s when Aster pulls the rug out from under us. Our hero makes a series of choices that progress from foolhardy to downright evil, choices he ends up paying for in the most grotesque way possible. We, in turn, are punished for daring to identify with Cross. It’s as if Aster wants to leave us not merely disillusioned but utterly humiliated.

Pascal’s ostensible villain also falls away to reveal a much more formidable nemesis: the powerful corporation behind the development of Eddington’s much-contested “SolidGoldMagikarp Data Center.” These shadowy Big Tech overlords seem to validate every paranoid imagining of the online fringes, right and left: jetting in hooded, well-trained shock troops to carry out false-flag “Antifa” attacks and thwart populist dissent, distracting a divided and confused public from the very real threat they represent.

RELATED: ‘Eddington’: Portrait of COVID-era craziness wrings laughs from peak wokeness

Eric Charbonneau/A24 via Getty Images

Jabber jibber

Now … some critics may believe that this is the main message of the film. That the struggle is Them vs. Us. The real villains are the faceless “Eyes Wide Shut” cabal of world controllers who send out their minions to subvert the will of the people. “Smart viewers understand this,” the critics will say.

Well, I’m a smart viewer, and I don’t care about that. Maybe it is Them vs. Us in real life, but in Hollywood, and to Ari Aster, and to the audience in the theater on both sides of the aisle, the message of “Eddington” is clear: You can’t win.

Aster’s previous films, “Beau Is Afraid,” “Midsommar,” and “Hereditary,” all resolve with satanic forces claiming victory over well-meaning innocents just trying to grapple coherently with temptation and strife. No one is held accountable for the perpetration of this violence; there is no justice or righteous retribution.

“Eddington” turns out to be just another variation of this story, this time using COVID instead of the supernatural to torture its characters. The question we should ask is who benefits from this nihilistic message?

Certainly not the audience. Joe Cross and the people of Eddington may be stuck where they are, helpless before the whims of their sadistic creator, but there’s nothing keeping us in town. None of us would want to live in Aster World; maybe it’s time we admitted it’s not even a nice place to visit.

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Reports indicate that the American tech job market is slowing down significantly, making it increasingly more difficult for qualified individuals to find employment. However, a team of technology professionals contends that jobs are out there; they are just not being advertised to American talent.

The Economic Policy Institute found that the top 30 H-1B employers hired 34,000 new foreign workers in 2022, yet laid off at least 85,000 between 2022 and early 2023, further fueling concerns that companies are booting Americans for foreign nationals to keep wages lower.

‘We were shocked to discover these discriminatory practices are still widespread across major American companies today, keeping Americans out of jobs in their own country.’

Indian nationals accounted for roughly 71% of H-1B workers in 2024, while Chinese nationals ranked second, with 12%. Indian and Chinese nationals also represent the largest groups of foreign-born STEM workers, according to the American Immigration Council.

The background

Reports like this sparked action from fed-up tech workers who decided to establish Jobs.Now, an online job board featuring a list of positions sourced from “legally mandated PERM labor market test locations” in newspaper classified advertisements.

PERM is a permanent labor certification issued by the Department of Labor, allowing employers to hire foreign talent to work in the United States. This certification sets workers on a path to receive a green card. Many of these candidates are already working for the employer on temporary visas, such as the H-1B or the Optional Practical Training programs.

The tech workers were driven to start the online job board after Apple and Facebook settled worker discrimination lawsuits with the Department of Justice.

In 2021, Facebook agreed to pay $4.75 million in civil penalties and up to $9.5 million to eligible victims after it was accused of “routinely” refusing to “recruit, consider, or hire U.S. workers” for positions it had reserved for temporary visa holders.

Similarly, in 2023, Apple agreed to pay $6.75 million in civil penalties and establish an $18.25 million back pay fund for victims after the DOJ claimed the company “illegally discriminated in hiring and recruitment against U.S. citizens and certain non-U.S. citizens.”

RELATED: The real labor crisis? Too many visas, not too few workers

Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

“We were shocked to discover these discriminatory practices are still widespread across major American companies today, keeping Americans out of jobs in their own country,” Jobs.Now told Blaze News. “We started Jobs.Now to fight against these illegal practices and help Americans find good jobs.”

