Based on the population, the numbers were great, especially when you include those who died from all causes. That was my point.
We all react differently, and from our brief interaction today, one of us thinks the government is corrupt, the other one doesn't. We would be enemies on any battlefield, if we both fought.
I don't know how you came to that conclusion. Again, you seem to be missing the point. We have had corrupt and partisan political leaders in government before. What we are seeing now is widespread partisanship in the career bureaucracy. The cover-ups, manipulation of data, and the willing assistance of career bureaucrats to carry out the partisan agenda of political appointees are disturbing to me as a former career federal employee. Something is changing and it is not good.
The Pendleton Act was supposed to eliminate the spoils system and create a merit based bureaucracy. With the rise of public employee unions, there is an incentive to support the party of big and expanding government. When you look at endorsements and political contributions, federal employees overwhelmingly support the Dems. Anyone wanting to reduce the size and scope of government is considered an enemy.
One of the things that was happening in the Clinton administration and I have no doubt it is occurring in the Obama administration, is the conversion of Schedule C jobs (political appointments) to career civil service jobs. The jobs are then filled by the political appointees who held the jobs. They are converted into permanent civil service status. It is a way to transform the civil service into a partisan bureaucracy and saddle the next President with "political appointees" from the previous administration. GAO has done a number of reports on the issue. DOJ is one of the most affected agencies.
The public unions usually act as watchdogs on the conversions of civil service jobs to Schedule C jobs, but there is less resistance to converting the political jobs to civil service. However, the unions still don't like the the idea of filling the jobs with the current incumbents of the position. I suspect the Dems get a pass regardless. If Trump is elected, he will have to deal with Obama legacy employees who are now civil service and not required to submit their resignations upon the election of a new President. They essentially cannot be removed.
As far as battlefields are concerned, I have actually served in a war. I consider myself a patriot who will resist a tyrannical government. I won't "submit" to it because it is powerful.
Good morning all
Kabar - I always appreciate reading your thoughtful posts. I remember hearing what you said about Clinton converting appointees to civil servants, but had forgotten about it.
I heard yesterday on Fox (IIRC it was J. Christian Adams that said it) that the attorneys in the civil rights division of the DOJ were the most biased (may not have been his word, but what he said was strong) in the DOJ.
Questions for you:
do you know if all/most of the attorneys in the DOJ have been converted to civil service positions so that President Trump couldn’t easily get rid of them?
I suspect it will be difficult to terminate a civil service employee - is that correct? I ask this b/c I think the government needs to be scaled down by a lot and only those that actually fulfill a purpose and work hard (just like with major corporations) should remain.