When the Center Doesn’t Hold
Disaster, dysfunction, and the struggle to rebuild trust in our institutions
Today’s TL;dr is 1,217 words, a 5-minute read.
It happened in an instant — metal colliding in the night sky over the Potomac. By morning, the takes were coming in hot. President Trump’s rush to blame was as predictable as it was premature. But take a step back, and a different picture emerges: an air corridor filled with complexities, human factors, and blind spots that make it a wonder collisions like this don’t happen more often.
The end of a flight. The end of an era. The end of patience for entrenched bureaucracies. The end of old media as it fights to stay relevant. And the near end of a life that left its author staring into the void and coming back with a new perspective.
In this week’s TL;dr, we’re talking about endings — not the dramatic, tied-up-with-a-bow kind, but the messy, human, inevitable ones we are often faced with in local government. From the air over D.C. to the halls of Congress, from the legacy news media’s desperate scramble to stay afloat to the deep state’s reckoning, each of these stories captures a system in transition. Some will evolve, some will collapse, and some — like the inescapable certainty that Larkin lays bare in Aubade — will simply come for us all.
Let’s get into it.
Death Over the Potomac
The horrific midair collision a week ago of an Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight about to land at Reagan National Airport in Washington D.C. killed all 67 people on both flights, making it the deadliest U.S. aviation disaster in 23 years.
In an example of what political leaders should not do the day after a crisis of this magnitude, President Trump blamed diversity, equity and inclusion programs and Democrats for the collision — without citing evidence to support his assertions — as authorities were ramping up their investigation into the cause of the incident and recovering bodies.
Per a Wall Street Journal report, “Trump asserted that the Federal Aviation Administration changed its standards under former President Joe Biden and was ‘actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities and psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under diversity and inclusion hiring initiatives.’”
I don’t need to point out to Good Government Files readers how counterproductive those kinds of politicized statements are in the hours after a disaster. Elected leaders should be focused first on acknowledging the tragic loss of life; then on assuring the public that investigations are under way, that the problems leading to the disaster will be uncovered; and lastly that solutions will be put in place to make sure it doesn’t happen again (something I did hear new Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth say, to his credit.)
The best explanation I’ve seen of what likely caused the collision comes from a brief WSJ video report, which interviewed a retired Army helicopter pilot familiar with flying in Washington D.C.’s busy airspace.
The reporting explains how helicopter corridors, airport runway paths and light pollution may have played a role in the fatal D.C. crash. It’s harrowing. Frankly, it’s a miracle there haven’t been more deadly accidents in that area.
Life and Death Discussions about Public Health
Fellow Substack author Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE) has a terrific review of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation hearings last week to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), “managing a $1.8 trillion budget and shaping policies that directly impact your health and the health of your community.” Here’s the YLE TL;dr on the hearings:
Most questions focused on vaccines because this is his most controversial and historical stance. We got glimpses of other topics, like Medicaid and abortion medication. Unfortunately, we didn’t hear much about chronic disease or industry hold. (Emphasis mine.)
It’s that last point that has found resonance with what are now known as MAHA moms, according this The Free Press report that explores the grassroots movement of health-conscious mothers rallying behind Kennedy’s controversial nomination. The piece centers on Zen Honeycutt, founder of Moms Across America, whose personal experience with her children’s severe food allergies led her to advocate against Big Agriculture and Big Pharma. Her activism, along with the broader MAHA movement, has attracted suburban mothers, wellness influencers, and even Silicon Valley figures who see Kennedy as a champion for cleaner food and medical transparency.
Here’s the money quote, from Honeycutt:
Anybody who votes no against Kennedy is clearly being persuaded by Big Pharma and Big Ag, because it just does not make any kind of sense to vote no against somebody who simply wants safer food and safer vaccines. That’s all he wants. That’s his agenda.
Anyone hearing from MAHA moms locally? Let us know in the comments.
Death of the Deep State?
With the Trump administration now up and running, it’s time to channel our inner veterinarian and make our regular checkup on DOGE. (I was going to say “look under the tail of DOGE” but opted not to gross you out.)
