(WASHINGTON) - - How is possible that federal employees can actively attempt to sabotage President Trump and keep their jobs? Why is there no longer accountability in our federal government?
The government has created a culture that negates the practice of hiring the best talent to serve the interests of the American people and, instead, simply creates good paying jobs for nice people.
When I call them ‘nice’ I’m referring to their public behavior, not their hidden behavior and actions.
In the Supreme Court case, Cleveland Board of Education v. Loudermill, the court ruled that certain public sector jobs are valuable as ‘property.’ In essence, this ruling cause many government jobs to be legally considered a piece of land.
If you contest, the government can't foreclosure your land without due process and a hearing. This 1985 ruling of the Supreme Court effectively means that in order to terminate an insubordinate government worker, you have to 'foreclose' on their job.
The process of a property foreclosure takes many months and sometimes years when it's contested. Using a similar ‘due process’ of employment leaves many incompetent government workers employed infinitum.
In Cleveland v. Loudermill, the plaintiffs contested that they had not been given the chance to respond to their termination as a government worker. As a result of the case, government employers are required to provide a Loudermill letter followed by a hearing before terminating many of their employees.
The confusion presented by this case also creates a hesitance by many government-managers to engage in the arduous process of terminating an employee who is insubordinate or incompetent. Literally, it may be easier for the manager to deal with a disruptive employee than to embark upon the arduous termination process.
Over the last two decades this has created a culture where a large number of public-sector employees are able to manipulate these firing practices and retain their jobs even when they exhibit insubordination or incompetence.
This degradation of accountability is spilling into our private sector and thus causing our people to diminish our work-ethic and disciplines. After many years of waning accountability, people are no longer driven toward perfection. Instead they have devolved into minimalistic (cheating) attitudes. Re: We have gotten lazy and ‘get away with it.’
We are seeing a system-wide effort to sabotage President Trump's White House (in the federal government). The illegal leaks of classified information by the intelligence community to the media ultimately destroyed national security adviser, Gen. Michael Flynn’s career. Former acting Atty. Gen. Sally Yates was fired after defying a trial-defense order (re: immigration) by the president. Some federal workers have set up Facebook accounts to anonymously leak information about Trump directives for which they disagree to inform the public of their personal opinion of how you (or others) will be harmed.
Can you imagine working as an employee for a large corporation and setting up a Facebook account that undermines their key business practices and objectives? When (not ‘if’) caught, you'd be fired immediately.
By defying the orders of the CEO (in this case the president) and maliciously doing the opposite, while collecting a paycheck, is theft. There is little difference between stealing a $2,000 diamond from a jewelry store and cashing a $2,000 paycheck for work you purposefully did not do as directed.
I have always said that working for the federal government, in some capacity, requires you to sell your soul. At minimum, it requires you to remain silent on most issues especially when your opinions are antithetical to the purpose of serving all of the people in government.
This means: Go to work, do your job, be accountable and be quiet. If that job description is not acceptable, then take your issues to the political ‘stump’ and run for elected office.
If any federal employee is caught undermining the directives of their supervisor, they should be fired. If the law requires a Loudermill hearing, then so be it. However after they have been heard, they should still be fired. After all, the case requires the employee to be heard but there is nothing that requires ‘federal’ agreement.
If this creates lawsuits by workers who feel wrongfully terminated, then so be it. Get in line. It’s time that accountability returns to every layer of our government.
The ‘anonymous intelligence personnel’ who leaked details about General Flynn's conversation with a Russian ambassador in December committed espionage. The intent of this leak was to damage the commander-in-chief and undermine the will of our democracy.
Remember, one of the punishments for espionage is the death penalty.
Government jobs are presently for ‘nice people’ who behave as if they are morally and intellectually superior to the rest of us. Regretfully, these people are anything but ‘nice.’ Their words may be ‘nice’ but their real actions are deviant and destructive.