Former Aberdeen mayor Levsen: Ready for a government run like a Trump business overseen by Elon Musk?
A question for MAGA voters: Are you thrilled with the daily reports of firings and elimination of federal government services and employees? You won, so why not celebrate, right?
Not so fast, folks. You may want to look a bit deeper.
These developments are being applauded by many. New managers and employees are replacing individuals deemed to lack sufficient enthusiasm for whatever policy is being promoted by the White House at any given time. Some government operations are simply terminated, others have their professional staff replaced by supporters of the president.
Department heads with minimal apparent skills related to their tasks have been rubber stamped by the Senate. Longtime employees, many serving decades under both parties, are out. Those who can pass muster with the Elon Musk interviewers are in.
It’s assumed those who voted for Donald Trump see this as a good thing. For now, yes; as time passes, maybe not.
Ideological culture wars get people riled up, but filling employee slots with people who have no other attribute than partisan enthusiasm is bad management.
Most of what happens day to day in our federal government is not at all related to party infighting. It’s just getting things done. As this purge of professional public servants continues, the quality of work will get worse and worse.
In his 2018 book “The Fifth Risk,” Michael Lewis identifies that risk as this: Incompetence. He digs deep into government functions where skilled engineers, scientists, economists, highly skilled experts in every field, and capable people managers keep the country functioning and do so completely apart from politics.
So, we now fire qualified employees, encourage others to quit, discourage good people from applying. The result will be government functions handled by many who simply won’t know how to do the job.
It’s a recipe for failure. Affirmative action for ideologues.
For example, do you want people in charge of the electrical grid to be hired primarily based on Trump loyalty? How about banking regulations? Food safety? Disaster relief? Farm programs? Airports? FBI? Medicare? Anti-terrorism? Your tax return?
Some of those hired will be good choices. Being a loyal MAGA doesn’t make you incompetent, but if you eliminate all those who are not MAGA, some of the replacements are inevitably going to be less capable or even incapable.
Are you feeling good about some of the folks you saw at the Trump rallies now working for your government? How about the Jan 6th pardon recipients?
Perhaps this systematic approach valuing loyalty over ability accounts for the repeated failures of other Trump enterprises. This is a man who had the house advantage on every bet placed in his casinos and still drove them to bankruptcy. That seems almost impossible to do, but the people he hired managed to do it.
This is a heady time for the Republican/Trump establishment and every day is a new celebration of domination.
A bit of caution is in order amidst the revenge and vindication. The services and functions of the federal government will inevitably deteriorate every day as those doing the work make mistakes of omission or commission.
The casinos and so many other Trump schemes found their way to failure despite all the glitter and apparent success. All it took was lousy management.
Mike Levsen is a former Aberdeen mayor and a regular contributor to The South Dakota Standard.
Photo: public domain, wikimedia commons