Sneaky tactics

Jobs.Now warned that some companies — particularly those seeking to fill engineering, data science, finance, accounting, and biotechnology positions — will try to hide opportunities from American workers to favor their existing H-1B employee and provide lower wages.

Under PERM laws, a company seeking to hire a foreign national must demonstrate “that there are not sufficient U.S. workers able, willing, qualified, and available to accept the job opportunity in the area of intended employment and that employment of the foreign worker will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers.”

To demonstrate this, the employer must advertise the position in two Sunday newspapers and select three additional recruitment steps, which can include advertising the position at job fairs, the employer’s website, an online job board, and on radio and television, among other options.

‘Jobs.Now highlights those ads, but that doesn’t mean the company is running a new search. It’s just about meeting the compliance rules.’

The employer can hire a foreign national via the PERM process only if there are no other minimally qualified U.S. citizens or existing green card holders available.

“As a result, they put ads in newspapers with obscure application methods aiming to hide the listing from Americans, so they will not receive applications and will be able to sponsor their preferred immigrant candidate for a green card to fill the job,” Jobs.Now told Blaze News.

Jobs.Now explained that it has found some job postings that feature “hidden” characteristics — including “not being posted on the company website, not being posted on mainstream job boards, and requiring email or paper mail applications” — that could result in fewer American applicants.

Jobs.Now has also highlighted postings that refer individuals to send their applications to immigration professionals and law firms, rather than human resources workers.

“To maintain business continuity, or the wage arbitrage of hiring lower-paid immigrant workers, companies prefer to keep these existing employees rather than seek American citizens as required for permanent roles,” Jobs.Now stated. “They commonly treat PERM labor market tests as compliance exercises where they fill out paperwork, rather than actual hiring processes. As a result, they often direct applications to immigration professionals or law firms rather than ordinary recruiters.”

RELATED: Microsoft rejects idea that company is replacing American workers with foreign labor after massive layoffs

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Clashing views

While Jobs.Now highlights the labor market tests as being treated as mere formalities rather than genuine efforts to recruit American workers, recruiter Mark Fabela affirmed that these postings are meant to satisfy regulatory requirements and are “not about launching a broad hiring campaign.” Though, perspectives differ on whether this complies with the law.

“Instead, it’s about documenting for the Department of Labor that no qualified U.S. workers stepped forward during the recruitment phase. That’s why you see the mandated postings in newspapers and other outlets,” Fabela told Blaze News. “Jobs.Now highlights those ads, but that doesn’t mean the company is running a new search. It’s just about meeting the compliance rules.”

“By the time these ads appear, the role is often already filled by someone, usually an H-1B worker the company is already employing,” he said, dismissing Jobs.Now’s claim that the posts aimed to hide jobs from Americans.

‘Only after no US worker can be found will the PERM application be approved. Whether the foreign worker is already performing the job is immaterial.’

However, other experts challenge Fabela’s perspective, asserting that the law requires genuine efforts to hire Americans, even through the labor market tests posted in the newspaper.

“Employers must conduct good-faith recruitment of U.S. workers and offer that position to any qualified and willing U.S. applicant,” Dr. Ron Hira, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Howard University, told Blaze News. “Only after no U.S. worker can be found will the PERM application be approved. Whether the foreign worker is already performing the job is immaterial.”

Hira called the law “crystal clear” but noted that even the DOL “has been guilty of administrative malpractice in enforcing PERM regulations.”

RELATED: AI, global power, and the end of human jobs — are we ready?

Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images

“For the past few decades, DOL has turned a blind eye to rampant employer discrimination against U.S. workers in the PERM recruitment process,” he explained. “Everyone, including DOL, knows that discrimination is more common than not in PERM applications.”

The DOL admitted in a 2020 report that the PERM program “relentlessly has employers not complying with the qualifying criteria.” It also stated that it has “limited authority over the H-1B program as it can only deny incomplete and obviously inaccurate applications and conduct complaint-based investigations, challenges in protecting the welfare of the nation’s workforce.”

