The phrase “the toughest job you’ll ever love” was technically the slogan for the Peace Corps in 1961 under President John F. Kennedy. But there’s a good case to be made that these days it applies to the State Department. The complexity of a globalized economy, an immigration debate reduced to sound bites, polarization at home and abroad — diplomacy in 2019 is a tough business. I have a running bet with my husband — how long will it take at a dinner party for someone to ask me: “Why are you still at State?” (It’s usually the third question after “What do you do?” and “Which countries are in Central Africa?”) I often wonder if the subtext is whether I’m concerned, or even ashamed, to be someone who is keeping the ship of State afloat.

The answer is no.

It would be easy, perhaps, if the entirety of your Foreign Service career before the 2016 election had been served under a single president, to forget that the commission we receive when becoming diplomats says that we serve at the pleasure of the president of the United States. It calls to mind the scene in “Game of Thrones” when Ned Stark tells his daughter Arya, “You were born in the long summer; you’ve never known anything else.” That isn’t a political statement — merely a reminder that when you’ve known only one kind of life, anything else can seem scary and threatening. Even if it is actually just part of a cycle that has defined our democracy for 243 years and, God willing, will do so for hundreds of years to come.

Our commission commits us to serve at the pleasure of every president elected in the United States, not just the ones whose policies match our political preferences. I’ve had the privilege of serving as a Foreign Service officer for five presidents — some I voted for, some I didn’t. And my job is to serve each one to the best of my ability. It is our responsibility to provide our best counsel to those in power, even if — perhaps especially if — they do not immediately embrace our views.

That is the role and the responsibility of career public servants in our democratic system. Career members of the Foreign Service are the joists supporting the institutions so that each successive administration — and the American people — can rely on their institutional knowledge, network of global relationships and subject matter expertise. Without the framework of a professional career Foreign Service , our nation is weaker and our global power reduced. If we all leave when it gets hard, who will be left to champion American diplomacy?