Hopefully, in the near future, they'll be gone to the civil service. Not the bureaucracy, mind you, the civil service. This is more than mere semantics.
The civil service is supposed to be a marketplace of ideas. The President's role is to articulate a vision, and let the professionals work out the best implementation. The lower-level workers, those in the field and closest to the problems, come up with creative solutions and present them to their bosses. The best ideas percolate up the chain of command, ultimately reaching the cabinet-level posts. Sadly, it hasn't worked this way for a long time in our country. That's why we call them the bureaucracy now.
I know many people who work for the government. Contrary to what some politicians will tell you, these are all intelligent, well-meaning people who came in hoping to serve their country well. But they been stifled for too long. The poll-tested, focus-grouped, top-down dictates of successive administrations has stripped them of their creative purpose. The anti-government rhetoric of successive campaigns has stripped them of their morale.
Especially since 1980, we've been burdened with a movement that insists that government is the root of all evil. Nothing the government does will ever be successful and we should just strip it all away. Then, we are astounded when our government continues to fail. DUH. How many times can you tell people they're hopeless or incompetent before they give in? An entire generation of promising minds has gradually succumbed to the mantra: don't bother trying because it won't work anyway.
My greatest hope coming out of this election is not that government will magically solve all our problems. My greatest hope is that the civil service will once again be an honored place where our best and brightest are empowered to work on possible solutions, rather than be held back by our own low expectations.
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