“Therefore, the PERM and H-1B programs remain highly susceptible to fraud,” the DOL concluded.

Hira called for Americans to petition the Trump administration “to start enforcing the plain language of the law.”

‘Americans don’t have a real shot at these jobs; they were already displaced long ago when the employer hired the worker on a temporary visa.’

Jessica Vaughan, the director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, echoed Hira’s concerns about enforcement failures, calling the PERM process “a charade.”

“The reality is that nearly all of these employers already have a foreign worker in the job and are just seeking to check off the boxes that the law requires,” Vaughan told Blaze News. “Americans don’t have a real shot at these jobs; they were already displaced long ago when the employer hired the worker on a temporary visa.”

Congress fueled some of these issues by adjusting the eligibility criteria for green cards to more closely align with those for temporary visas, Vaughan explained.

“That means there are more temporary workers now seeking to get green cards to stay permanently, and they are willing to work for less money on that promise. However, they have a long wait for the green cards, and the employers don’t want to have to consider Americans for these jobs, since they promised them to the foreign workers, and they can get away with paying them less,” Vaughan stated.

Concerning any “good faith” efforts to find Americans to fill these positions, Vaughan reasoned that there is “little enforcement of the requirement” because employers have found ways to circumvent rules.

Fabela acknowledges that issues exist within the current process, including a lack of modernization with the print newspaper ad requirement. He also noted that some job requirements are so “overly narrow” that they “effectively match one candidate’s resume.” The most concerning issue is “wage-level manipulation,” according to Fabela.

“Bad actors will write dumbed-down job descriptions in a way that understates the role’s actual skill level. That allows them to pay experienced candidates significantly less while still clearing the prevailing wage test,” Fabela told Blaze News.

Jobs.Now also highlighted issues with the manipulation of the “overly broad” prevailing wage standard, which “allows companies to slot jobs into categories that could include far less advanced roles, which have lower wage standards.”

America First reforms

Amid an uncertain tech job market and ongoing criticisms of the PERM process, advocates like Jobs.Now are pushing for reforms to address the root problems and restore priority to American workers.

Jobs.Now is calling for changes to H-1B and PERM regulations, as well as the cancellation of the OPT visa program, to open more job opportunities to American workers, including entry-level recent college graduates.

‘We think the regulations must be changed so that labor market tests give American citizens the right they deserve to be considered first for jobs in America, rather than the formality they are currently treated as.’

Companies should also be required to prove that there are no qualified American candidates available for a position before issuing an H-1B visa, Jobs.Now stated.

The tech workers behind the job board website are advocating for companies to be required to post all labor market tests on their website’s career page, accept digital applications, and post on high-traffic job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed, rather than newspaper classifieds.

RELATED: America last? Foreign workers fill jobs while Americans are left out

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

“In short, we think the regulations must be changed so that labor market tests give American citizens the right they deserve to be considered first for jobs in America, rather than the formality they are currently treated as,” Jobs.Now told Blaze News.

Fabela agrees that the H-1B program is flawed and in need of reform to prevent abuse. However, he noted that he is “unapologetically pro-H-1B,” expressing concern that China would win the tech race “without firing a shot” if the U.S. closes the door on foreign talent.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has vowed to clamp down on employment bias by increasing investigations, compliance checks, and litigation.

“The EEOC is putting employers and other covered entities on notice: If you are part of the pipeline contributing to our immigration crisis or abusing our legal immigration system via illegal preferences against American workers, you must stop,” EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas stated in March.

“The EEOC is here to protect all workers from unlawful national origin discrimination, including American workers,” Lucas remarked.

The DOL did not respond to a request for comment.

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​News, America first, Big tech, Tech, Tech companies, Tech industry, Job market, American jobs, American workers, Jobs.now, Perm, Permanent labor certification, Department of labor, Dol, H-1b, H-1b visas, H1b, H1b visas, Department of justice, Doj, Apple, Facebook, Employment discrimination, Job board, Mark fabela, Ron hira, Jessica vaughan, Politics 

In their co-authored best seller “Dark Future,” Glenn Beck and Justin Haskins predicted a day when global leaders would rely on artificial intelligence to help them govern nations.

