Donald Trump and the 3 “Drain the Swamp” Fever Dreams of American Politics

Lee Drutman wrote for Vox's Polyarchy about the history of the phrase "drain the swamp": 

So, shocker of shockers: turns out that when Donald Trump led crowds in the chant of “drain the swamp” during the campaign, he forgot to add the “JK” part: just kidding.

First, Trump proposed a set of reforms that were a mix of unfeasible, unenforceable, and ill-advised. But there was one thing in his proposed program that seemed at least somewhat serious: restricting former lobbyists from working in his administration.

But then, lest anybody was foolish enough to take Trump at his word, his team filled agencies with industry lobbyists, First, the waivers were kept secret. Then, under pressure, his team gave in. The extent of the waivers further clarifying just how deadly unserious Trump was. Drain the Swamp? JK.

First, let’s take an appropriate moment of moral outrage for all this, assuming we have any outrage left in us anymore.

Okay, done? Great. Let’s now zoom out and ask a larger question: Why do Americans keep falling for this kind of rhetoric in the first place? The whole premise of “draining the swamp” is silly. It ignores the realities of governing in a complex, modern society, and assumes you can just somehow start from scratch again (think about the verb “to drain”).

The very use of the slogan “drain the swamp” should be shorthand for “just kidding, I don’t take governing seriously.”

But Trump is now the third time in modern political history that politicians have used this slogan. Each time, it’s conjured up something different — a different fever dream of Washington gone awry. And each time, little has changed.