{"id":285326,"date":"2025-06-10T07:49:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T07:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/political-strategy-notes-the-democratic-strategist\/"},"modified":"2025-06-10T07:49:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T07:49:13","slug":"political-strategy-notes-the-democratic-strategist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=285326","title":{"rendered":"Political Strategy Notes \u2013 The Democratic Strategist"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

One of the more outrageous Trump power grabs yet is occurring without much public attention, so I gave it a shout<\/a> at New York<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\n

With all the chaos that has pervaded the federal bureaucracy in Trump\u2019s second term, some very basic MAGA \u201creforms\u201d may have escaped attention. The best known is the\u00a0reimposition<\/a>\u00a0of the so-called\u00a0Schedule F<\/a>, an initiative adopted late in the first Trump administration (and promptly revoked by Joe Biden) that reclassified around 50,000 civil service positions into political appointments. But as Don Moynihan\u00a0explains<\/a>, that initiative just makes it easier to fire \u201cdeep state\u201d bureaucrats who haven\u2019t bent the knee to the new regime. A broader hiring initiative has just been announced by the Office of Personnel Management, which is basically the federal government\u2019s HR agency. Called the\u00a0Merit Hiring Plan<\/a>\u00a0(reflecting the wording of the Trump executive order that mandated it), the initiative has many interlocking provisions aimed at simplifying and, well, politicizing federal hiring practices, partly to kill, bury, exhume, and kill again anything that looks like DEI policies, but also to build a spanking-new federal workforce composed of \u201cpatriotic,\u201d hardworking proles.<\/p>\n

What leaps right off the page and punches you in the mouth is the initiative\u2019s new rules for federal job applications. All applicants for jobs graded at GS-5 or higher (or roughly\u00a094 percent of federal jobs<\/a>) will have to answer (in less than 200 words each) four essay questions. Two are pretty banal, involving testaments to applicants\u2019 work ethic and examples of efficiencies they\u2019ve achieved in prior jobs. A third raises some eyebrows:<\/p>\n

\u201cHow has your commitment to the Constitution and the founding principles of the United States inspired you to pursue this role within the Federal government? Provide a concrete example from professional, academic, or personal experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is pretty rich coming from an administration whose leader has suggested he\u00a0may not have to uphold the Constitution<\/a>\u00a0in his own job (notwithstanding that it was right there in his\u00a0oath of office<\/a>). In addition, the \u201cfounding principles of the United States\u201d is a fairly subjective notion. But there\u2019s a fourth essay question that takes the cake:<\/p>\n

\u201cHow would you help advance the President\u2019s Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role? Identify one or two relevant Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now keep in mind that Trump\u2019s EOs include such matters as the demonization of law firms and individuals who have crossed Donald Trump in the past. Would it be kosher for someone applying for a GS-6 gig to write a few sentences about how she or he will help implement\u00a0Executive Order 14246<\/a>, \u201cAddressing Risks for Jenner and Block\u201d? Expanding the scope of essays into presidential \u201cpolicy priorities\u201d adds an element of rather extreme subjectivity into the process. Do Trump \u201cpolicy priorities\u201d include items like his frequently repeated insistence that federal judges (particularly those he appointed)\u00a0owe him 100 percent loyalty<\/a>, or that\u00a0Canada should become the 51st state<\/a>? Do they extend to the policy priorities of his Cabinet members, like\u00a0Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/a>\u2019s MAHA\u00a0anti-vaccine<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0anti-fluoride<\/a>\u00a0initiatives?<\/p>\n

While much is unclear about this question, what\u2019s unmistakable is that all federal job applicants are essentially being instructed to demonstrate their personal commitment to Trump and his erratic if very loud worldview. This isn\u2019t just a hortatory gesture either; the\u00a0OPM memo<\/a> announcing the Merit Hiring Plan sets up monitored benchmarks for agency compliance beginning this month. As Moynihan notes, this is wildly unprecedented:<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot think of anything like this level of politicization being formally introduced into the hiring process. Under the George W. Bush administration, it was a scandal<\/a> when appointees in the Justice Department were caught scanning candidate CVs for civil servant positions to try to discern their political leanings. Now they will just ask them to explain how they can serve President Trump\u2019s agenda. Within the space of a generation, backdoor politicization practices went from being a source of shame to a formal policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without much question, a No Democrats Need Apply policy would be in place. But it would guarantee massive turnover in the federal workforce the minute a Democrat \u2014 or even a Republican who isn\u2019t a Trump mini-me \u2014 is elected president:<\/p>\n

\u201cWith this policy, any future President would know that some portion of their workforce was selected because they had expressed explicit support with their predecessor, and an agenda that the current President might disagree with. For all the Republican complaints about rooting out \u201cthe deep state\u201d or \u201cDemocrat holdovers\u201d the policy specifically encourages selection into permanent civil service based on political leanings that will invariably run contrary to future Presidents. They want to build their own deep state!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

To put it another way, this Merit Hiring Plan institutionalizes a spoils system beyond the wildest dreams of the corrupt political bosses of the distant past. It deserves a lot of attention right now, if only to warn the poor schmoes who might want to apply for some lower-level federal job that they\u2019d better bone up on their Trump EOs and get ready to pucker up and pledge allegiance. And of course, they better bury any past Democratic associations while they are at it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the more outrageous Trump power grabs yet is occurring without much public attention, so I gave it a shout at New York: With all the chaos that has pervaded the federal bureaucracy in Trump\u2019s second term, some very basic MAGA \u201creforms\u201d may have escaped attention. The best known is the\u00a0reimposition\u00a0of the so-called\u00a0Schedule F, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115350],"tags":[37064,388,13348,20380,11636],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-285326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-democratic-strategist","tag-democratic","tag-notes","tag-political","tag-strategist","tag-strategy"],"yoast_head":"\nPolitical Strategy Notes \u2013 The Democratic Strategist - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=285326\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Political Strategy Notes \u2013 The Democratic Strategist - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the more outrageous Trump power grabs yet is occurring without much public attention, so I gave it a shout at New York: With all the chaos that has pervaded the federal bureaucracy in Trump\u2019s second term, some very basic MAGA \u201creforms\u201d may have escaped attention. 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