I am a retired federal employee, but I work part-time for a private sector employer. My employer’s business interests intersect significantly with several U.S. Government Departments and Agencies. It also deals directly with state agencies that are heavily influenced by these Federal departments and agencies. My employer is increasingly frustrated by the seemingly capricious and arbitrary manner in which many federal and state programs are being run these days. In a brief conversation with him just the other day, I suggested that a much larger reason for this governmental inefficiency was simply incompetence. Bad decisions made in WDC have a tendency to slide downhill…all the way to the states, the counties, and the communities.
Elections have
consequences; and they should.
When an individual triumphs in a political campaign, they have earned
the right to the office they have pursued and with it, the commensurate
authorities to accomplish its stated mission and purpose. This means that when they consider filling
the positions supervised by their office, they are able to fill them with
people who have “like minds” in policy and purpose. In other words, it is entirely reasonable for
conservatives to hire conservative and liberals to hire liberals. This is what free elections are all about. It places a heavy burden on the voters…and we
have not performed well with that burden in recent decades. Terms of political office should serve as
effective “term limits”; but recent history has shown us that they
instead serve as entry portals to political careers.
Nonetheless, acceding to
the fact that political winners have the right to choose their support staff;
there is one obligation upon them that is inescapable. They should be expected to hire COMPETENT
people. There is no question that
regardless of party affiliation, there are sufficient numbers of competent
individuals with either Republican or Democrat credentials to adequately staff
a government…regardless of department or agency. It is not a reach to say that this obligation
might be, if not the most, certainly one of the most important requirements
of a political leader. In no area has
Joe Biden failed more miserably than in his selection of incompetent people to populate
our government. This is not an
arithmetic error; it is a geometric error.
When an incompetent patronage appointment is made at the federal level,
that appointee will in turn make numerous appointments down the line in their
departments and agencies. This reality
results in a marginalization and inefficiency for that particular department or
agency that stretches from the top to the bottom. It is a creeping destructive force that
breeds low morale, pathetic productivity, and the type of rationalization that
results in ideological and partisan operations.
This is where we are today and our nation is suffering because of it.
Joe Biden has selected
individuals for important government positions based on many things. He has zeroed in on race, gender, geographic
representation, past policy positions, and party affiliation. All of these factors are perfectly
understandable and acceptable…as long as the candidates selected are additionally
COMPETENT to do their jobs. In
the case of Joe Biden’s appointments, the competence requirement is either
severely limited in the vetting process or ignored altogether. He has handed out essential government jobs
the way a fireman tosses out candy to children at public parades. Joe Biden did not want intelligent,
experienced, and practical people to fill his administration because these
types of people do not bend well to be being ordered about or manipulated. They tend to be independent thinkers who must
be convinced by reality that Joe Biden’s ideals and policies are
sound.
The reality is that the
overwhelming majority of Joe Biden’s ideals and policies are unsound. Therefore, it is not surprising that when we
consider his catalogue of patronage appointees, we find them to be
politically-centric careerists who are much more interested in today’s opinion
polls than they are in serving the American citizenry through their department
or agency. This Joe Biden curse will not
be lifted by the results of the mid-term elections, no matter how they might
turn out. The quality of the political
appointees placed in service throughout our government by Joe Biden will haunt
us for another two and a half years and it will take multiple terms of
subsequent presidents to repair the harm and damage inflicted upon our nation’s
civic infrastructure during Biden’s time in office. Elections DO have consequences.
The Watergate
Congressional Hearings began on May 17, 1973 and ended on June 27, 1974 with
the issuance of a 1,250-page report.
These hearings were bipartisan in every sense of the word and even
though there was clearly political tension between the two parties in their
examination of a Republican President’s behavior in office; Chairman Sam Ervin
(D) and Vice Chairman Howard Baker (R) made it abundantly clear through their
rhetoric and actions that this Committee would operate in an objective,
transparent, and equitable fashion in pursuit of its purpose.
You could scour the
history of mankind and not come up with a greater contrast to the fashion in
how this Congressional action was orchestrated than that of the ongoing January
6 Select Committee hearings. There is literally
nothing objective, transparent, nor equitable about this current
Committee. The Watergate Committee had 4
Democrats and 3 Republicans, each selected and approved by their own
party. The January 6 Committee has 7
Democrats and 2 Republicans; all members having been selected and approved by
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The House Republicans had no say in the selection of the Republican
members on this Committee and, in fact, both Republican members of the
Committee have clear and public animus towards Donald Trump, the subject of the
hearings.
