Supremely qualified people are needed, especially when the haberdasher is an idiot. Sure, the will of the people elected the idiot. It appears there are a lot of idiots out there… I’m not one to succumb to idiot rule. When all plays out, at least I’ll be able to say I was not part of the idot camp.
SCOTUS declaring money to be speech and therefore political money to be unmanageable destroyed the last bits of the political ecology that kept the rich and powerful from buying officials and elections. The further decision that bribery only happens if payment comes before corruption was just the cherry on top.
d fb
True dat. Citizens United put a destructive black mark on our democracy. Probably the most destructive decision our democracy has ever dealt with.
No matter if you’re on the left, the right, or in the middle…we should all be against this terrible influence on our politics.
The common error I see here is to equate business success with political success. But those are two very different fields.
In business there are bosses and there are underlings. The underlings’ job is to do what the boss says. Sure, part of an underlings job might be to advise and inform the boss. Ultimately, the underlings don’t make decisions. Those are made by the boss.
For clarity, a lot of people are both underlings and bosses at the same time. That’s middle management.
Politics is very different. While there are some boss/underling relationships out there, ultimately those in elected office can’t do anything substantial on their own. The must negotiate with their peers and those peers as a whole decide what to do.
One city council member can’t make the budget for the city, the council as a whole must agree on a budget (typically by some majority or super-majority vote).
That applies all the way up to Congress and the President. Yes, even the President is pretty limited in what he can do on his own. His peers are Congress as a whole and the Supreme Court.
In politics, things don’t get done by the decree of the boss, they get done by negotiation and compromise. Yes, there is negotiation and compromise in business, but that is mostly in things external to the business, not internal. One business will negotiate with another.
Assuming someone good at business would also be good in politics is a pretty bad assumption.
—Peter
Agree entirely. ¿Qualified for what? The technocrats to run the agency effectively. The head of the agency to make sure the agency is running in the right direction in accordance with “The will of the people." The former need to be operationally effective, the latter politically effective.
The Founders were smart enough to have the Senate evaluate and ratify the picks the (potential) idiot makes. It is very important to keep the checks and balances truly functional to prevent a dystopian or tyrannical government
The Captain
An effective summary. There are two classes of people, natural, flesh and blood people, and judicial or juristic people. Only natural people should have free speech and voting rights.
juristic person
An entity, such as a corporation, that is recognized as having legal personality, i.e. it is capable of enjoying and being subject to legal rights and duties. It is contrasted with a human being, who is referred to as a natural person. See also international legal personality.
Juristic person - Oxford Reference.
The Captain
“Assuming someone good at business would also be good in politics is a pretty bad assumption.”
I try to tell otherwise rational ( pretty much ) acquaintances that TIG was terrible at business, that that his released IRS tax records show that he lost more money than ANYBODY IN AMERICA over a decade ( 85-94 ), he showed losses of over a Billion $'s. But it goes in 1 ear and out the other, and soon enough they’re reiterating how glad they are to have a great businessman in the Oval Office.
They are impervious to facts about TIG.
And we are all about to find out what a great businessman he really is. One thing is for sure, TIG will make an almost incomprehensible of amount of money off of the US Taxpayer, and he’ll do it both covertly and explicitly.
But hey, he’ll say he’s donating the $400k/salary to charity, that will balance it out #sarcasm ( I’d need to see proof of that donation before I’ll believe it, lol ).
Do you think this is working with the current set?
I disagree. For the sake of argument, if you’re saying Brandon Williams is the most qualified person to be politically effective…how so?
Yeah, that’s why a lot of us are concerned. The majority party has abdicated this responsibility.
When the Constitution was written the Founders did not understand the implications of “party politics”, and how the “evaluation and confirmation” would be swayed by it. (Lots of other things, too, like gerrymandering where the politicians pick their voters instead of the other way around.)
A simple fix would be to make the votes on “advice and consent” hidden, perhaps for 10 years, perhaps forever. Likewise votes on impeachment and other issues where partisan politics has overwhelmed the better sense of Cincinnatus politicians because of the threats of retaliation from factional leaders.
What I think is irrelevant. That is your system. If you don’t like it, try to amend the Constitution.
But, since you ask, I like what is happening, how it’s happening. Things swing one way then back the other. I liked the America of WWII, I liked the America of my college days. I liked the America of my Silicon Valley days but I sensed that it was going the wrong way, that Martin Luther King’s Civil Rights movement was being derailed. Sadly I was right. Over three decades later it might get back on track. Just my opinion.
The Captain
Our leaders are twisting the Constitution, amending it won’t fix our current problems.
I’m not as optimistic. Putting an arsonist into the position of fire chief is clearly a terrible idea. It’s depressing that more people refuse to accept something so obvious.
Apparently, the hotel in DC, that was so popular with visitors to the White House, following it’s opening in 2016, was sold in 2022. The company is now in talks to buy the hotel back.
In his book, written before he became secretary, Perry said DoE was a “contrived, phony mess” and called for it to be abolished.
Apparently, the prerequisites for being secretary don’t include even knowing what the department does.
That was the best part. Texas Governor Rick Perry thought the US Energy Dept oversees the oil & gas industry. (That’s the Minerals Management Service under the Dept of the Interior.)
These characters are all over the State House in Austin under GOP rule.
intercst
These characters are everywhere. It’s dangerous to appoint fools, probably more dangerous when fools argue that there’s nothing to be worried about.
You have no understanding of what the National Nuclear Security Administration does and what responsibilities the Administrator has. The Administrator has no role in the actual us of nuclear weapons. The Administrator runs the Agency which is highly technical with no Politics! So NNSA is not a place for politicians!
Established by Congress in 2000, NNSA is a semi-autonomous agency within the U.S. Department of Energy responsible for enhancing national security through the military application of nuclear science. NNSA maintains and enhances the safety, security, and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile; works to reduce the global danger from weapons of mass destruction; provides the U.S. Navy with safe and militarily effective nuclear propulsion; and responds to nuclear and radiological emergencies in the United States and abroad.
You can view the NNSA at a Glance Fact Sheet for details on NNSA’s modern-day mission or take a deep dive into the broader historical context of the U.S. Nuclear Security Enterprise by visiting the interactive Presidential Nuclear History page.
Did you ever notice that the Commander in Chief and the Secretary of Defense are both civilians and politicians? You could do a banana republic amendment and have both be generals.
The Captain
Your response is “non sequitur” to the discussion.
We have had both filled with Generals before. In fact the first President was a General.