Do we have a shadow government?

[blaze]

Serious question.

If so, how the hell should Democrats respond?

This keeps going through my head while, at the same time, watching the Kavanaugh hearings.

My head is spinning,

[C_U_L8R]

1. We do

But we don't know their agenda and they are accountable to no one.

[Me.]

2. Yes Because It Never Goes Away

There is always some Republican or another who thinks they should direct the gov. in the way they think it should go ...the biggest example I can think of recently, before this admin., is Cheney

[lapfog_1]

3. Yes...

and while it is important that we do right now, we shouldn't need one

Sunlight is a great disinfectant... and when shined directly above the subject, eliminates shadows.

[Yupster]

6. I think it's true in every large organization

Back in my teacher days we'd get a new principal every few years and many times they would come in with all kinds of ideas to make radical changes, most of which would be disastrous.

The teachers and staff would know they just had to slow things down a bit and throw a few kinks in the worst ideas and the principal would be gone soon enough.

I think that's just natural in any large organization.

[lapfog_1]

7. My High School Principal was one of those with "radical" ideas...

The district had just built a brand new High School not far from my house. They did a search for a new principal and found this energetic younger guy with some radical ideas to try (like trimesters instead of semesters, a program of independent study for gifted students, less emphasis on sports, etc).

For the entering 10th grade class he went around to all of the middle schools and met with each and every student... usually just with a handshake and a question or two... This for a class of 300 and total student body of a nearly a thousand.

So... the summer passed and come late August we all caught the bus to the brand new school... and there at the steps to the main entrance was our new Principal. He greeted each and every student by name, asked about our parents and our summer vacations by asking "how was the trip to X?" or "did you work your fathers hay field like you said?"... no notes, no one reminding him of what he had asked or our answers 3 months earlier. He took an interest in each student and in their abilities and desires.

Needless to say we students LOVED this guy. I don't know how many people he encouraged to do better simply by taking an interest in their lives, their names, their dreams.

Of course, he left after a few years (the year I graduated high school) because the "system" ground down his innovations.

But, for a while, our high school was the best high school in the entire state.

I know I went from being a "wannabe tough (greaser if you know that term)" to graduating as a National Honor Society and salutatorian - and I passed when offered valedictorian so my good friend Amy who had the exact same "score" as I did could have the honor at graduation. It's hard to believe that 46 years have passed since my first year in that remarkable high school.

Sometimes a revolutionary leader is a good thing, when you have a leader worth following.

Or a really horrible thing when you have a leader who should never be anywhere near the position of leadership.

Our current "President" is not a leader worth following.

[Yupster]

8. Whether the new leader of an organization has radical ideas that are great or awful,

I think it's common that the people who have been there a long time will balk at the new ideas whether good or bad.

[MineralMan]

4. Of course. Sometimes it's more active than other times.

Consider Reagan and GW Bush. Reagan had serious memory deficits and cognitive issues, particularly in his second term. Others made the decisions. GWB was simply an idiot, who allowed others to tell him what he should do.

Trump is both an idiot and cognitively challenged. Of course there's a shadow government in operation, but it is barely able to contain Trump's impulsive, narcissistic, sociopathic tendencies.

[scheming daemons]

5. I certainly HOPE so.... at least until Trump is gone.