Among the Progressive Era’s proudest achievements was the professionalization of the civil service. The Buffoon-in-Chief, who demands personal loyalty, aims to undo that and turn every job in the federal government into a patronage position.
All Americans deserve accountability and respect — and that is what we are giving them. So tonight, I call on the Congress to empower every Cabinet Secretary with the authority to reward good workers — and to remove Federal employees who undermine the public trust or fail the American people.
This will inevitably make the civil service the instrument of corrupt politicians rather than the law. We can say that with confidence, because America has been there; recall Tammany Hall and Boss Tweed.
Does anybody doubt that, having scrubbed the EPA Web site of climate data, and the words ‘climate change,’ Scott Pruitt would get rid of climate scientists? That OSHA would get rid of conscientious site inspectors? That Betsy DeVos would get rid of staff who object to the wholesale privatization of public education? That the federal government would become anything but the toy of a corrupt and rapacious executive’s corrupt henchmen?
America’s gravest threat is its president and his enablers.