Biden’s Power Grab: Executive Order Installs “Equity” Commissars to Rule the Bureaucracy and Centralize Power

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On February 16, President Joe Biden issued an executive order titled

“Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through The Federal Government”.

The order is supposed to level the racial playing field by “addressing systemic racism in our Nation’s policies and programs”, but it does nothing of the kind.

In truth, the order represents a massive and disturbing restructuring of the federal government in a way that fundamentally changes the manner in which the agencies operate. The new system will feature “equity” commissars who will have nothing to do with “systemic racism”, but will be appointees designated to enforce the edicts of the state.

The senior agency official (in these agency equity teams) will then coordinate with the “Gender Policy Council” which is directly linked to the executive branch of government. In short, the administration is methodically building the basic scaffolding for a centrally-controlled police state masquerading as social justice operation. For all intents and purposes, the equity agenda is a cleverly-phrased moniker that conceals a plan to exert absolute control over the entire sprawling bureaucracy. Here is an excerpt from the White House print-out:

Each Agency Equity Team shall be led by a designated senior official (senior designee) charged with implementing my Administration’s equity initiatives, and shall include senior officials from the office of the agency head and the agency’s program, policy, civil rights, regulatory, science, technology, service delivery, financial assistance and grants, data, budget, procurement, public engagement, legal, and evaluation offices, as well as the agency’s Chief Diversity Officer, to the extent applicable. Agency Equity Teams shall include a combination of competitive service employees, as defined by 5 U.S.C. 2102(a), and appointees, as defined in Executive Order 13989 of January 20, 2021 (Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Personnel), and, to the extent practicable, shall build upon and coordinate with the agency’s existing structures and processes, including with the agency’s environmental justice officer designated pursuant to Executive Order 14008 of January 27, 2021 (Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad), and with the senior agency official designated to coordinate with the Gender Policy Council pursuant to Executive Order 14020 of March 8, 2021 (Establishment of the White House Gender Policy Council). (“Executive Order on Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through The Federal Government”, The White House)

In other words, these new equity commissars will not only oversee the many areas of government involvement (aka– civil rights, regulatory, science, technology, service delivery, financial assistance and grants, data, budget, procurement, public engagement, legal, and evaluation offices etc) but will also be in a position to determine how those activities are portrayed to the public.

Just as the Vaccine narrative was crafted by big pharma, Madison Avenue and an accommodating media, we expect that senior agency officials will generate propaganda that aligns with the Party Doctrine while advancing the agenda of elites.

And, what assurances do we have that these “designated senior officials” will limit their supervisory duties to issues strictly related to equity, after all, equity is a fluid and potentially expansive term that could be used to include virtually anything. And, that, of course, is the real objective, to use equity as a fig leaf for controlling every nook and cranny of the federal bureaucracy. Here’s more from an article at Federal News Network titled “3 requirements for agencies under Biden’s new executive order on equity”:

Agencies have until this September to submit an equity action plan to the newly created White House Steering Committee on Equity. Ambassador Susan Rice, the White House’s Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, will serve as chairwoman of the steering committee….

…agency heads will also have to appoint a senior official to lead the equity team, in partnership with each agency’s chief diversity officer. The equity teams will also work with each agency’s environmental justice officer, as well as the White House Gender Policy Council...

Additionally, agencies should proactively engage with underserved communities, for example by holding listening sessions and outreach events. These engagements will help agencies inform their equity action plans, annual budget submissions and grants and funding opportunities, Biden said….(“3 requirements for agencies under Biden’s new executive order on equity”, Federal News Network)

When did Susan Rice become a champion of racial justice and underserved communities of color?

Never. Rice is a political powerbroker whose intimate grasp of the federal government puts her in the unique position of a trusted insider who knows how to serve her masters behind the cloak of racialist propaganda. This whole charade has nothing to do with equity or any of the other liberal claptrap the administration is peddling. This is a old fashioned power grab.

Think of the potential for corruption if the new system operates as I expect it to operate. Who will decide how contracts are issued and to which companies? What are the chances, for example, that a corporation owned by a Christian conservative would prevail in a competition with a big donor to the Democratic party?

And what about new hires? Would applicants for employment have to profess their support for the doctrinal positions of the Democrat party including racial equity, gender, climate and whatever other spurious mumbo-jumbo the party is pushing at the time ? And what about compliance? Is compliance going to be determined by politically-connected committees comprised of party loyalists and members of the donor class?

