“You’re Fired…Maybe:” The Tenured Tyranny of the DC Swamp

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Here is the actually newsworthy story I am watching most closely–currently being overshadowed by the loathsome reality TV circus vibes of current politics.

Supreme Court Hears Trump vs. Slaughter arguments.

In most jobs, “You’re fired” means exactly that. You pack your desk, turn in your badge, and go home.

In Washington, it means, “We’ll see what the courts say.”

President Trump’s 2025 firing of an FTC commissioner didn’t spark outrage because it was reckless or unlawful. It sparked outrage because it challenged a long-standing fiction in American government: that unelected officials should be harder to remove than the president who was elected by 80-plus million voters.

That fiction has a name. It’s called independent agency tenure. And it has quietly become one of the most tyrannical features of modern governance.

When Tenure Replaces Accountability

The federal bureaucracy now exercises grossly inflated and undeserved authority over American life—regulating businesses, shaping markets, enforcing rules, and issuing penalties that affect millions of people. Yet many of the officials who wield this power cannot be fired for policy disagreement, open resistance to a president’s agenda, or INCOMPETENCE. What a life, right?

They are “independent.” Translation: untouchable.

This arrangement didn’t come from the Constitution. It came from fear—specifically, the fear that voters might actually get what they voted for.

The Diseased Fourth Branch of Our Constitutional Tree

The idea that agency officials should be protected from removal dates back to the New Deal, when the Supreme Court blessed Congress’s ability to shield regulators from presidential control. What was framed as a “narrow safeguard” has since hardened into something else entirely: a permanent ruling class.

Over time, this decision created what conservatives have rightly called a fourth branch of government—one that writes rules, enforces them, and resists correction, all while operating beyond the reach of elections.

Presidents change. Bureaucrats don’t. This is “The Swamp,” we have voted thrice to drain. Nothing would be more delightful than to see this dead limb fall. But alas, anytime a toddler trims the hedges with a chainsaw there is likely collateral damage…like the left making good on threats to pack the court if they ever return to power. Hey Filibuster, hey! Looking good!

Trump vs. the Permanent Government

Trump’s presidency—both terms—exposed just how entrenched this system has become. From slow-walking directives to openly opposing policy goals, bureaucratic resistance wasn’t subtle. It was strategic.

So when Trump returned to office and fired FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, the reaction was immediate: lawsuits, injunctions, and elite panic. Not because laws were broken—but because precedent was threatened.

The real question wasn’t can the president fire her?
It was should the president be allowed to govern at all?

“Expertise” as a Shield

Defenders of tenure protections insist these officials are neutral experts, not political actors. Ha! Don’t we wish the experts were actual experts. Neutrality collapses the moment policy is enforced selectively, businesses are targeted ideologically, or regulations are weaponized against disfavored industries.

Expertise without accountability isn’t wisdom. It’s power without consequence.

And power without consequence is the definition of tyranny.

Why This Case Actually Matters

At stake in Trump v. Slaughter is whether the president truly controls the executive branch—or whether elections merely decorate a bureaucracy that governs itself.

• If the Supreme Court sides with Trump, it would restore a simple, radical idea: executive officials answer to the executive. Agencies would once again reflect the will of voters, not the preferences of permanent regulators.
• If the Court preserves the status quo, it will confirm what many Americans already suspect: that no election can meaningfully change the direction of the federal government.

I for one am praying SCOTUS proves my cynical suspicions wrong.

This Isn’t Authoritarianism—It’s Reality

Critics warn that allowing presidents to fire agency heads risks “politicizing government.” But government is already political. The only question is whether politics is accountable to voters—or insulated from them.

Tenure was meant to prevent abuse. Instead, it has enabled abuse and defiance.

“You’re fired…maybe” is not a safeguard. It’s a stall tactic.

And a republic that cannot remove those who govern it is not governed by the people.

The Choice Before the Court

The Supreme Court now faces a clear choice: preserve a century-old fiction that protects bureaucratic power, or restore the Constitution’s plain structure—where authority flows from the people, through elections, to those who execute the law.

Tenure has become tyranny. They have insulated themselves from reality and accountability–bubble-wrapping their bureaucratic buddies into lifelong careers, softening the edges of election consequences, and keeping us “safe” from our own will. No mas. Personally, I find the mashing of every single bubble quite cathartic.

And it’s long past time for the words “You’re fired” to mean what they say.

Pop, pop, pop, baby! I absolutely voted for this.