Dear editor:
In response to Mr. DeGroot’s recent letter claiming that President Trump, if re-elected, wants more control over federal agencies, I say YES he darn well should.
First as a reminder, we are a constitutional republic not a democracy.
Second, such control is not unconstitutional but is expressly provided in the Constitution itself.
Article II, Section 1 states, “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America”.
Nearly every agency of the federal government lies within the Executive Branch and is subservient to the President. Section 2 also identifies the President as Commander in Chief of the military.
In addition, Section 2 further provides that the President “may require the Opinion” of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments (Cabinet and similar agencies) upon any Subject relating to the duties of their respective Offices. Executive power flows down, not up.
In each term, the President has about 10,000 political appointments to advance with the consent of the Senate.
The whole idea is to create staff turnover to align the agencies with the elected President’s “political values” or agenda as promised to those who elected him or her. It appears that Mr. DeGroot is more favorable to The Swamp or the Deep State, as entrenched federal managers are commonly known.
It is also well known that senior officials of the prior administration often “burrow in” to high level career positions in the agencies to act as “the resistance” to the new President’s agenda and the will of the citizens who elected the new President.
These former officials actively thwart, stall, ignore and sabotage the agenda of the newly elected President. And so, where again do you think the threat to democracy lies?
I agree that many federal employees are subject matter experts in their domain fields and can provide valuable input to the creation of policy and maintaining institutional knowledge.
But ultimately, their role is to execute the presumptively lawful agenda of the President. Their role is not to “shield decision making from politics."
In fact, all decision making is inherently political, even by those very agency employees themselves. To say otherwise is naïve.
I spent over 30 years of my legal career as a federal government contractor, from Bush 41 to the middle of the Biden administration working in what could roughly be called the national security and R&D sectors.
I watched presidents and secretaries come and go. I worked with many excellent federal employees and many not so much.
I found many policies and programs to my liking and many more less so.
As a conservative, I held my nose during the Clinton, Obama and Biden administrations, but nonetheless I did my job in the best interests of my companies and the agencies I supported.
However, now retired, I pray that President Trump is re-elected, kicks butt and takes names in order to save the republic as established nearly 250 years ago.
Steve Cooke
Cheyenne