The Watergate Hearings
were conducted in the normal course of Congressional operations in established
and orderly fashion. The January 6
Hearings have been conducted in a haphazard manner with loose rules of order,
unannounced witnesses, no cross examination, and all of this at the direction
of an accomplished Democrat television program producer in prime time. With quite humble results, the mainstream
media have done everything within their power to maximize the viewership and
partisan effects of these proceedings and the net result has been their
equivalent status being that of a paid, political, Democrat campaign
commercial. They are nothing short of a
farcical, transparent, political circus conducted at taxpayer expense while the
nation and the world around these clueless elected officials experiences
disastrous times and effects. Donald
Trump has not been President for over a year and a half; the Democrats control
the White House and Congress; our national economy is in dismal shape; the
world is in turmoil; and this is how our elected national leaders choose
to spend their time? This is a BAD
joke.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/the-democrats-deeply-flawed-jan-6-show
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/the-jan-6-committee-charade
https://thefederalist.com/2022/07/01/heres-what-the-jan-6-show-trials-are-really-after/
President Trump’s remarks
and actions on this day were wrong and inexcusable. But the reaction of this Committee, and the
Democratic Party/mainstream media/liberal community in general, has been
clearly over the top and grossly over-reactive: https://nypost.com/2022/06/30/jan-6-hearings-are-flawed-but-trumps-bad-behavior-isnt-excusable/
And the presentation of
former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson is the cherry on top of a bizarre
and badly-melted display of our government (at least one side of it) in
action. Have we Americans become so shallow
and gullible that we can be manipulated by these people staging an
attractive young lady in fashionable dress to go on and on about what she might
have heard in casual conversations around the White House? THIS is the subject matter of these
monumental and stupendous SPECIAL SELECT HOUSE COMMITTEE HEARINGS
regarding January 6?
https://amgreatness.com/2022/06/30/nevertrump-hearts-cassidy/
This whole show is a
freaking circus. I will leave it to the
Babylon Bee to give us a proper perspective when considering its value. You know…it is truly scary when satire
approaches reality.
https://babylonbee.com/news/star-witness-amber-heard-to-testify-in-next-jan-6-committee-hearing
Energy and the Economy…the
Economy and Energy…They are joined at the hip.
One is inextricably connected to the other and Joe Biden has somehow
managed to screw them both up. But as
the real-life impact of unicorns like the Green New Deal becomes clearer…the
false hopes of windmills, solar panels, and electric vehicles are coming back
down to earth.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/07/green-dreams-dashed.php
https://www.city-journal.org/bidens-green-hypocrisy-on-high-gas-prices
Hey…As long as capitalism
is allowed to function, hope springs eternal: https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-nuclear-industry-output-reactors.html
Speaking of the economy…perhaps
you remember this nugget from the Biden Administration about a year ago: https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/white-houses-2021-fourth-of-july-cookout-tweet-did-not-age-well/
Once again…no one brings
the truth in focus better than the Bee: https://babylonbee.com/news/running-short-on-funds-for-a-july-4th-barbecue-dad-opens-the-family-safe-to-retrieve-the-16-cents-he-saved-last-year
There exists today two
very different views of our nation and its values. There are many who believe that our Constitution
is outdated and needs to be either heavily revised or disposed of
entirely. There are others who believe that
over the last three decades, our people and our government have forgotten what
makes this country special and have allowed it to shift in directions that have
made it less than it once was. Here are
some good articles that address that ongoing evaluation.
https://www.jewishworldreview.com/0622/shapiro062922.php
https://amgreatness.com/2022/06/26/america-is-more-fragile-than-the-left-understands/
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/07/the-great-crackup-continues.php
Another aspect of this
ongoing debate about the future of our nation is the desire by some to make our
government larger and more authoritative while others want to see a marked
return to the federalist principles of states’ rights and self-rule. To anyone who cares to read it carefully,
there is little doubt where our Constitution stands on this question. The recent SCOTUS rulings on gun control and
abortion have moved authorities back to the states. Based on other events across our country, is
this a trend or an anomaly?
https://amgreatness.com/2022/06/28/america-is-not-immune-from-brown-shirts/
https://nypost.com/2022/07/01/biden-adviser-liberal-world-order-demands-enduring-high-gas-prices/
The agenda of the
Democrat Party and the liberal elements in America today calls for a bigger and
more powerful federal government, an increased flow of federal tax dollars to
any perceived problem in our land, and a naïve and clueless approach to problem
solving that is based largely on “feel good solutions” and a sophomoric
sense of accountability. These next two
articles are good examples of this approach to governing.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/amtrak-burns-taxpayer-money-yet-again/
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-aoc-nails-abortion-roe
Now in all fairness, I think
the latter article above is rather harsh on AOC. I do not believe she equates her self glamour
actions with Roe v. Wade. However, I do
think that her mention of doing her nails in the same breath with historic
SCOTUS decisions aptly demonstrates her unserious and schoolgirl attitude
towards how this country should operate.
In many ways, I respect AOC’s “in your face” approach to
politics; but she certainly has a lot of growing up to do.
Speaking of immaturity…I can
think of no subject that better illustrates the childish and adolescent
tendencies of the mainstream media more than their handling of the Hunter Biden
episodes involving his father. Whatever
the ultimate story may prove to be…can you imagine the way that the mainstream
media would have covered these stories if the subjects were President Donald
Trump and his son??? https://nypost.com/2022/06/30/hunter-and-joe-bidens-links-go-deeper-by-the-day-devine/
To close out, here are
three interesting articles relating to the upcoming elections. Needless to say, all three of these stories
are addressing items of monumental importance when considering the future of
our country.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/courts/supreme-court-elections-case-moore-harper
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/the-endangered-democratic-candidates-2022
https://jewishworldreview.com/0622/york062922.php
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