Posted on 03/18/2022 7:58:10 AM PDT by SJackson
Virtually all Americans believed, until the inauguration of Donald Trump as president on January 20, 2017, that when someone became president, he could begin to implement his agenda. Certainly Old Joe Biden’s handlers have done so with a vengeance since they took over; but when Trump became president, he immediately began to encounter resistance from entrenched members of the government bureaucracy who refused to do as he ordered. Some worked actively against Trump, while the establishment media assured us that these self-appointed “deep state” saboteurs were the courageous guardians of “our democracy.” At his South Carolina rally Saturday night, Trump continued to tease a 2024 run and made a new promise about how he would break the power of the unelected “deep state.”
“We will pass critical reforms,” Trump said, “making every executive branch employee fireable by the president of the United States. The deep state must and will be brought to heel.”
It’s a commonsensical solution, as Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance pointed out. “Everyone is losing their mind about this, but I’ve been calling for it at every town hall I do. Either the president controls the executive branch or he doesn’t. If he doesn’t, we don’t live in a Republic, we live in a civil service driven oligarchy.”
Quite so. And although the “deep state” only came to the attention of most Americans over the last few years, the controversy over the hiring and firing of civil service employees is one of the oldest controversies of the republic. As Rating America’s Presidents explains, Andrew Jackson was elected president in 1828 on promises to end the hegemony of a privileged aristocracy, and, to drain that swamp, he would need his own men in key positions. He removed a large number of civil service employees and replaced them with men of his own faction, which came to be known as the Democracy, or Democratic Party. This came to be known as the spoils system, after the old adage “To the victor belong the spoils.”
The term “spoils system” is today practically synonymous with government corruption, but Jackson began it as a blow against corruption, preventing the establishment of an entrenched bureaucracy that would oppose the president. The Trump administration made it clear that such a bureaucracy, determined to thwart the president at every turn, is a genuine concern; it is time for a reconsideration of the spoils system.
The spoils system essentially died with the assassination of President James A. Garfield in 1881. Garfield believed that the spoils system was an unending source of government corruption and pushed for measures that would end it, only to be shot by a man who publicly proclaimed that he was doing so because he belonged to the faction of the Republican party, the Stalwarts, that supported the spoils system. Garfield’s successor, Chester Arthur, was a Stalwart, but he demonstrated immense personal courage and honor in choosing to carry out the wishes of his slain predecessor rather than implement his own contrary agenda. His decision to do this effectively ended his political career, as he almost certainly knew it would, and yet he stood firm.
Whether his stance was entirely wise in the long run, however, is a separate question. Historians take for granted that civil service reform was good for the country, and there has been no significant indication that it wasn’t until quite recently, when a president was thwarted in numerous endeavors by an army of unelected bureaucrats within the various departments and agencies of the government, who were determined to impede his agenda in every way possible.
The proponents of civil service reform never envisioned a situation in which unelected and unaccountable opponents of a sitting president in the FBI, the Justice Department, and elsewhere would be determined to destroy the president — or at the very least make it impossible for him to carry out his policies — and could not be removed from their jobs because of civil service regulations.
Wouldn’t government work more smoothly, and the executive branch be able to operate more effectively in the way the Founding Fathers envisioned it would, if the president were able to clear out the employees of these agencies who opposed him and replace them with people more in line with his vision?
The spoils system has no defenders today, and has had none for over a century. It should have more. Trump is on the right track.
So what's the problem you ask?
1. Civil service protections have grown over the years to be a protective suit of impenetrable kelvar jacket of armor around the employee. Quadruple so if the employee is a “protected class”! Federal unions have pushed this as well as "civil rights activists". Granted there needs to be protection from arbitrary action and actual racism but over the years> However 'creative lawyering" and fear of bad PR (the Race Card!) due to a lawsuit has made it much more then that!
2. No, or indifferent enforcement of the Hatch Act. I've said this before - Rat administrations ignore it, GOP administrations issue a memo saying partisan activity is bad.
3. Loud obnoxious government unions - e.g., postal workers & NTEU. Incredibly loud when you consider at most they are roughly a third of the labor force.
4. Rat support both to screw Republicans and to further their own agenda. They know there will be no reprecussions to the government employee particularly if the employee is a protected minority.
5. The rise of the hiring of employees with government-oriented degrees. These days all liberal arts, social sciences & particularly MPAs. Their first thought is always a government solution & action. For example in the regulatry agnecies almost all have no background in what they are regulating. So they are easy and willing prey to activist consultants who dress up their biased findings in the appropriate technical and academic garmets.
6. And probably the most important - the Federal Courts. The minute any change or action is proposed regarding the federal bureauacracy the Rats, unions & activists have it in front of a sympathetic federal judges before the reform memo can even be distributed.
Now a modern state needs a professional bureauacracy. It's foolish to think we can go back to a "spoils system". You would spend the entire term staffing. Also corruption would be far far far worse then now. The only rational solution is decertify the federal unions and expand to cover employee's family (e.g., wife & children!) and actually enforce the Hatch Act.
I have a radical suggestion. If you go to work for FedGov you give up the right to vote in federal elections. Now that might require have two different election days one for fedeal offices and one for state, county and local. (Maybe still do it same day but a separate voting booth for feds!)
