Why Did Michael Lewis Turn Blocker Into a Compliment?

Michael Lewis says the people Elon Musk called blockers were doing their job beautifully. They were not partisan, no one would ever accuse them of incompetence, and they were dedicated to the country. Blocker was a new insult. Before January 20th, 2025, they went by civil servant.

When Musk went into the government with his team at Doge, he said the same thing he had said when he went into Twitter. People already there will want to stop you, so find the blockers and get rid of them. The six main characters in his book never called themselves blockers. Musk would have described them that way. Lewis says they are mainly trying not to break the law. He lines the word up with impressionist and with Tories. Impressionist was an insult, and the painters turned it into a compliment. Tories was an insult, and the Tory party has made hay with it. He decided to take blocker and turn it into a compliment.

Lewis says he has no deep source inside the White House. Two weeks before he said so, Donald Trump got up in a speech and said that if the Democrats take the House and try to do stuff, he will end up being a blocker and block all their bad stuff for two years. Lewis wonders whether someone has at least told Trump the title.