adambonica.bsky.social
Professor of Political Science at Stanford | Exploring money in politics, campaigns and elections, ideology, the courts, and inequality | Author of The Judicial Tug of War cup.org/2LEoMrs | Pro-democracy
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Another reason to oppose Schedule F (now Schedule Policy/Career) is that we know it will be used ideologically rather than for the stated purpose of performance. @adambonica.bsky.social shows that 90% of recent DOGE layoffs have targeted people working in agencies that serve more liberal goals.
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NEW: I analyzed the more recent data on DOGE layoffs and proposed GOP budget increases.
The efficiency was always a lie. The ideology was always the point.
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Our donation data was from 2012 to 2020. For an early analysis of 2024 donation data with attention to wealth, see @adambonica.bsky.social's work: bsky.app/profile/owas...
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CEO: Gentlemen, we have been sued and if we lose the case the company will have to close. Should we hire one of the law firms that surrendered immediately to Trump or one of the law firms that fought Trump and won?
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8/🧵 For a more detailed analysis, I've written an article:
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7/🧵 Reality will eventually bite back. When bridges fail, markets crash, and diseases spread because we chose loyalty over competence, the cost will be measured in lives lost and futures destroyed.
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6/🧵 The pattern is familiar: The purges and politicization of government workers resemble those seen in Hungary, Turkey, and elsewhere. The playbook is always the same: claim you're fighting corruption while installing incompetent loyalists. The result: corruption, dysfunction, democratic decay.
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5/🧵 The merit system put into place by the Pendleton Act laid the groundwork for everything from safe food (USDA inspectors) to moon landings (NASA scientists). It worked because expertise, not politics, drove hiring.
Under the new OPM plan? A climate scientist needs approval from climate deniers.
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4/🧵 We've been here before. The pre-1883 spoils system meant most postmasters were fired and replaced when a party retook the presidency. Mail that never arrived. Mail ground to a halt. Customs houses became corruption centers. The system bread incompetence and corruption in government.
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3/🧵 The OPM memo doesn't just require loyalty essays. It creates an entire system of political control: mandatory "executive interviews" for ideological conformity, political appointee approval for every promotion and hire, and recruitment targeting that can't be tracked for discrimination.
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2/🧵 The"Merit Hiring Plan" requires federal job applicants to write essays pledging to "advance the President's Executive Orders."
For 142 years, the merit-based civil service survived because both parties agreed that functional government requires professional expertise. That consensus is dead.
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Leonard Leo’s response to being called a “sleazebag” who “probably hates America”: “I’m very grateful for President Trump.”
They don’t even take him seriously
while we have no choice.
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While these political litmus tests will surely face strong challenges in court, they strike at a cornerstone of our democratic governance: a professional, nonpartisan civil service that serves the Constitution and the American people, not the political whims of whoever holds power.
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The US abandoned political loyalty tests because the spoils system bred corruption and dysfunction. This administration is now seeking to resurrect the same broken system that corrupted our government and undermined public trust.
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For context: The US created the civil service in 1883 after Garfield's assassination by a disgruntled supporter who felt entitled to a consulship job.
The Pendleton Act required merit-based hiring instead of political patronage. For 142 years, fed jobs went to the qualified, not the connected.
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Fed job applicants must now explain in writing how they'll "advance the President's Executive Orders and policy priorities."
This will screen out experts. Think EPA scientists who believe in climate data. Labor investigators who pursue wage theft. DOJ lawyers who follow the law over politics.
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www.justice.gov/pardon/cleme....