Power Shift

The Far Middle episode 160 begins with a sports dedication to Sonny Vaccaro, a game-changing figure at the intersection of sports, business, marketing, and fashion. Nick discusses Vaccaro's journey from a schoolteacher to a pivotal player in Nike's entry into the basketball market, including Vaccaro’s strategy of paying college coaches to have their teams wear Nike shoes, leading to a significant increase in Nike's presence in basketball. Vaccaro’s most notable achievement was convincing Nike to sign Michael Jordan, leading to the creation of the highly successful Air Jordan line (the subject of the 2023 film, Air). Vaccaro helped Nike become a behemoth global business, which Nick pivots off for the episode’s central topic: today’s behemoth administrative state and the conflict between it and executive power. It’s a topic familiar to Far Middle listeners, one “I'm always running out of Far Middle time to fully cover,” says Nick.  Nick explains the impetus for the episode was an early 2024 Wall Street Journal column, ‘Trump Allies See Path to Pad His Power.'  “Power in our Federal Government has been shifting from the legislative branch in Congress to the presidential or executive branch in the White House,” says Nick. “Most of us have been asleep as this shift in power from legislative to executive branch has occurred, partly because it happened slowly and methodically over a century.” Nick argues shrinking the “bureaucratic deep state” would be a win for individual rights, for the private sector, and for capitalism. And if Donald Trump is elected again as president in November, Nick questions why the elite and expert class view a second Trump administration’s potential reduction in the bureaucratic state as a power grab of presidential authority. It’s nonsensical to describe ceding power as also grabbing power. Nick critiques the Biden administration for its unconstitutional actions, such as selectively enforcing laws and delaying aid to Israel and compares this to the hypothetical concerns about a future Trump administration. He also stresses the need for a consistent application of constitutional principles and warns against the dangers of an unchecked bureaucratic state. In closing, episode 160’s release date of June 12 provides a connection to the massive anti-nuclear demonstration that took place in New York City on June 12, 1982. Nick reflects on that protest, as well as global nuclear threats today. “It's a dangerous world, constant listeners, and we best stick to the proven formula of America. Individual rights, strong defense, small government, and a market based private sector,” Nick concludes. “It's worked in the past and it's going to work in the future. And it's captured in the Constitution. Trust those things, not the bureaucrat.”