Donald Trump

President Donald Trump walks from Marine One across the South Lawn to the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2017, as he returns from Springfield, Mo. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

(Carolyn Kaster)

Clete Wetli is a liberal political activist living in Huntsville and a regular contributor to AL.com. Email Clete at decaturclete@gmail.com or visit cletewetli. com.

Some days it seems like Trump is doing everything possible to destroy 'the administrative state' by nominating leadership with little or no relevant experience. Or, they're completely opposed, perhaps ambivalent to the stated mission of the organization they've been chosen to lead. Trump seems to prize political loyalty and extreme partisanship over relevant, professional experience.

Yet, these organizations are vital to the prosperity and safety of our nation.

He seems to dole out nominations like a feudal lord gives out fiefdoms.

Recently, he's nominated Oklahoma Congressman Jim Bridenstine to head NASA and former Iowa Trump Campaign Manager Sam Clovis to run the USDA. Usually, nominations to these posts aren't controversial because historically the people nominated are scientists or subject matter experts with vast experience in their highly-specialized fields. These leadership positions are not supposed to be political, but they are drawing bipartisan ire.

Whatever your partisan leanings, it should be a bit concerning that the future head of the USDA, the agency that ensures the safety of our food, has no formal background in science. He's spent more time with a microphone than a microscope. It should be very troubling that the future head of NASA rejects the findings on climate change that were produced by the agency he'll soon be running. He's run a space museum, not a space program.

That's almost as absurd as making Ben Carson the head of HUD or putting Betsy DeVos in charge of public education. It's as hypocritical as making Scott Pruitt the head of the EPA, the agency that's still tied up in court defending itself against the lawsuits he initiated before leading the agency. Of course, nothing beats making Rick Perry the head of an agency he wanted to abolish but forgot its name and had no idea what it did.

Is it me or is this looking like a deliberate Trump plan to destabilize and discredit government? It certainly fits into the conservative mythology that government is inherently wasteful, inefficient, and hopelessly bureaucratic. So, why not install leaders that hope to eliminate the very departments they head?

The problem is that these agencies are tasked with critical functions to ensure public safety and to provide valuable information to private sector companies. Of course, they also produce those dreaded regulations that everyone seems to hate. Horrible regulations, like making sure that the food we eat isn't contaminated. Over-reaching regulations, like preventing companies from dumping toxic waste into our drinking water. Senseless regulations, like ensuring that coastal cities prone to hurricane damage have building codes that will withstand violent, catastrophic storms.

Now, Republicans love to pull out discreet and mostly uncommon examples to make their point that government agencies, indeed, can be wasteful, inefficient, and bureaucratic. In those instances, correction and reform are necessary, but it doesn't mean that agencies should be gutted or eliminated.

Americans have forgot how cities used to be wrapped in choking smog and how some rivers were literally flammable. Before we sign on to arbitrarily eliminating regulations, we need to remember over-the-counter drug tampering that led to sealed containers and child-proof caps.

We can certainly reminisce about lead-based paint and lawn darts, but it took governmental leadership to remove those products from the market because it was the right thing to do.

Americans should be horrified that Trump is nominating people like Bridenstine and Clovis for positions in which they are grossly unqualified to hold. Of course, Trump's rapidly showing America why experience matters as he struggles with his own on the job training.

The Republican experiment of using 'outsiders" is failing, it's time to get some experienced professionals who can honestly do the job.