In 1883, the 47th U.S. Congress enacted the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. This act set in stone a rule that positions of government should not be handed out to those who support a particular political party, but should be awarded based on merit.
As I look around at today’s society, I can’t help but be surprised by the amount of people that get jobs based on who they know instead of what they know. I clearly remember reading a headline that spoke about Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin offering a government position to Kevin Durant if he signed an extension with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
While that may have been a friendly gesture that probably would have done more good than harm, appointing people that are friends and family to be senior advisors of an administration is horrifying.
Looking back at the Obama administration, we saw the president appoint colleagues to positions before giving the reigns of the office to Donald Trump. Some people he appointed included Chelsea Clinton’s mother-in-law and Michelle Obama’s former head speechwriter and Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes. But, the thing here is they were appointed to positions like the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, respectively. These are the type of appointments that, frankly, I don’t care about. They don’t affect me in any sort of way and if those people are coordinated enough to run these departments, then let them run them.
One dark spot in Obama’s appointment history appeared in a situation that didn’t technically involve an appointment at all. Bill Ayers was the founder of The Weathermen, a radical left-winged group that tried to carried out bombings against the U.S. Capitol building and the Pentagon back in the late 1960s. The two met (after Ayers had become an education professor) at a meeting discussing how to fix schools in Chicago. Many conservatives criticized Obama and accused Ayers of forming Obama’s political stance based on the notion that they knew each other. This was, rightly so, staunchly denied by all parties and the conspiracy theory lost momentum after the election.
This practice of appointing friends to political positions dates all the way back to the days of Abraham Lincoln. He appointed his friend Thomas Pickett to be the quartermaster of Rock Island and people were not happy about it. It seems that politicians appoint people that they know will help to keep their power.
With that being said, Trump may be the one who will go down in history as the president who appointed the most friends to the highest positions. It’s easy to look at Stephen Bannon and question how in the world he was appointed to anything of importance. Going from a banker at Goldman Sachs, to a news media mogul and finally to senior counselor to the president is pretty baffling. But, what really struck me was the appointment of Jared Kushner, the husband of Ivanka Trump.
Kushner doesn’t come from a long line of, let’s say, respectable people. His father was a real estate developer who, although wildly successful, was imprisoned in 2005 when he plead guilty to tax evasion and witness tampering. Kushner took over the family business just two years removed from school.
All of this is fine and good, and I will never knock a man for taking what he is gifted. However, it is what he did with this gift that is deeply troubling. After being born into a primarily Democratic family, Kushner began to advise Trump on the campaign trail. This is not illegal by any means, but it sure is fishy, showing that Kushner would give up his values for power.
Up until this point, Kushner had done nothing wrong. Or so we thought.
Someone should probably have told Kushner that meeting with a Russian, state-owned and sanctioned bank was not the smartest idea in the world. The bank, Vnesheconombank (VEB), confirmed that they met with Kushner while he was representing Kushner Companies, but did not specify where or when the meeting was. The White House even came out and said that nothing of importance was discussed.
Funny, because our own intelligence agency has come out and said that this bank paid Russian spies in New York City to try to get an inside man for Moscow. I don’t think that Kushner took this meeting with a total ignorance to what was going on around him. He couldn’t have.
Now, I don’t mean to single out the Trump administration here. I think that in all levels of politics, dating back to when democracy was a baby, if you look around you will see nepotism everywhere. It is sad and it is disheartening. Those who work hard day in and day out often do not get their chance to shine because of people like Kushner. Life sure has changed since the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act was made 134 years ago. We need more help.