I’ve wondered how outsider Elon Musk will make good on the goals of the Department of Government Efficiency without someone capable inside the bureaucracy. I wonder no more, after reading this WSJ article, Meet the Trump Budget Hawk Partnering With Musk’s DOGE. Here’s the ChatGPT summary:
Russell Vought, a longtime budget hawk and former OMB director, is set to reclaim his role as the chief architect of Trump’s spending cuts. A conservative policy veteran, Vought has spent years pushing to shrink the federal government, most recently through his think tank, the Center for Renewing America. He played a key role in drafting Project 2025, a blueprint for dismantling the administrative state.
During Trump’s first term, Vought slashed budgets and challenged Congress’s control over federal spending. Now, he’s back with even broader ambitions, openly questioning the constitutionality of the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, which restricts a president’s ability to withhold funds approved by Congress. His expected return to OMB signals a more aggressive effort to cut spending, consolidate executive power, and restructure federal agencies.
Why does DOGE matter for local government officials, the primary readers of this newsletter? Because that DOGE may soon be nipping at your heels. To wit:
With or without a Cujo-like DOGE coming after you, your agency better be able to stand up on its hind legs to explain, simply and clearly, why you’re doing what you’re doing.
The Death (and Resurrection?) of Old Media
By now, it’s no secret that legacy media has lost its grip on public trust post-election. In a recent Substack, Ted Gioia examines how traditional journalism is scrambling to “adapt or die.” CNN’s CEO openly admitted the network must undergo radical change to survive. In short, old media is now imitating new media. From his post in The Honest Broker:
Mark Thompson, CNN’s chief executive, spelled it out:
“If we do not follow the audiences to the new platforms with real conviction and scale, our future prospects will not be good.”
The New York Times has already figured it out. They are now releasing podcast interviews with the same guests as Joe Rogan.
Six weeks after Rogan talked with venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, the Times did the exact same thing. That’s not a coincidence.
But it won’t be easy catching up with new media. Rogan’s interview got 2.8 million views, while the Times only reached 31,000 people.
That message should be heeded by government communicators — many of whom, in my estimation, have been successfully adapting for years to the changing media landscape. That said, something I heard more than once at last week’s Servant Leadership Conference was that current best practices are designed to address yesterday’s problems.
Adapt or die. It’s always good advice.
Life After Near Death
We’ll wrap up on a more hopeful note, courtesy of The Dishcast, one of my favorite podcasts. Host Andrew Sullivan interviews Sebastian Junger, author, journalist and war correspondent, about his latest book, In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife.
Here’s a summary of the book, via Amazon:
A near-fatal health emergency leads to this powerful reflection on death—and what might follow—by the bestselling author of Tribe and The Perfect Storm.
For years as an award-winning war reporter, Sebastian Junger traveled to many front lines and frequently put his life at risk. And yet the closest he ever came to death was the summer of 2020 while spending a quiet afternoon at the New England home he shared with his wife and two young children. Crippled by abdominal pain, Junger was rushed to the hospital by ambulance. Once there, he began slipping away. As blackness encroached, he was visited by his dead father, inviting Junger to join him. “It’s okay,” his father said. “There’s nothing to be scared of. I’ll take care of you.” That was the last thing Junger remembered until he came to the next day when he was told he had suffered a ruptured aneurysm that he should not have survived.
I share this for two reasons: First, it’s a fascinating account of how the experience transformed Junger, a rationalist and atheist (spoiler: he still is). Second, it’s a model for thoughtful, respectful dialogue — something invaluable for those in government navigating difficult conversations with peers, constituents, or elected officials. Despite their vastly different worldviews — Sullivan, a lifelong Catholic, and Junger — they engage with curiosity rather than conflict, seeking to understand both Junger’s experience and his reporting on others’ near-death encounters.
In the end, they reach a shared realization: some things simply defy explanation.
Later in their discussion, Junger makes a compelling point about the balance between storytelling and explanation — how we need both to engage with the world and make sense of it. It’s another lesson to take to heart as professionals interested in effective communication.
“There’s two things: There’s stories and there’s explanations; and humans need both,” he says. “We desperately need stories. ... And we also get through our lives by understanding the world … I think you need both. And I think part of our problem is that we’ve lost one and retained the other, which is putting too much burden on one, in fact, to do things it’s not able to do.”
Onward and Upward.