A new documentary explains the danger of bureaucrats and what Americans can do to dismantle the administrative state. Ned Ryun, the founder of American Majority, joined Liz Collin on her podcast to discuss the new film.
The must-see documentary is based on Ryun’s 2024 book, “American Leviathan: The Birth of the Administrative State and Progressive Authoritarianism.”
“The first definition is obviously this demonic sea creature that Yahweh defeats in the Old Testament. The second definition, though, is why I used it, because Leviathan refers to a massive, sprawling bureaucracy that tends to be totalitarian,” said Ryun.
“Really, when you think about it, we have our own American Leviathan that really has been in place for the last 100 years, in which a massive, sprawling bureaucracy filled with unelected bureaucrats think that they should be governing and quite frankly, that was always the intent from progressives who constructed the administrative state in the early 20th century, that we would have the rule of the bureaucrat,” he explained.
He believes Elon Musk, who is leading a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the Trump administration, is slowly coming to realize just how deep the problem goes.
“I think Elon Musk, when he made that comment a few weeks ago in the Oval Office, DOGE was about waste, fraud and abuse, it’s kind of a slow epiphany that’s taking place with Elon, that the waste, fraud and abuse really is probably just the poisonous fruit of a poisonous tree. And we might be dealing with some more fundamental issues about who’s actually doing the governing in this country,” Ryun said.
The purpose of his book and documentary, he said, is to help the American people understand that “we do have two very different competing forms of government in this country.”
On one hand, there’s the administrative state, Ryun explained, in which “the unelected bureaucrats are to do the real governing.” This “has nothing to do with representative democracy, has nothing to do with a constitutional republic,” he said.
On the other is a constitutional republic, “which has been more of an illusion the last decades, last century, in which we are to have a government of, by, for the people, in which all power flows from the people to their duly-elected representatives, who we then make stewards of the money and power given to them to actually construct a government that advances and protects the interests of the American people,” Ryun said.
“And the conflict between these two different forms of government kind of was under the surface because too many Republicans accepted the premise that it was legitimate,” Ryun added.
He said it took Donald Trump to show up and say that he rejects the premise for things to accelerate.
“That’s really what accelerated where I think we are today. When Donald Trump said, ‘No, I decide. I’m the one who decides.’ And the administrative state actors and their allies in the Democratic party and the corporate propaganda said, ‘No, you don’t, we decide.’ And that really is the basis of the conflict you see playing out right now in DC,” Ryun said.
Despite Trump’s return to the White House, Ryun warned Americans to “not underestimate the power that the corporate propaganda still have.”
“They’re not media. I just want to be very clear on that front. We do not have a free and honest press. It has been captured as an auxiliary of the Democratic Party and quite frankly, the administrative state. Corporate propagandists still have a lot of power in this country to be able to influence the low-information voters with their propaganda and shaping the narrative. And so I think that’s going to be a real problem not only this year, but moving forward with Donald Trump in the battle of the narratives, who’s going to win out,” he added.
He said he has urged Trump to deliver a speech on the subject and explain that “this is what we are discussing. We are discussing the end of a unconstitutional administrative state.”
Alpha News asked Ryun if he has any advice to Minnesotans as Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and others seem to spend their days fighting against Trump and his agenda.
“Sometimes all that’s required of us is to have the courage to stand up and say, ‘No, we reject the premise. We do not think this is legitimate,’ and to really begin to communicate that and have the courage to stand up and say, ‘This is not what was intended at the state level. It’s not intended at the federal level.’ The promise of what we were given, this is really our heritage, our legacy as freeborn American people,” he said.
“We were supposed to have representative government that was responsive to the American people to prioritize and protect and advance the interests of the American people. We should have the courage in our own communities and states and at the national level to stand up and go, ‘No, we reject the premise.’ I think Donald Trump’s courage on that front, I hope, is infectious.”
Watch the documentary here
Liz Collin
Liz Collin has been a truth-teller for 20 years as a multi-Emmy-Award-winning reporter and anchor. Liz is a Worthington, Minnesota native who lives in the suburbs with her husband, son and loyal lab.
