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Keep the Civil Service

2 min read

Suzanne Colvin

Mercer

In America's early days, nearly all federal government positions were vacated and restaffed whenever there was a change in the administration.

The problem with this is that the frequent personnel turnover leaves the government permanently in the hands of inexperienced staffers. Just when some experience on the job begins to produce employee competence, the next election brings a new administration and the fire-and-replace routine recurs.

The problem was addressed by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1882, putting an end to this practice of political patronage which was known as "the spoils system."

Now the Trump campaign, with support from the Heritage Foundation as expressed in Project 2025, has revealed its intention to return to the spoils system, with crucial positions filled by inexperienced and incompetent personnel whose only qualification is personal fealty to the President.

IRS enforcement agents and DOJ investigators could audit and seek indictments against citizens on the administration's "enemies list," merely because he asked them to. (Those on Nixon's enemy list were not invited to White House dinners; those on the MAGA enemy list could face jail time.)

Positions of influence in technical and scientific agencies, such as CDC, NIH and NOAA, would be occupied by persons lacking sufficient knowledge of the topics with which they deal. (As John Bolton has observed, the skill set required to obtain such a position will be the ability to quickly say "Yes, Sir!")

Just one more reason to prevent the election of DJT.

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