[Goose]

High functioning democracies allow the career civil servant employees to do their work without political interference or pressure. The United States has fallen 8 places from #17 to #25 on the worldwide democracy rankings over the last four years. The "once you work for government, your job is political" canard is one of the reasons why we have fallen so much.

OF, I argue that highly functioning democracies elect politicians who attempt to operate in the best interest of the nation more than in the best interest of their parties or themselves. As a result, they seldom attempt to force a policy down the throat of their career civil servants. That is not to say it doesn't happen, for instance the Federal government "strongly urged" Bavaria not to declare a curfew for about ten days before they finally had to do a nationwide action. That was basically a political decision, although one arguably made in good faith. However, that wasn't spread all over the news media and only became public much later. The experts and the politicians basically trust each other to a great extent.
In fact, I firmly believe that these highly functional democracies have BETTER discipline in their career civil servants because the civil servants have a high degree of confidence that the elected leadership (politicians) will not override their recommendations unless their is an actual reason beyond personal bias or party politics. When politics does intrude on decision making (and it certainly does even in highly functioning democracies), the "civil servants" know what to do. See Lt. General Karl Müller vs Ursula von der Leyen.

It simply isn't ever true that civil servants do their work in a political vacuum. It is how the politics is managed that allows a highly functioning democracy to work well. In less well functioning democracies, as ours has unfortunately become, the experts have no trust in their political superiors, and visa versa. This has been a trend even before we got Trump and was already an issue. Since it is obvious that the current POTUS isn't "all there", the experts have no confidence in what decisions will be made. That just isn't going to work, period. However, it is pointless to trumpet this fact from the rafters all the time. What Fauci is doing is just about the limit of what is possible, and I wouldn't be surprised if he decides to resign before all this is over.

[Goose]

High functioning democracies allow the career civil servant employees to do their work without political interference or pressure. The United States has fallen 8 places from #17 to #25 on the worldwide democracy rankings over the last four years. The "once you work for government, your job is political" canard is one of the reasons why we have fallen so much.

OF, I argue that highly functioning democracies elect politicians who attempt to operate in the best interest of the nation more than in the best interest of their parties or themselves. As a result, they seldom attempt to force a policy down the throat of their career civil servants. That is not to say it doesn't happen, for instance the Federal government "strongly urged" Bavaria not to declare a curfew for about ten days before they finally had to do a nationwide action. That was basically a political decision, although one arguably made in good faith. However, that wasn't spread all over the news media and only became public much later. The experts and the politicians basically trust each other to a great extent.
In fact, I firmly believe that these highly functional democracies have BETTER discipline in their career civil servants because the civil servants have a high degree of confidence that the elected leadership (politicians) will not override their recommendations unless their is an actual reason beyond personal bias or party politics. When politics does intrude on decision making (and it certainly does even in highly functioning democracies), the "civil servants" know what to do. See Lt. General Karl Müller vs Ursula von der Leyen.

It simply isn't ever true that civil servants do their work in a political vacuum. It is how the politics is managed that allows a highly functioning democracy to work well. In less well functioning democracies, as ours has unfortunately become, the experts have no trust in their political superiors, and visa versa. This has been a trend even before we got Trump and was already an issue. Since it is obvious that the current POTUS isn't "all there", the experts have no confidence in what decisions will be made. That just isn't going to work, period. However, it is pointless to trumpet this fact from the rafters all the time. What Fauci is doing is just about the limit of what is possible, and I wouldn't be surprised if he decides to resign before all this is over.