Comment by gopher_space
5 months ago
> 99% of the time we don’t want civil servants to do this because 99% of the time the President isn’t actively trying to unmake the Constitutional order. It’s very problematic to have civil servants thinking their judgement should overrule their leadership[.]
Civil servants use their personal judgment 100% of the time because they're tasked with bringing local context to decisions made elsewhere. 99% of the time this isn't a problem because most of the people involved understand the process and their role in it.
For local context yeah, but in open defiance of their leadership not so much.
Then let Trump fire them!
The Republic is designed to protect and preserve the rights of its citizens. That government workers have consciences is a feature, not a bug.
The machinery of the American state is built on the voluntary cooperation of millions of Americans. Trump is not entitled to that; he is not a king and that's not how we do things here.
If he wants to gut the government and be ruler of the ashes, he may do that. If he wants to be the most powerful man in the world, he must earn the cooperation of the civil service.