Originally published at: Trump Wants To Reinstate Spoils System, Hiring Loyalists Regardless Of Competence - TPM – Talking Points Memo
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It first appeared at The Conversation. If elected to serve a second term, Donald Trump says he supports a plan that would give him the authority to fire as many as 50,000 civil servants and replace them with members of his political party…
If there’s one thing a con can’t stand, it’s an honest man.
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A correction: There was no President “Chester Garfield.” James A. Garfield was assassinated and Chester A. Arthur then became president.
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The 6 right wingers on the Supreme Court legalized bribery for Trump, which means he can sell government jobs like vegetables in the marketplace.
How was bribery legalized? Trump is immune to criminal liability for his “core” presidential duties like hiring executive branch employees.
Unless Trump loses and the decision is reversed, the U.S.A. is officially a third world banana republic.
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Saddam Hussein did the same thing. If you weren’t part of the Ba’ath Party, you didn’t get government employment or contracts. The Nazi forced Jews to either convert or lose their livelihoods. The GOP loves to talk about the Chinese Communist Party, not seeing they are headed down that path.
The media keeps whistling past the graveyard and pretending that Trump really isn’t going to try this things. They think he’s going to stop with government employees. They are forgetting that SCOTUS just gave POTUS the immunity to do almost anything and suffer no legal consequences. What the media fails to realize is they are aiding a man back into power that will end them, and there will be no guardrails.
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The media, name one, wants to be Trump’s favorite and will stab each other in the back to be # 1.
It’s the same for Christians.
Whose Jesus will we be ordered to believe in?
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Not only will he install loyalists, he will expect 10% off the top from their salary. Just like the cheap mobster want to be that he is.
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How was bribery legalized? Trump is immune to criminal liability for his “core” presidential duties like hiring executive branch employees.
It is actually worse than that. The Supreme Court ruled that bribing after the fact is legal. That is if you get hired, and then pay for being hired, according to this Supreme Court that is not a bribe. It is only a bribe if it can be proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the bribe was agreed to before being hired.
But TPM also understates the problem.
In our view, if political loyalty replaces merit as the basis of key federal appointments, Americans can expect government to be less competent — as Andrew Jackson learned during his administration.
If you reinstate the Spoil System, it means that instead of having professional career civil servants you will have short termers always looking for their next job. That is under the Spoil System every federal worker was temporary because the next administration would replace you with their own cronies. It meant that there was incentive to if not be outright crooked, at a minimum, to look the other way when looking for everything from polluters to companies committing basic contract fraud.
As a former federal employee who spent 15 years negotiating billions in federal contracts and holding companies to those contracts, I have lots of war stories on how but for my civil service protections instead of saving and recovering hundred of millions I would either have had to if not accept bribes, looked the other way or been fired.
But rather than toot my own horn by giving old war stories, I will close by simply saying that anyone who ever worked conscientiously for the Federal Government knows that without Civil Service protection from politics not only federal employment but especially all federal spending becomes 90%+ corruption.
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The oath of office is still administered to every federal employee their first day on the job. Although often done informally, it’s a real thing.
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"newly elected President Andrew Jackson, after he took office in 1828, fired about half the country’s civil servants and replaced them with loyal members of his political party.
The result was not only an utterly incompetent administration, but widespread corruption."
So, tRump would fire an individual that works for the EPA (as an example) with an advanced degree in something like organic chemistry who studies how certain actions impact entire ecosystems with a cud chewing know nothing that can just make sure nothing gets done?
Scary shit. This is one election we can’t lose.
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In Trump’s mind this makes practical sense. If he surrounds himself with incompetent boobs, it will make him appear to be less of an imbecile than he is.
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Congress also passed conflict-of-interest legislation at that time to prevent employees from making decisions based on personal financial considerations.
That was circa 1789, so it is “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition and implicit in the concept of ordered liberty” that conflict of interest restrictions do not apply to Supreme Court justices.
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Ya know, if reinstating the spoils system as we saw post Civil War and Gilded Age was the only corrupt practice Trump would reinstate, then that alone would be reason enough to vote for his opponent. The practices of the spoils system did immeasurable harm from which it took years to recover. How many Trumpistas and voters would have any idea of what I’m talking about?
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Fascism 101
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Recall when we spoke admiringly about our “Fourth Estate” – our de facto 4th branch of government? ugh! Don’t expect another WaPo Watergate type exposure – ever under a Trump admin. The editors and publisher would end up in the Potomac. “Nice little newspaper you got. Shame if anything ever happened to it”.
Our media will have become complicit in the enabling of a fascist state.
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Spoils system is not a system really if it is based on loyalty and not competence.
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Except his incompetency is spread way too far and wide. In truth it is a stupidity system
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To be fair, this won’t matter quite as much now that Chevron has been overturned and judges incentivized to intervene and rule for business.
All roads lead to the decimation of good government, thanks to Koch and Leo.
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Not just media will be under threat but every one of us across the world. And not just because of donnie’s “leadership” into dictatorship. What scares me is the access he would have to nuclear weapons. I have more than my share of experience in that area. Trump has only heard the words “nuclear weapons” … he has zero clue about them beyond a “big bang”. Witness his thought of nuking a hurricane. That’s epic stupidity. The man scares me.
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[N]ewly elected President Andrew Jackson, after he took office in 1828, fired about half the country’s civil servants and replaced them with loyal members of his political party. The result was not only an utterly incompetent administration, but widespread corruption.
That pretty much sums up the entire previous administration. Only next time, it’ll be far worse.
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