'Castles Made of Sand': Jimi Hendrix's Psychedelic, Ephemeral DC

“Are You Experienced?”

My mind processes things uniquely. As all our minds do.

Mine does so bizarrely. Which, thankfully, very few of our minds do.

And so it was when I saw the following in DC tech publication Broadband Breakfast….

Democrat Rosenworcel’s Progressive FCC Legacy Resides on Wikipedia, Not in the Federal Code:

“The Biden FCC’s hard pivot left on Net Neutrality and Digital Discrimination lost in federal court, and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr dismantled Rosenworcel’s ‘homework gap’ overreach with USF money.”

I immediately thought of Jimi Hendrix - and his classic song “Castles Made of Sand.”

If - due to age or lack of good fortune - you have never heard of Jimi Hendrix or said ditty? You probably don’t know what my headline word “ephemeral” means, either.

I’ll pause - to allow some of you to read up upon those items that have until now eluded you….

Ok.

I’m quite sure Hendrix was not thinking of Washington, DC when he wrote his timeless (we hope) tune. The chorus of which is variations on this theme:

“And so castles made of sand fall in the sea - eventually”

Ex-Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Jessica Rosenworcel’s “progressive legacy” exists “not in the federal code?”

Because modern DC spends just about all its time - wasting our time. And money. Because modern DC builds everything out of sand.

DC’s denizens are now light years removed from the bedrock Constitutional order to which they are supposed to adhere.

In which: The Legislature legislates the legislation. The Executive executes the legislation - nothing more, nothing less. And the Judicial makes sure the other two do what they’re supposed to do - nothing more, nothing less.

That’s how you end up residing in the federal code. That’s how the things you do end up lasting. Via the proper Constitutional process.

The reason Rosenworcel’s “progressive FCC legacy” is sand - now fallen into the sea? Is precisely because it was an FCC legacy - rather than a Constitutional one.

She was an unelected Executive Branch bureaucrat - pretending to be a Legislative Branch law writer. She was unconstitutionally creating reams of new law. Only she was pretending she wasn’t - by calling it “regulation.”

But Congress has never passed any law containing the phrase “Net Neutrality.” So as an Executive Branch executor - there was nothing for Rosenworcel to execute. But she tried it anyway.

Thus her Net Neutrality legacy - was made of sand. And to the sea it was rightly returned by the Judicial.

Ditto her Digital Discrimination “law.” No Congressional precedent. So…sand back to the sea - via the Judicial.

Her Universal Service Fund (USF) “homework gap” overreach was even more sand. This time returned to the sea by her successor FCC Chair.

Which is another vulnerability of regulation not backstopped by legislation. What is built unilaterally? Can be unbuilt unilaterally. Live by Executive Action? Die by Executive Action.

Rosenworcel’s “progressive FCC legacy” - is now non-existent. She wasted her time. And our time. And our money.

But don’t just take my word for it:

“(I)n December 2024 for New Street Research policy advisor Blair Levin…declare(d) that Democratic FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel had ‘the least consequential term as Chair in modern FCC history.’”

All of that being said? It is not entirely Rosenworcel’s fault.

The Legislative Branch has spent decades outsourcing its Constitutional law-writing responsibility to the unelected Executive and Judicial Branch bureaucrats.

Congress has mastered the art of LOOKING busy. Lots of motion - without any forward advancement. Lots of Legislative Theatre - with very little legislation.

It’s so much easier to get re-elected to Congress? If you can skip all those votes on unpopular items - and just have the unelected bureaucrats unilaterally impose all of them. You can then blame the bureaucrats when We the Inflicted object.

And so it has been at the FCC. Rosenworcel was just the latest Chair to walk into this titanic mess.

The world is rapidly passing DC by. The Tech world especially so.

And the Legislative Branch is giving the Executive and the Judicial virtually nothing with which to work.

Faced with real world problems - and given zilch by Congress?

Bureaucrats like those at the FCC build castles made of sand.

And Jimi knows where all of those end up.