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Frank Lee's avatar

Attorney General Merrick Garland, I think, will soon be busy with his own investigation into politicized judicial malfeasance. From my perspective all the hand wringing about Trump and Section F is just a reflection of what has already been done by the Democrats.

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Eric73's avatar

Schedule F is a direct attack on the Civil Service, which has existed for over 150 years and played a vital role de-politicizing the Federal workforce. Trump was happy to use it to embed some of his corrupt political appointees in their jobs, but now he seeks to further corrupt the Fed with political loyalists and industry cronies.

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Frank Lee's avatar

Nah. Organization bloat happens and needs to be cut with an axe.

Today the government is rife with Obama, Clinton and Biden loyalists, so time for some balance.

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Eric73's avatar

The whole point of the Civil Service is that it doesn't contain political appointees. It's entirely merit based, which is why they serve from one administration to the next. There is no reason to believe the Civil Service contains "loyalists" to any particular President. If Trump has his way, there will be.

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Eric73's avatar

That doesn't make them "loyalists". Employees are allowed to have political opinions, and since Republicans traditionally use federal employees as political whipping posts, it is natural that they would favor Democrats.

Furthermore, since Federal employees are competitively hired and actually take their jobs seriously and care about the work they do for the country, of course the vast majority of them were opposed to someone like Trump - a man thoroughly unfit for office - becoming President.

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Eva Seifert's avatar

The article goes on to state that employees are forbidden to use government time or advocate for a specific candidate. Employees are citizens and are entitled to their own opinion, and can contribute their own monies to anyone they choose, apparently to the tune of $2 million in 2016, the date of the article. But they cannot openly advocate for one candidate or another. Unlike Trump loyalists like his daughter, Jared, Kellyanne and countless others that Trump appointed who repeatedly violated the Hatch Act. Only the very top tier of government agencies are appointed by the president. Millions of other employees aren't and shouldn't be. BTW, they ALL take this oath: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God." Not one word about loyalty to the president, which is what Trump wants.

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