Brain Surgery by Bus Drivers*
The End of Normal
*Nothing against bus drivers. We need them to drive the bus!
Which do you want first—portents of good? or portents of evil? I vote for reviewing the bad stuff first. That way, Grounded can conclude today with the good stuff. To preview: On the “uh-oh!” side of the scale: the Trumpy harbingers of doom, Schedule F and Project 2025. On the “that could work!” side: opportunities for public comment and civic mobilization.
Government by Amateurs, Sycophants, and Toadies
Schedule F, the plan to convert the American civil service into a servant class beholden to Lord Trump, had its trial run in late 2020. It was canceled by President Biden before the American system of government deteriorated significantly.
Schedule F
Georgetown University Professor Don Moynihan writes about public administration in Can We Still Govern? He explains:
[Trump’s] Executive Order 13957 Creating Schedule F was signed on October 21 2020 right before the election and drew little attention. In practical terms, it meant that the President could convert any career official who offered policy advice into political appointees, stripping them of their career protections, allowing the President to fire them.
Biden reversed Schedule F. But the Trump officials who created it are marketing it as a blueprint for the future of the US public service, and it is very possible that some version of Schedule F will return (edited for brevity—m.o.).
Decimating the civil service is key to the Right’s long-standing goal of dismantling “the administrative state.” This is all about power. Each camp within Trumpworld selects its target. Trump is at the top: driven by grievances, his sights are set on gaining control over law enforcement and national security—the government organs that have investigated his malfeasance. Trump-aligned CEOs want to disempower the federal government’s regulatory apparatus. Christian nationalists seek domination over the government units that support independent culture and protect individual liberties. Too harsh? Check out the Heritage Foundation’s Mandate for Leadership 2025.
How would the implementation of Schedule F affect national governance? We’ve seen this movie before. Public administration by an army of political hacks is old-fashioned. It’s called the spoils system and the US rejected it in 1881. Why? Because President James Garfield was assassinated by a political supporter who didn’t get a government job after the 1880 election. The US moved to a merit system of government employment and didn’t look back. Until now.
Who are the government officials that MAGA wants to replace with cronies? Government scientists, demographers, accountants, supply chain experts, emergency managers, statisticians, and lawyers . . . you know, people with qualifications and experience. Americans will miss them.
Would you prefer a MAGA with a commercial driver’s license or a board-certified surgeon for your operation? The contrast is apt: a modern state reduces risks to its population by employing professionals to manage critical functions.
I’m not saying the Trumpies are unqualified. They are qualified—to be interns at the Heritage Foundation, on-air news readers at local Sinclair TV affiliates, or internet trolls working for shell companies owned by Vladimir Putin.
They are not qualified to maintain US nuclear weapons (DOE), predict hurricanes (NOAA), rescue ships at sea (USCG), or keep poisons out of the food supply (USDA).
Project 2025
MAGA Republicans have a plan—for our future
The Heritage Foundation is poised to remodel America. They declare:
It is not enough for conservatives to win elections. If we are going to rescue the country from the grip of the radical Left, we need both a governing agenda and the right people in place, ready to carry this agenda out on day one of the next conservative administration.
If you think the following commentary is liberal scaremongering, please read the Heritage Foundation Project 2025 documents for yourself.
Independent scholars and journalists are sounding the alarm, and drawing the logical implications from the Project 2025 playbook.
Legal journalist Dahlia Lithwick and political scientist Norm Ornstein emphasize that Project 2025’s implementation
would also tighten the screws on abortion after Dobbs, move against contraception, . . . [and overturn] the right to same-sex marriage. . . . [Trump’s foreign policy intends to] jettison NATO, abandon support for Ukraine, give Putin a green light to go after Poland and other NATO countries, and reorient American alliances to create one of strongmen dictators including Kim Jong-un.
Given the stakes of the 2024 election, Lithwick and Ornstein wonder about the blasé attitude of the political press. It could be that
Americans have a normalcy bias. It leads them to believe anyone who tells them that everything is awesome and that a system is “holding”—even as that system is hanging together by way of dental floss. . . . [M]any journalists have a normalcy bias so acute they wouldn’t know how to cover an authoritarian takeover . . . .[if it hit them in the face—m.o.]
Lithwick and Ornstein observe that
we are exceptionally good at telling ourselves that shocking things won’t happen, and then when they do happen, we don’t know what to do. . . . While Trump has armies of surrogates out there arguing that Trump is an all-powerful God proxy, the rule of law has no surrogates out there arguing for anything . . .
[MAGA Republicans’] overt declarations of blowing up America’s checks and balances and following the blueprints to autocracy . . . are treated with shrugs by mainstream journalists and commentators. What’s more, Republicans in Congress have shown a willingness to kowtow to every Trump demand. The signals are flashing red that our fundamental system is in danger.
