wait, you mean there’s not massive amounts of “waste/fraud/abuse” in our Fed workforce? I’m shocked!
Like I said, the results are the same so it doesn’t matter much. I think he’s acting out of ambition. I don’t equate moral bankruptcy with cowardice. He put himself in the position he’s in to further his own ambitions. He didn’t do it out of a need for self preservation. I can easily see him leaving his post after 2 years in order to “explore” his future.
It’s built on a longstanding trope, particularly related to government employees who are public-facing (e.g., Post Office clerks, DMV clerks, etc.), who get portrayed as slow, inefficient, and indifferent, as well as being (allegedly) protected from being fired due to union contracts.
The right wing has successfully leveraged that trope to pursue their “small government” agenda, and convinced their followers that the government is full of unnecessary workers, doing unnecessary jobs (or not doing any work at all, but engaging in the ever-popular “sucking on the government’s teat”).
I’ve long suspected that this is a “marketing” problem, private enterprises care more about how their employees and places of business “look”, while state institutions care more about actual results, but this comes backs to bite them because, well, people are stupid.
In the same way that users of a computer system think the system works faster if you put a progress bar when it’s working (even if the progress bar is not showing the actual progress of the operation but just pretending to) people think an institution works better if there’s some extra care dedicated to spit and polish and beautiful signage, and think that the employees are more efficient if they “look busy” and use certain phrases and modes of conduct, independently of the actual efficiency of the institution.
State institutions have lately, at least here in the Deep Deep South, taken notice of this and put some extra effort into not only doing their jobs but appearing to do their jobs, with some success.
Of course it’s too late to change the prejudice against them in most people’s minds, at least quickly.
Looking at where this discussion is going, I guess it’s Jerome Powell, Elizabeth Warren, and maybe, Marco Rubio(with qualifiers), and that’s it.
We are so doomed.
How does Warren qualify? She’s a Senator, you excluded them in the OP.
Also I gave you Gene Dodaro: Comptroller General of the United States
I think it is cowardice. Just look at his ridiculous shoes. Looking like a clown to avoid pissing off Trump isn’t part of any “deliberate calculation to position himself to run for president”, it makes him look like a weak-willed fool. If he really was enacting some great plan to inherit the presidency from Trump, he’d have found some way to avoid that stupid image.
No, he wore the shoes because in his heart, he’s a coward. He folded like cheap lawn chair as soon as any weight was put on him.
He’s this administration’s John Bolton. An objectively intelligent, educated person, who somehow still ends up being wrong about almost everything.
Apologies. Did not read the OP carefully enough.
Maybe Vance. He was outspoken vs trump once upon a time. It is possible he is a chameleon, just changing his outward mien. It remains to be seen, but right now- does not appear to qualify.
Vance is a pretty nasty piece of work from everything I saw about him prior to toadying up to Trump.
Definitely. He is all about building his own personal brand, and is willing to be a windsock in order to do that.
Honestly the only person I can think of at the moment who might qualify is Jared Issacman. I’m actually shocked that some of you are putting forth Big Shoes Rubio and Couch Fucker Vance. Seriously?
Jared Issacman
The NASA administrator. Including that would be helpful.
Nominated by Trump, I’m not sure about his record. As in I honestly know nothing about him.
I know. Sorry, I’m getting desperate.
Okay, Dorado, Jerome Powell, Rubio.
And:
Do we have a quorum yet?
Rubio??
He’s never been an adult in the room, let alone one of the last standing. Jeez.
Get that nervous norvus a bottle of water, some clown shoes and an ass to kiss and he’s feeling at home.
A duet?
I don’t think that is necessarily true. Soulless self-promotion because you fear what happens if you DON’T do that, sure. But I think it does need to be giving into fear in order to be cowardice. There are other reasons for shameless self-promotion: greed, egotism, power trip, quest for actual power…
I’m curious why the OP excluded Congress, Senators, and the Supreme Court. It would be an interesting discussion, though maybe not for this thread.
A triumvirate?
A triumvirate?
No particular reason. Just trying to limit the scope of the discussion. By all means, start a spin-off thread on that subject. I’m curious, too.