Last Night, [Redacted] Asked Congress for an Enabling Act

[TygrBright]

If you don't know the history of the Enabling Act of 1933, research it at your leisure.

Here's the quote:

"Tonight, I call on Congress to empower every cabinet secretary with the authority to reward good workers and to remove federal employees who undermine the public trust or fail the American people.”

In other words, he wants to implement a purge, government-wide, of anyone his appointees deem as insufficiently loyal or helpful.

Not only would this require rolling back more than a century of Civil Service reformation, it is the very essence of authoritarianism.

I cannot understand why every news organ in the country didn't headline with this.

But I think we each and every one of us need to phone our congresscritters NOW to tell them that such an Enabling Act would be neither Constitutional nor acceptable in a free country.

determinedly,
Bright

[kentuck]

1. Friggin' Scary!

That there is no one to hold him to account.

[Angry Dragon]

2. I have a republican rep and he listens to me not

[TygrBright]

5. He may not listen to you, individually.

But if his staff tell him (some vast number) of calls referred to this and DO NOT WANT it will not go unnoticed, even if he is a collaborator.

Call.

This is a camel's nose situation and the rest of the camel looks like a fucking gulag.

determinedly,
Bright

[alarimer]

3. It is authoritarian in the extreme.

I guess he means to fire people because of their politics. Which is not illegal, but would certainly be unsavory. I guess the way Trump would do it would violate civil service rules in any case.

"Undermine public trust" means not doing what Trump wants. So every scientist whose results contradict what Trumps wants to do would be out. Science as a public good would be forever ruined. Civil servants can and should be protected from that kind of political nonsense.

[RandomAccess]

16. It's my understanding that if it's the U.S. Govt it IS illegal

to do that. For now, anyway.

[alarimer]

17. I suspect it would run afoul of current Civil Service regulations.

But it is certainly contrary to a functioning government run by professionals of all kinds. When people fear being fired for actions they take on the job, the agency ceases to function effectively.

By and large, most people who work for federal agencies should be experts in their fields. I think what Trump wants is a return to the old patronage system, which was so corrupt the government essentially didn't work.

[RandomAccess]

18. Exactly

And as good an explanation of the rationale behind civil service as I've ever seen.

[Wellstone ruled]

4. First offical shot at

passing the Koch Brothers Anti Union Legislation. Same verbiage used by Scott Walker a few years back.

For those who want the bottom line,Trump purposed a Right to Work National Law.

[tblue37]

6. K&R for visibility. nt

[FailureToCommunicate]

7. Trump ignores such history, of course. Or he'd know it's a slippery slope...

Truman's Executive Order 9835 and what followed.

?w=710

[avebury]

8. "remove federal employees who undermine the public trust or fail the American people"

That would mean that everyone in the Trump WH and his entire Cabinet would have to go.

[iluvtennis]

10. Including him. We are the Sec'y of the ppl, we should be able to fire him

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. Important post. Thank you. . . . nt

[barbtries]

11. i haven't heard the whole speech by a long shot

but (and i think you'll be glad to hear this) this quote was one of the first i became aware of. i have already shared it on twitter. i think it is a call to end democracy as we know it in the USA and one person remarked, "This is Stephen Miller." yeah i can believe that.

[TygrBright]

15. I think you're right. It's got that Miller stench.

But it was on the teleprompter because it appeals to >Redacted's< simplistic, dichotomous view of reality.

A dangerous combination: Stupid autocrat wannabe and accomplished behind-the-scenes manipulator.

disgustedly,
Bright

[SergeStorms]

12. Yep.....

just another method for Orange-Hitler to demand loyalty from Federal employees.

Disgusting, and probably illegal (if we had a Congress to call him on it).

[not fooled]

13. Decades of demonizing Federal workers

will bear fruit if no one comes to their defense.

[Honeycombe8]

14. OMG. That is shocking. He wants to purge all those whose spouses didn't vote for him.

That's another reason he wanted the VOTER DATA FROM ALL THE STATES.