The alarm bell that rang the loudest for me was back in September, when 111 former national security officials from Republican administrations and former Republican members of Congress, drafted a letter outlining why they would not be endorsing Trump.
While I understand frustration and a desire for change, I will never comprehend how some…
The alarm bell that rang the loudest for me was back in September, when 111 former national security officials from Republican administrations and former Republican members of Congress, drafted a letter outlining why they would not be endorsing Trump.
While I understand frustration and a desire for change, I will never comprehend how some truly believe that they know more than decorated generals, foreign policy officials, former secretaries of state and defense etc.. Educated, experienced, dedicated professionals (who were in the trenches with him the first time around) take the time to issue a warning- outlining their observations and concerns, but so-and-so dons a hat and purports to know more.
This is very well said Nicole, and I will also never comprehend how the opinions of such dedicated public servants (not to mention the lack of support from the extremely conservative former Vice President) are simply brushed aside. It is very confusing to me.
I also have the same questions about the rhetoric around “bureaucrats” (which has become a slur it seems) - many bureaucrats hold their positions because they’ve invested immense time and energy into becoming experts on a specific topic, and often topics that serve the public good (healthcare, transportation, food safety, etc), but yet some would have us believe they’re all lazy, corrupt, freeloaders - where is the intellectual humility?
My feeling is that evisceration is quite simply far less cumbersome than introspection or consideration.
In much the same way that I find hypocrisy to be akin to sleight of hand. Insidious. Trick the eye and there follows the mind. Trick the mind and there follow the beliefs.
Unfortunately, neither of these are optimal conditions for humility to flourish.
This has not been my experience. While some federal employees certainly are wonderful, dedicated servants, others ARE incredibly lazy freeloaders with poor job performance. The difference between private and public sector is it can be EXTREMELY difficult to terminate anyone employed directly by the federal government. I work in patient care (an area where you'd think high quality work is required, no?) and have sounded alarm bells about an employee who downright refused to do his job properly. The response I received: "no one can make him do his job." He continued to collect a paycheck until retirement, and yes, he was a proud and loud Democrat.
Anecdotal evidence is just that though. There are plenty of poor performing Republican public sector employees as well. And while it's difficult to terminate an employee it's not impossible. It doesn't mean we need to eliminate entire agencies to get rid of a few bad apples. That seems like poor management as well.
While I just included one example, I could list many more. I had a conversation with my coworker about this very thing no less than an hour ago. Her words: "GS employees are allowed to get away with murder." I agree with you that anecdotal evidence is not necessarily indicative of a larger problem, but this trend has held true between the two government organizations where I've worked. These stereotypes exist for a reason. "Good enough for government work."
Hey, your experience sounds challenging. However, I just don’t know if firing ALL federal workers is the solution (and I do believe the intent is to fire the majority of them). A bit “throwing the baby out with the bath water” in my opinion, especially considering the enormous harm done to good workers, their families, the communities and business their salaries support. I don’t think anyone on the left is against reduction of waste, better investment of government dollars and in fact, I don’t think anyone on the left wants bad government employees to be un-fireable (as a lefty I desperately want good, effective programs to succeed and ineffective ones to be canceled). I take issue with the blanket rhetoric that bureaucrats are bad and government spending is inherently bad.
I'm very sorry you've worked for two poorly managed government organizations. While I have experienced a few bad apples overall that has not been my experience at all. The people I have worked with have been hard workers who care about their jobs and the work they do.
The alarm bell that rang the loudest for me was back in September, when 111 former national security officials from Republican administrations and former Republican members of Congress, drafted a letter outlining why they would not be endorsing Trump.
While I understand frustration and a desire for change, I will never comprehend how some truly believe that they know more than decorated generals, foreign policy officials, former secretaries of state and defense etc.. Educated, experienced, dedicated professionals (who were in the trenches with him the first time around) take the time to issue a warning- outlining their observations and concerns, but so-and-so dons a hat and purports to know more.
It would be humorous if it weren’t so tragic.
This is very well said Nicole, and I will also never comprehend how the opinions of such dedicated public servants (not to mention the lack of support from the extremely conservative former Vice President) are simply brushed aside. It is very confusing to me.
I also have the same questions about the rhetoric around “bureaucrats” (which has become a slur it seems) - many bureaucrats hold their positions because they’ve invested immense time and energy into becoming experts on a specific topic, and often topics that serve the public good (healthcare, transportation, food safety, etc), but yet some would have us believe they’re all lazy, corrupt, freeloaders - where is the intellectual humility?
My feeling is that evisceration is quite simply far less cumbersome than introspection or consideration.
In much the same way that I find hypocrisy to be akin to sleight of hand. Insidious. Trick the eye and there follows the mind. Trick the mind and there follow the beliefs.
Unfortunately, neither of these are optimal conditions for humility to flourish.
This has not been my experience. While some federal employees certainly are wonderful, dedicated servants, others ARE incredibly lazy freeloaders with poor job performance. The difference between private and public sector is it can be EXTREMELY difficult to terminate anyone employed directly by the federal government. I work in patient care (an area where you'd think high quality work is required, no?) and have sounded alarm bells about an employee who downright refused to do his job properly. The response I received: "no one can make him do his job." He continued to collect a paycheck until retirement, and yes, he was a proud and loud Democrat.
Anecdotal evidence is just that though. There are plenty of poor performing Republican public sector employees as well. And while it's difficult to terminate an employee it's not impossible. It doesn't mean we need to eliminate entire agencies to get rid of a few bad apples. That seems like poor management as well.
While I just included one example, I could list many more. I had a conversation with my coworker about this very thing no less than an hour ago. Her words: "GS employees are allowed to get away with murder." I agree with you that anecdotal evidence is not necessarily indicative of a larger problem, but this trend has held true between the two government organizations where I've worked. These stereotypes exist for a reason. "Good enough for government work."
Hey, your experience sounds challenging. However, I just don’t know if firing ALL federal workers is the solution (and I do believe the intent is to fire the majority of them). A bit “throwing the baby out with the bath water” in my opinion, especially considering the enormous harm done to good workers, their families, the communities and business their salaries support. I don’t think anyone on the left is against reduction of waste, better investment of government dollars and in fact, I don’t think anyone on the left wants bad government employees to be un-fireable (as a lefty I desperately want good, effective programs to succeed and ineffective ones to be canceled). I take issue with the blanket rhetoric that bureaucrats are bad and government spending is inherently bad.
I'm very sorry you've worked for two poorly managed government organizations. While I have experienced a few bad apples overall that has not been my experience at all. The people I have worked with have been hard workers who care about their jobs and the work they do.