Excepted Service definition from wiki (and yes its wiki, but in this case its not that bad!) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excepted_service#:~:text=From%20Wikipedia%2C%20the%20free%20encyclopedia%20The%20excepted%20service,hiring%20processes%20to%20be%20used%20under%20certain%20circumstances.?msclkid=89690608a6d811ec9c90a22a5e69038e
He’s 100% right.
We need to ask every candidate, in public, if they support this, or not. Waaay before primaries:
“Yes or no: Do you support a new law alowing the President to fire anyone in the Executive Branch?”
Anything other than a flat out “Yes,” is a “no.”
Getting late...
Trump’s biggest mistake during his first term is not saying his phrase “you’re fired” enough. If you want to drain the swamp, you have to get rid of ALL the swamp rats. People who know their way around the capitol are of no use to the vast majority of Americans.
I certainly agree, but it would help if Present Trump would stop endorsing RINO's and swamp monsters. He really needs to improve his vetting process for endorsements and nominees to his administration, and he needs to make this a priority now before he makes more endorsements for this upcoming campaign cycle.
Never forget that Obama aka Barry Soetero fired all the generals and replaced them with woke, communist generals - all while senate republicans gladly went along with it.
I agree, he has already endorsed Moran, Crapo, Grassley, Boozman, Scott (SC) and Amnesty Senator Rubio for 2022.
Let’s get real - Schumer’s worse than Rubio... You know that, right?
Rubio wants to assist the Democrats to a permanent majority with amnesty for illegal aliens.
ALL Bush League Republicans are Assistant Democrats assisting them to a permanent majority with open borders/amnesty.
We will never Make America Great Again by re-electing Assistant Democrats.
IMO you are 100% correct!
Politics alone cannot cure what ails our nation. But politics by other means.....
Have you ever been to DC? If you ever went there and actually walked around and talked to people you would begin to comprehend the scale of the problem. The richest area in the country is DC in the surrounding suburbs. Moving Congress would delete much of their wealth overnight. You’re trying to complicate things. You don’t have to move these agencies around. You just need to take the people that they need to influence to a secure location and let them do their job without lobbyists and K street and cocktail parties. You’re just gonna have to trust me on this, your congressman cannot possibly withstand the pressure of Washington.
Deep state has gone international, which complicates matters somewhat. Still, cleaning out the stables here would be a good start, especially within the intelligence establishment and the justice system. Trimming the social justice warriors out of the military is also an overdue reform. Pity we can’t fire nine-tenths of the media but one problem at a time.
If we don’t get Congress back it doesn’t matter how ‘pure’ our people are because we won’t have the power to do crap.
Democrats will steamroll us.
Really Lurkinanloomin push the idea of dumping democrats sometimes...
When Assistant Democrats like Rubio, Hoeven, Grahamnesty, Tillis, Cornyn, etc give amnesty to illegal aliens Democrats will NEVER lose another election.
They KNOW they are working for a permanent Democrat majority, why don’t you?
If we don’t have a majority in Congress democrats will keep the borders open and welcome every criminal and cartel member/drug pusher the world over.
You know that.
You’re smart.
What I don’t understand is why you keep pushing ‘purity’ over taking aback Congress. We need every seat we can get. Without the power to stop democrats it doesn’t matter how pure our guys are...
It’s a great proposal, but Trump can’t implement it by himself. He’ll need a strong majority in both houses of Congress who actually want to rein in the federal bureaucracy, rather than corruptly benefit from it.
A majority of Assistant Democrats will keep the border open as they did for 30 years before Trump.
It was Republican Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison that killed the funding for the Secure Fence Act of 2006 in subsequent legislation.
If “our” guys are working for the Democrats, a majority makes no difference as the first two years of Trumps term vividly illustrated.
“Will they be able to fire any opponent at will?”
Yes, any Executive branch employee at least (not federal judges though, as they are appointed for life unless impeached). But that is how it should be. Executive branch employees are only supposed to have power because the President has delegated it to them, so they are supposed to serve at his pleasure.
In practice, nowadays, it has become quite a mess because Congress has also delegated some of its power to Executive branch agencies as well. So for this to work, the legislation would probably have to do away with agencies that rely on Congressionally delegated powers, or “roll them back” to only exercising the powers granted to them by the Executive.
bttt!
If WE have congress democrats are NOT going to e able to keep the border open.
WE can bring forth bills WE like...
Democrats are keeping our borders OPEN NOW WITHOUT any help from Rubio or any other Republican because THEY have the power in Congress.
When we held Congress four years ago we closed down the border and Rubio and the other RINO’s could NOT stop us. So Rubio’s NOT a factor. The key is controlling congress and having more of our guys in power than either democrats or RINO’s.
You could have the best 5 players in the world of football history, but if you don’t have 11 players to suit up you can’t win.
Again - WE closed the border 4 years ago WITH ALL THE RINO’S IN PLACE AND POWERLESS.
Trump closed the border, against the opposition of Republicans and Democrats.
We MUST elect MAGA Republicans and replace ALL Bush League Republicans.
If the GOP had cooperated with Trump we would have a finished fence.
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