- Joined
- Apr 22, 2019
- Messages
- 58,777
- Reaction score
- 29,956
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- Political Leaning
- Progressive
Imagine a Democratic president had begun to try to fire pretty much everyone they could in the federal government who was not willing to be a political lackey for them. Not being a Democratic lackey - which was investigated - was grounds for removal. Firing every Republican they could, every independent not loyal they could, ever Democrat who protested, and replacing them with incompetent lackeys.
If one Republican had been fired that way, Republicans would have been screaming about tyranny. If it was done on a mass basis, they'd probably be calling for revolution and screaming about a government and takeover and coup and how their rights were violated.
Yet trump is doing that in plain sight. Masses of workers are investigated for loyalty to trump, asked things like 'who won 2020 and was the election stolen' to prove their loyalty - top government positions are asking nominees the same thing to get approved.
It's just accepted like 'sure, trump is only having government workers loyal enough to him to say they believe his lies'. Without discussion of how tyrannical, and how harmful, that is. Republicans are strongly supportive of it, idiotically mouthing things like 'get rid of the deep state'. Most press makes little if any mention. Even Democrats seem to say little. It's never happened before.
In fact, while it's the system for presidents to have 'political appointees', even those are considered a scandal if they betray the nation to support the president, and there's a line between those and the non-political appointees who are expected to be hired on merit, and have political freedom. Some presidents even hire the other party for political positions, like cabinet members, to 'look non-partisan', e.g., Biden kept some trump appointees in power.
If this were the new normal, our government would continue to be devastated, as it is being now, with each president firing essentially all of the government they could from the previous president of the other party. Government can't function like that which is why it's not the system. Neither can democracy. Republicans seem unable to see the problem if 'their side' does it, only if Democrats do it.
If one Republican had been fired that way, Republicans would have been screaming about tyranny. If it was done on a mass basis, they'd probably be calling for revolution and screaming about a government and takeover and coup and how their rights were violated.
Yet trump is doing that in plain sight. Masses of workers are investigated for loyalty to trump, asked things like 'who won 2020 and was the election stolen' to prove their loyalty - top government positions are asking nominees the same thing to get approved.
It's just accepted like 'sure, trump is only having government workers loyal enough to him to say they believe his lies'. Without discussion of how tyrannical, and how harmful, that is. Republicans are strongly supportive of it, idiotically mouthing things like 'get rid of the deep state'. Most press makes little if any mention. Even Democrats seem to say little. It's never happened before.
In fact, while it's the system for presidents to have 'political appointees', even those are considered a scandal if they betray the nation to support the president, and there's a line between those and the non-political appointees who are expected to be hired on merit, and have political freedom. Some presidents even hire the other party for political positions, like cabinet members, to 'look non-partisan', e.g., Biden kept some trump appointees in power.
If this were the new normal, our government would continue to be devastated, as it is being now, with each president firing essentially all of the government they could from the previous president of the other party. Government can't function like that which is why it's not the system. Neither can democracy. Republicans seem unable to see the problem if 'their side' does it, only if Democrats do it.