‘ELON IS ALLOWED IN’: Americans express panic over Elon Musk’s alleged Department of Education access
When Democratic lawmakers were turned away from the Department of Education headquarters Friday, it was a glimpse into Elon Musk’s attempt at an audacious realignment of American governance.
“They are blocking members of Congress from entering the Department of Education! Elon is allowed in and not the people? ILLEGAL,” Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) posted on X, as armed officers arrived to prevent elected officials from entering a public building.
The scene perfectly captures the unsettling transformation underway: while Congress members stand locked out, Elon Musk’s barely-of-age Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) teams freely access sensitive data potentially affecting millions of Americans inside.
Consider the brazen asymmetry: DOGE representatives now feed student loan data and personal information into AI systems while lawmakers who oversee the $79 billion agency can’t get past the front door. “Billionaires can go in this building but not representatives,” Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) noted with apparent frustration. The department’s bureaucratic excuse—that lawmakers “did not have scheduled appointments”—would be laughable if it weren’t so chilling. Since when do members of Congress need appointments to check on agencies they oversee?
But this goes beyond standard government overreach. We’re witnessing the systematic dismantling of democratic oversight in favor of a shadow authority structure—one built on executive orders, private sector “efficiency experts,” and carefully targeted personnel moves. DOGE’s structure—staffed by unvetted contractors, including teenagers, and at least one person spewing racist remarks—operates as a quickly gestating parallel government with unchecked access to classified systems.
Already, dozens of Education Department employees sit on paid leave, with the union reporting these are predominantly women and people of color. DOGE teams, meanwhile, scour contracts and programs, marking anything not explicitly required by law for elimination. This playbook—gaining access to sensitive systems, sidelining career staff, and operating without transparency—has already gutted USAID. Now, it’s being replicated across federal agencies with ruthless efficiency.
“We aren’t dangerous. We are here to represent our people. To defend public education,” Frost posted after being turned away.
He’s right. What’s unfolding is a kind of bureaucratic insurrection—more subtle than January 6th but potentially more damaging to democratic governance. While attention focuses on ballooning courtroom drama, this administrative coup proceeds methodically, agency by agency.
Yet there’s an air of desperation in this rush to reshape government by executive fiat. Trump, DOGE, and everyone else knows are fighting against a tremendous tide threatening to drown them with one misstep in their mad villainy. It’s a last-gasp effort to cement minority rule—while the masses are still waking up to building tyranny—through procedural warfare, even as demographic, religious, and cultural trends move decisively the other way.
The question isn’t whether this approach can succeed long-term—we cannot afford it. The question is how much damage it will do before the pendulum of democratic accountability inevitably swings back. For now, though, we’re left with the stark image of elected representatives standing outside their own government buildings while billionaire-led teams restructure agencies from within. If that doesn’t worry you about the state of American democracy, nothing will.
What’s most striking is the inverse symmetry with January 6th. Then, insurrectionists had to violently breach the Capitol to unsuccessfully overturn an election. Now, just three years later, in a bit of irony, another insurrection operates from inside government buildings, calmly locking out elected officials while dismantling democratic institutions piece by piece. The storming has been replaced by systematic exclusion, the violence by bureaucratic maneuvering.
And it was all made possible not through broken windows, but through existential temper tantrums at ballot boxes—by voters who, having failed to overthrow democracy by force, opted to corrode it from within. The same voices choosing not to condemn traitors breaking into government buildings with their vote are now concerned about imitation bureaucrats cutting off their needed services and barring lawmakers from entering with private security. At least the January 6th insurrectionists had to break down doors. Today’s insurrectionists just had to get voters to open them.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