Keep in mind, every federal agency will be required to “proactively engage with underserved communities, for example by holding listening sessions and outreach events.” How is that going to work? So, now the Secretary of Defense or the the Secretary of the Treasury or the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or the the Director of the National Science Foundation are going to convene “rap sessions” with minority communities or town hall meetings where the local folks can complain that they are not fairly represented? Can we expect General Mark Milley to show up at a gym on Chicago’s south side so he can ask the attendees, “Are we sending enough lethal weapons to Ukraine to meet your expectations?

No, the aim here is to create unachievable goals so the “designated senior officials” can coercively reshape the agency in a way that better fits the elite agenda. After all, no one on the Biden team conjured up this monstrosity. Like the Patriot Act, this executive order was crafted by special interests who are now actively creating the government they’ve always wanted. By using Biden as their front-man and the “equity” bunkum to hoodwink the public, they are well on their way to controlling all the levers of bureaucratic power and terminating representative government once-and-for-all. Here’s more from Biden’s executive order:

We have taken historic steps to advance full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) Americans, including by ending the ban on transgender service members in our military; prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics across Federal programs; and signing into law the Respect for Marriage Act (Public Law 117-228) to preserve protections for the rights of same-sex and interracial couples. My Administration is also implementing the first-ever National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality to ensure that all people, regardless of gender, have the opportunity to realize their full potential.” (“Executive Order on Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through The Federal Government”, The White House)

What a pathetic deception clearly aimed at diverting attention from the nuts-and-bolts restructuring that is going on right before our eyes. Biden cares as much about “gender identity” as he does about the destitute and poisoned people of Palestine, Ohio. Here’s more from Biden:

Each Agency Equity Team shall be led by a designated senior official (senior designee) charged with implementing my Administration’s equity initiatives, and shall include senior officials from the office of the agency head and the agency’s program, policy, civil rights, regulatory, science, technology, service delivery, financial assistance and grants, data, budget, procurement, public engagement, legal, and evaluation offices, as well as the agency’s Chief Diversity Officer, to the extent applicable….

So without congressional consultation, review or approval, the Biden team is forging ahead the most radical and far-reaching overhaul of the federal bureaucracy in the nation’s 247 year history. These new “Agency Equity Teams” will meddle in every area of government activity– not to improve the lives of ordinary black and brown people in underserved communities– but to ensure that the system functions in a way that best serves the interests of Biden’s paymasters. Isn’t that really what’s going on? Here’s more from the order:

There is hereby established a White House Steering Committee on Equity (Steering Committee), which shall be chaired by the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy. The Steering Committee shall include senior officials representing policy councils and offices within the Executive Office of the President, as appropriate. The Steering Committee shall:

(i) coordinate Government-wide efforts to advance equity;

(ii) coordinate an annual process to consult with agency heads on their respective agencies’ Equity Action Plans, established in section 3(a) of this order. (The White House)

There it is in black and white: Central planning writ large. They want to run the whole kit-and-cabootle from the office of the Dear Leader. This isn’t about equity. This is about power; raw, political power. Here’s more:

Equity Action Plans described in subsection (a) of this section in order to reinforce agency efforts to meaningfully engage with and invest in underserved communities and advance equitable outcomes.”

This is undiluted hogwash. Not one person of color will see their life improved due to Biden’s executive order nor was that the objective to begin with.

This is a giant restructuring project. Can you see that? Can you see that equity is just the mask behind which the real objective is concealed? The real goal is to install political operatives in positions of power across the federal government and put them under the control of the executive. It is the centralizing of power across the bureaucracy.

The relentless virtue-signaling language in the order is the same obfuscating blather you would expect from a professional confidence huckster. It’s the type of language that people use when they want to pull the wool over your eyes. It’s important that people apply their critical thinking skills to see through this ruse and try to understand where Biden’s handlers want to take us. We are on the well-beaten path to police-state tyranny and it will take a colossal effort to turn things around.

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This article was originally published on The Unz Review.

Michael Whitney is a renowned geopolitical and social analyst based in Washington State. He initiated his career as an independent citizen-journalist in 2002 with a commitment to honest journalism, social justice and World peace.

He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). 

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