Just two years after the book’s publication, their premonition has already come true. Earlier this month, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson admitted in an interview with the Swedish business newspaper “Dagens Industri” that he frequently uses AI tools, such as ChatGPT and LeChat, to seek “second opinions” on policy decisions.

Before proposing or enacting a new policy, Kristersson asks AI chatbots questions like, “What have others done? Should we think the complete opposite?” says Haskins, adding that the PM also utilizes AI platforms to conduct research and bounce ideas around.

But it’s not just him. “In the interview, he says … his colleagues in the legislature are also doing this exact same thing. They’re using AI as sort of an adviser,” he tells Glenn.

While Kristersson swears up and down that he doesn’t blindly follow ChatGPT’s advice or share sensitive information with the database, there are still “huge problems” with his reliance on AI.

Haskins believes Sweden isn’t actually the first country to use artificial intelligence in governance; it is just the first to admit it. “I guarantee that American politicians are using it all the time,” he says, warning that “this is going to be a huge problem moving forward.”

Glenn, who regularly uses artificial intelligence as a tool, says that Kristersson’s AI usage isn’t necessarily a problem in and of itself.

The real concern, he says, is “what comes next.”

Glenn foresees a day when AI is valued above and trusted more than human intuition, intelligence, and experience. “That’s when you’ve lost control,” he warns.

“That’s exactly right,” says Haskins, “and how do you argue against something’s decision when that something is smarter than literally everybody in the room?”

“And it’s learned how to lie,” adds Glenn.

Haskins agrees, noting that current AI systems “lie all the time.” It’s not uncommon for users to report that various AI systems make up information, invent sources, and skew hard data.

“It’s feeding you what it thinks you want to hear,” says Glenn.

While it’s true that human beings are also capable of lying and manipulation, artificial intelligence is a far greater threat because it can “manipulate huge parts of the population all at the same time,” says Haskins.

Further, “[AI] doesn’t necessarily have the same goals that a human would have. As it continues to grow, it’s going to have its own motive, and it may just be for self-survival,” adds Glenn.

“That’s the world that we’re already living in. … It’s not hypothetical,” sighs Haskins.

To hear more of the conversation, watch the video above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, Blazetv, Blaze media, Artificial intelligence, Ai, Ai takeover, Sweden, Dark future, Ulf kristersson, Chatgpt, Lechat 

Louisiana residents are horrified by the discovery of the remains of a missing 12-year-old who was reportedly killed by alligators, but previous allegations against his mother make the case even more disturbing.

The remains of Bryan Vasquez were found by a volunteer of the United Cajun Navy with the aid of a thermal drone after a massive search that lasted for 12 days. The boy had been reported missing from his home in the Michoud neighborhood of New Orleans.

He was suffering from a fractured skull, a collapsed lung, retinal hemorrhages, fractured ankles, and fractured legs as well as a punctured lung.

Volunteer Jon Gusanders said in a press conference Thursday that he saw a “violent movement under the water’s surface” that led him to find the body in a lagoon.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” he said, “and I hope to never see anything like that again.”

He said that two alligators, one about 11 feet long and the other about 6 feet long, were holding the boy’s body underwater before they were spooked by the drone.

Gusanders said that he used the drone to distract the alligators from recovery efforts since they kept returning to the boy’s body and pushing it deeper into the lagoon.

A coroner found that the boy died from blunt force trauma and drowning in the alligator attack.

“We did everything we could to protect his body, to protect his honor, while the NOPD got their boat out to successfully recover him,” he added.

The boy had been missing since Aug. 14 after he slipped out of a window. A neighbor’s security camera appeared to capture him in him walking by in a diaper.

Police have obtained a search warrant in the case and confiscated the woman’s cell phone in the investigation.

On Thursday, WDSU reported disturbing details in a conviction against Hilda Vasquez, the mother of the child. In 2013, the boy was rushed to the hospital when only 3 months old because he was vomiting blood and had stopped breathing.

His mother said that they were watching television when the boy began screaming as if “someone was squeezing him.”

