Occasionally, our new Never Trump allies get a bit exercised when I point out that, in many ways, the current president* is merely a malignant exaggeration of many of the policies and politics that were in place in previous Republican administrations for which many of them worked, and within which many of them prospered. I do this only to remind them that, once the current president* is no longer president*, there will be no going back to the policies and politics that made someone like him inevitable.

Let us take, for example, this story that appeared recently on CNN:

Like the old questionnaire, the new form asks candidates whether they have ever appeared in the media. But now, applicants are asked specifically whether they have "ever appeared in the media to comment on 'Candidate Trump, President Trump or other personnel or policies of the Trump administration.’ " The new questionnaire also asks applicants to describe their "political evolution" and to list "thinkers, authors, books, or political leaders" who have "influenced you and led you to your current beliefs.”

"What political commentator, thinker or politician best reflects your views?" the questionnaire asks. While it is not unusual for presidential administrations to vet political appointees for ideological or policy alignment, the questionnaire previously used by the Trump White House did not ask for applicants' views about Trump or his campaign. Trump's name does not appear once on the previous questionnaire. It now appears five times.



Whoa. Crazy Donald. Where’d he get this idea?



Trump is just particularly malignant Republicanism. Alex Wong Getty Images

Maybe he got it from one Monica Goodling. Remember her? She was the Department of Justice employee who got involved in the scandal during the George W. Bush administration whereby the White House political shop arranged for the dismissal of U.S. Attorneys who had declined to pursue cases that the White House political shop wanted pursued. (Remember this part the next time you hear some former employee of the Avignon Presidency deplore the politicization of this Justice Department.) In her testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Goodling said:



Specifically, I interviewed candidates who were to be detailed into confidential policy-making positions and attorney general appointments, such as immigration judges and members of the Board of Immigration Appeal. I also interviewed requests for waivers of hiring freezes imposed on districts with an outgoing U.S. attorney or interim or acting U.S. attorney. In every case I tried to act in good faith and for the purpose of ensuring that the department was staffed by well-qualified individuals who were supportive of the attorney general's views, priorities and goals.

Nevertheless, I do acknowledge that I may have gone too far in asking political questions of applicants for career positions, and I may have taken inappropriate political considerations into account on some occasions. And I regret those mistakes.



Now, the spoils system goes back to Andrew Jackson—or at least it was Old Hickory who slapped a name on it. It took a lot of years for the federal government to create a civil service system. But these recent refinements are a whole ‘nother thing. And they’re not something that was created in 2017. Trumpism is Republicanism inflated with poison gas.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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