National & Minnesota Politics
Patronage has often been a desired component to government. We support different applications of this normally sought after aspect once a person or a party is election to office. The concept of rewarding ones friends and crushing ones enemies is truly logical. To suppress one’s political opponents is a result of modern day politics. The problem is if government is purely patronage based it is truly hard to manage and lacks credibility and continuity.
Federally, the Civil Service System was first created in 1871, and during the term of President Chester A Arthur (R) 1881-85 in the midst of his single term Congress passed and he signed the Civil Service Reform Act referred to as the Pendleton Act in 1883. This provided a less patronage based system and in effect professionalized the federal government employees.
The Project 2025 implementation crafted by the Heritage Foundation and authorized by Donald J Trump (R) and his self-appointed executioner Elon Musk who is applying a sledgehammer through his disruptive approach rather than a surgical/methodical/deliberative approach. Sure, there will be significant job loss in the federal employment ranks and serious needs will be uncovered, but when the back-fill happens it will be strictly from Trump loyalists. This means the Congressional elections in 2026 will be essential to offset the impact. The only actual beautiful poetic result would be if Democrats ran the table and had a majority in the House and a 60 vote majority in the Senate, which is highly unlikely, but then Trump and the US Supreme Court could actually be impeached.
Wait, this must be a fever dream.