Doctors said the boy was the victim of child abuse after noting that he was suffering from a fractured skull, a collapsed lung, retinal hemorrhages, fractured ankles, and fractured legs as well as a punctured lung.

RELATED: Family of 10-year-old girl allegedly tortured to death says CPS ignored dozens of warnings

The mother was sentenced to five years for child abuse but later received probation. She was eventually able to regain custody of the child.

While she described the boy as autistic and nonverbal, a report from the Department of Children and Family Services in 2021 said that his disability had been classified as “traumatic brain injury (non-accidental).”

A representative for the Vasquez family released a statement blaming domestic abuse for the previous conviction.

“All I can say is that as a community advocate for this community, I know for a fact in Hilda’s past she was a victim of domestic violence,” Cristiane Rosales-Fajardo said. “I know that in her past she has done everything to protect her children and that her child was living with her at the time he walked out of the house. All four of her children was living with her, so if the state and DCFS believe she is a danger, then that means they failed him again.”

Fajardo has also opened a GoFundMe account to raise funds for the family.

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Conservatives often imagine that winning statewide elections means gaining control over the machinery of government. But this is wrong — and dangerously so. For far too long, red states have confused the two. The assumption that political victory automatically confers political authority is one of the chief falsehoods circulating on the right. It is the reason Republican states often look like Democrat ones, only with different bumper stickers.

This is an uncomfortable but necessary message for conservatives to hear: Red states are facing a major crisis of governance.

Red states have built conservative brands on progressive machinery.

The State Leadership Initiative’s new “Index Report” lays out the evidence in extensive detail. By the most basic measures of lean, accountable, and ideologically grounded government, red states are failing. Many of the policies their representatives are voting for and their governors are signing into law are profoundly out of step with the wishes of voters. Bureaucracies are bloated, universities multiply administrators faster than scholars, schools have fewer teachers than administrators, New York-style regulations pile up in red states like Texas, and seven of the 10 most federally dependent states wear the Republican label.

The key takeaway is not just that red states are doing poorly — it is that red states are almost indistinguishable from blue states on the metrics that matter.

This is not conservative governance. It is branding atop the chassis of managerial progressivism. Governors may cut a ribbon, sign a bill, or post a slogan, but beneath the surface, the operating code of their states is indistinguishable from California’s.

How can this be the case?

The bureaucratic cartel

The deeper reason for this unfortunate reality is explored in the State Leadership Initiative’s second major publication, the “Shadow Government Report.” It shows how state bureaucracies have been colonized — quietly, methodically — by a cartel of national associations and professional guilds no voter ever approved. These groups wield more influence over daily governance than most state legislatures, yet they are invisible to the public, untethered from electoral accountability, and drenched in progressive orthodoxy.

These associations are neither think tanks nor trade associations in the old sense. Yet they wield massive powers: They write standards, provide training, host conferences, and broker grants. These guilds credential personnel and tell agencies what “best practice” means.

Because legislators rarely read the fine print in the legislation they pass, the blueprints crafted by these associations become the law of the land by default. When the public wonders why every state suddenly adopts the same jargon, the same metrics, and the same “tool kits” on climate, equity, and inclusion, the answer is almost always because the same group of associations decided it.

The depth of ideological capture in these associations is astounding. The examples border on parody. The National Association of State Treasurers insists that environmental, social, and governance investing is a fiduciary duty and trains treasurers in diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The National Association of Medicaid Directors declares equity — not health outcomes — the “foundational principle” of Medicaid reform and pushes race-based service priorities.

The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials maintains that “structural racism” is a public health emergency and coordinates messaging on abortion, climate, and even online speech with the White House.

The National Association of State Procurement Officials encourages states to embed race- and gender-based scoring rubrics into contracting, turning neutral bidding into an ideological loyalty test.

The National Governors Association, which is supposedly a bipartisan forum of executives, functions as a relay for the left, peddling DEI and ESG tool kits like a traveling salesman.

These examples are far from exhaustive.

National associations operate outside democratic oversight while having a greater influence over shaping state policy than most legislatures. They are the Trojan horses of managerial progressivism. While legislators debate property-tax rates or curriculum, these associations push a suite of prepackaged policies — procurement guidelines, Medicaid waivers, regulatory thresholds — that heavily favor the status quo.