Shorter Lithwick and Ornstein: If MAGA Republicans take over, kiss “normal” goodbye.
[ETA: John Oliver weighs in on Schedule F and Project 2025 in his latest “Last Week Tonight” episode. Article here. Video here.]
Change the Rule!
Good news: Our government is currently functioning; citizens can augment the administrative state’s™ effort to rein in the private equity Borg. (Ironic battle cry: Remember Red Lobster!)
I’ve been concerned (an anxiety shared by many of you, judging from comments) about the scorched earth practices of private equity firms and acquisitive corporations. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) are seeking help from the public (i.e., us) to curtail abuses. It’s a chance to contribute to a larger project—protecting small businesses and consumers from exploitation by corporate behemoths.
The request from the FTC and the DOJ:
Corporate Consolidation Through Serial Acquisitions and Roll-Up Strategies
The agencies are seeking information from the public on serial acquisitions and roll-up strategies, which are corporate consolidation strategies that occur when a company becomes larger—and potentially dominant—by buying several smaller firms in the same or related business sectors or industries.
Here’s a typical public comment by Anonymous:
When venture capital and private equity enter into acquisitions of businesses they do not understand and cannot be patient with, disaster often happens for the everyday worker.
In my own situation, the company I worked for . . . was bought . . . in 2016. Then the new owners publicly fired salaried staff and hired underpaid 1099 freelancers which cost less . . . . [which led to business failure].
The predatory practice of acquiring a company, stripping it of what makes it a functional business, delivering a lower-quality product to consumers, and writing it off as a business loss when it fails, needs to end. It impacts nearly every American.
This is highly relevant to those of you who are small business owners or who work in an industry that is impacted by mergers and market consolidation.
You can read or add public comments here. To read published comments, click on the tab: All Comments on Docket. To add your voice, click on the tab: Docket Documents/Comment. Do this before July 22.
The Bright Side
Two Substacks to keep you hopeful and engaged . . .
Chop Wood, Carry Water 6/12/2024
Special elections boding well for us
How are my favorite marathon runners today?
Because this is, indeed, a marathon, friends. I feel it, too. And it’s not a marathon on flat ground, either. It’s an endurance race over mountain roads in a hurricane. I know our feet hurt; I know we long for a rest, I know we’re hitting the “wall of pain.” But we have to keep going. Getting through this part is how we win.
Speaking of which, we got some good news yesterday! Not in the polls, or on social media, but in the real world, where actual election results are the only data that matters.
Hopium Chronicles by Simon Rosenberg
There’s good news, who knew? Simon Rosenberg gives us the data that gets buried by our both-sides, horse-racey, click-baity mainstream media:
And now, your moment of . . . Plovermania!
Writing—and reading—about serious subjects can be fairly depressing. Grounded will conclude each week with a lighter story so you may leave with a bit of joy in your heart.
Imani The Piping Plover Has Returned To Montrose Beach
Imani is the son of the famed Monty and Rose, the plovers who stole the city’s hearts and inspired plovermania in Chicago starting in 2019. . . .
This marks the third straight year the bird has returned to his birthplace. Imani has returned to Montrose Beach repeatedly, though he has not been joined by a female and has not been able to successfully mate.
Come on, folks—look through your contacts and get this plover a date!
Keep scrolling down (below Notes) to reach the comments, share, and like buttons.
Dear Readers, could you please hit the “like” button? It helps improve the visibility of Grounded in search results. Thanks.
Follow me on social media:
Notes:
Robert Borosage, Why Trump’s Second Victory Would Be Worse.
Michael Lewis, The Fifth Risk.
Dahlia Lithwick and Norman Ornstein, The Biggest Lie Trump–Biden 2024 Rematch Voters Are Telling Themselves.
Don Moynihan, You Should Be More Worried About Politicization of the Career Public Service.
Don Moynihan, A bipartisan group of government experts warn about the risks of Schedule F.
Karen Tumulty, Government of Amateurs.
Joan Walsh, Project 2025 Has Bad Medicine for HHS.
But Trump didn’t invent the “hire only incompetent Heritage partisan hacks policy”. In Iraq, Bush put an unqualified Heritage intern in charge of the stock market. The kid believed the essence of a stock market was big screen TVs (not trading stocks). He had seen a picture of the NYSE, so he bought a truckload of big screen TVs for a city with sporadic electric service (Imperial Life in the Emerald City).
When you realize that trump’s four Attorneys General were all corrupt partisan hacks, and the most honest of them is mostly famous for his patent for big boy toilets, that is a scary future.