In 2025, when Elon Musk joined the government as the de facto head of something called the “department of government efficiency”, he declared that governments were poorly configured “big dumb machines”. To the senator Ted Cruz, he explained that “the only way to reconcile the databases and get rid of waste and fraud is to actually look at the computers”.
Muskism came to Washington soaked in memes,...
**STEELMAN:** The strongest version of this narrative is that Doge represented a radical, if flawed, attempt to address genuine inefficiencies in government by leveraging Silicon Valley’s disruptive innovation. Proponents could argue that bureaucratic inertia and fragmented data systems do hinder effective governance, and that Musk’s approach—however heavy-handed—forced a long-overdue confrontation with these issues. The integration of AI and centralized data could, in theory, reduce fraud and s...