I kinda disagree with this guys premise. What happened with the IRS isn’t the result of some employees getting comfortable enough with their protected positions that they felt safe in taking partisan action.
What happened with the IRS was deliberate infiltration, over many years, by partisan ideologues/zealots. Who, upon reaching hiring manager positions made sure that people who believed as they did were hired and advanced/promoted.
Term limits for public sector jobs.
Even most of our military men leave the service after 10 or 20 years
Makes me chuckle every time.
Someone has figured out people don't like bureaucrats very much.
The only cure: Get the public sector unions out of government.
This will not be easy because the democrats DEPEND upon these unions to fund them.
When are we going to stop the unions’ tyrannical rule over our local, county, state and federal governments ..??
The point has been raised that civil service is a job
for life, and as a former civil servant, the premise
is TRUE.
If your performance reports are 3 out of a 5, your
supervisor has no merits to explain for a higher
rating, nor demerits for a lower rating, just
write, “I concur”, sign and date it. You, then, may
accumulate a series of these, and are truly,
untouchable, by virtue of not an occasional
uptick or downtick, to raise an eyebrow!
Now, since the federal union representatives are
part of the performance appraisal loop, along
with your supervisor, do you really think that
you may ever see a demerit performance
rating???? The union reps have their golden boys,
too.
So, yes, your civil servants, are going to occupy
that desk, until they are carried out, feet first, as
did happen, in my office.
Welcome to the USSA, comrades!
The Perpetual Progress Party demands perpetual apparatchiks!
The author did an excellent job of identifying the problem, but the solution goes begging.
As a career federal government employee for 36 years (retired), I can vouch for the premise that the majority of government employees lean left politically. Why is that? To me, it is quite obvious. The Democrats are the party of Big Government, ergo most government employees have a vested interest in supporting the Democrats rather than a party that supports smaller, limited government. The Republicans are seen as the enemy.
The Democrats and public employees at all levels of government have a symbiotic relationship. The Democrats support increased benefits for public employees in return for political support including campaign contributions. Public employee unions endorse and fund Democrat politicians who, in turn, provide and protect public employee benefits. Unless we change that relationship I see little hope in fixing a very real problem.
The real danger is a partisan administrative state that has enormous control over the lives of the citizens and will manipulate data to achieve political objectives. Even if the Republicans were able to seize the reins of government, they would be faced with a partisan bureaucracy that will resist change and undermine their efforts thru delay and damning leaks to the media.
The Pendleton Act was supposed to eliminate political patronage in filling government jobs and to go to a merit based system. The Act did not foresee the rise of public employee unions, which have become a substitute for patronage. The first step in addressing a partisan civil service is to eliminate public employee unions.