Republicans always hated Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) when it came to hiring.
It looks like they've replaced it with Incompetent, Unqualified, and Dangerous (IUD).
Yes, those cabinet picks, and the ones to come, will stock the federal government with a host of people with absolutely no qualifications for the jobs they've been nominated for.
And that's the point. Because while you were worrying about grocery prices and immigration policy, and rightly so, the real winner in this election was the idea that the federal government should be chopped up and flushed down the drain. That's been the guiding principle of the conservative movement since Ronald Reagan's election in 1980, and now we've come to the point where we have a shameless president who is committed to slashing programs and rewarding his rich donors with tax breaks that will starve the government of its ability to serve the people.
If Donald Trump and his cabinet get their way, they will eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency, because it makes it more expensive to do business, what with all of those pesky regulations having to do with clean air and water, the Department of Education, because public schools are a cesspool of liberal ideas, never mind the billions that the department gives to states to finance special education, nutrition, and civil rights programs, weaken Social Security by not taxing tips, overtime, and a portion of Social Security payments, which will deprive the system of the funds it needs to pay retirees, all the while turning it into a 401(k) system that will endanger your retirement when the market slides, rather tahn keeping it a solid, guaranteed income you can rely on in your golden years.
In addition, done poorly, and with this group of undistinguished sycophants I don't see how they do their jobs well, there are other dangers afoot: Higher inflation because of high tariffs, massive deportations causing a labor shortage, major cuts to social programs that regular people use to survive in an unpredictable economy, cuts to health care, and, perhaps most tragically, a turn towards drilling for more oil and gas, more carbon emissions, a rollback of tax credits for buying cars and household appliances that pollute less, dirtier air and water, and a rise in chronic childhood diseases.
Forget about this not ending well. This isn't even starting well. And if you listen to the gibberish emanating from Trump's transition team about his having a mandate from the people, you're likely to forget that he only won this election with 50.1% of the popular vote.
This is not a mandate.
But this is where we are, so we'll have to wait and hope for the best. In the meantime, I'll be looking forward to the stories that uncover the unsavory doings of Trump's nominees, how their business dealings create conflicts of interests, their contributions to fringe/racist groups, how many undocumented immigrants they've hired (and a bonus if they didn't pay them fairly or at all), and their dismissal of all previous instances where they've called Donald Trump unfit for office.
Yes, the fun begins. And it isn't even Thanksgiving.