Protecting progressives

Civil service rules protect progressive careerists from political oversight. University boards rubber-stamp DEI because accreditation bodies — another arm of the cartel — say so. Procurement officers copy and paste National Association of State Procurement Officials templates. Medicaid directors take their orders from the National Association of Medicaid Directors rather than the governor.

The bureaucrats Republican governors inherit have been trained in association doctrine, are credentialed by association certifications, and are acculturated in association conferences. Even the vocabulary their agencies use — “resilience,” “inclusion,” “climate readiness,” “public-private partnership” — is imported from slide decks in Washington, D.C.

Our adversaries built the shadow government that now runs the states. The only question is whether conservatives will summon the courage to challenge it.

You may elect a conservative governor. But if his health agency still sends staff to Association of State and Territorial Health Officials trainings, his Medicaid office still uses National Association of Medicaid Directors templates, and his treasury department still follows the National Association of State Treasurers guidelines, the day-to-day governance is leftist by default.

Even if personnel are swapped out, the new trainees will be accepting “best practices,” model regulation, and training seminars from supposedly neutral industry experts. But this neutrality is a farce.

The result is a peculiar kind of political theater. Voters think they have chosen a government. Governors think they are in command. But the machinery hums along, indifferent to election returns and guided by national bodies whose values are taken from the faculty lounge and the federal bureaucracy. It is government by autopilot — and the autopilot was programmed by the left.

Rooting out the cartel

The cartel of leftist national associations needs to be dealt with in order for red states to prosper. The remedy is not tinkering around the edges but an aggressive structural overhaul.

First, states must begin by auditing and restricting association membership. Every agency should disclose its dues, trainings, grant pipelines, and template adoptions. Sunshine is a good disinfectant.

Second, agencies should be barred from importing association policies without legislative approval. If a procurement office wants to adopt National Association of State Procurement Officials rubrics, let it defend that choice in front of elected representatives in open hearings.

Third, association-led DEI trainings should be prohibited outright; they are not professional development but bureaucratic catechism.

Fourth, rival associations must be built, as the State Financial Officers Foundation has already done, to provide training and credentials aligned with republican self-government.

Finally, and most importantly, political leadership must penetrate the bureaucracy — more appointed positions, stronger sunset rules, and the restructuring of state agencies that resist accountability.

Some will protest that this sounds radical. It is not — it is the work of self-government. The radicalism lies in the present arrangement, in which anonymous guilds in a faraway capital dictate to sovereign states what their procurement contracts should look like or what principles guide their Medicaid systems. The radicalism lies in states whose constitutions enshrine republican rule yet whose daily operations are outsourced to entities their people cannot name.

This reform in red states is not optional if conservatives mean to govern.

Changing the machinery

The Index reveals the failures; the Shadow Government Report reveals the cause. Paired together, they teach a crucial lesson: Red states have built conservative brands on progressive machinery. They talk like Jefferson but regulate like Albany. They thump their chests about liberty while paying dues to organizations that smuggle equity quotas into their hiring manuals.

RELATED: The deep state is no longer deniable — thanks to Tulsi Gabbard

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

To continue on this path is to win hollow victories, mistaking campaign slogans for statecraft. It is to send governors into battle armed with speeches while the other side controls the maps, the supply lines, and the ammunition. The work ahead is not to shout louder but to actually govern — to tear down the scaffolding of association rules and build institutions that are faithful to the people they’re supposed to serve. Until that is done, every red state risks being a blue state in disguise.

Governance is not automatic. It is not the inevitable byproduct of winning elections. It is the patient, disciplined, steady construction of institutions aligned with the people’s will. Our adversaries have known this for decades. They built the shadow government that now runs the states. The only question left is whether conservatives will summon the courage to challenge it.

Editor’s note: This article was published originally at the American Mind.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Deep state, Ideological capture, Democrat policies, Republican victories, Dei, Esg, Administrative state, Permanent bureaucracy, Health care, Best practices, Shadow government, Republicans, Democrats, Trade associations