“Public Service”

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In a WSJ piece about the report recently issued by special prosecutor Robert Hur, John Sciortino notes that “The report also expressly weighed in its non-prosecution recommendation President Biden’s “nearly fifty years” of public service as a senator, vice president and now president.”

Left unsaid is why 50 years as a politician and officeholder should be considered as of more value than 50 years as a farmer, an entrepreneur, research scientist at a drug company, or night-shift worker at a steel mill or a semiconductor fab.  This kind of privilege seems directly contrary to the whole idea of equality before the law.  Indeed, it seems reminiscent of the kind of privilege that caused so much anger in pre-revolutionary France.

Note also that there are special student-loan forgiveness provisions for people who are employees of government entities (state, federal, local, or tribal) or of 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations.

13 thoughts on ““Public Service””

  1. Given that we are anything but one people under a government of our choice, instead being a collection of warring groups; your reference to pre-1789 France is most appropriate. It would be interesting to get modern definitions of who makes up each of the 3 Estates.

    Subotai Bahadur

  2. There was an article in the NY Times last month about how a NY police officer got into trouble because he handed out traffic tickets to people in possession of a police union “courtesy card”, which is supposed to be a “get out of traffic court” free card – I guess you just need to know the right people

  3. It is, of course, because he was a “public servant” that he had the opportunity to flout the laws and ignore security for his personal profit and convenience. A little like letting someone that murdered his parents off because he’s an orphan.

  4. It’s a measure of the competence of the so called Biden administration that someone thought it was genius to exempt Biden from prosecution because of mental defect because Trump would surely not try to use it in his own, parallel, persecution. Hur’s team also had to practice some sort of extraordinarily selective perception to miss the clear evidence that many of the documents Biden purloined, going back to his days as a Senator, were exploited for his own profit. There are a large number of documents that were seized from his lawyers that haven’t been accounted for or disclosed as well.

  5. Well, if a hypothetical Biden trial were held in DC the number of years at the trough would be a big point in his favor with the jury. Get a change of venue to rural Iowa, not so much.

    T

  6. Robert Hur was told by MinLuv minders by no means you can’t indict, that would cop killer fan girl, clarke and Russia hoaxer Monaco

    the mens rea demonstrated in the

  8. I think Hur was remembering the idea of “public service” from several generations ago, and during the era from ~ 1880-1940

    That notion was that smart, accomplished, effective businessman would “sacrifice” by devoting their ability to government work, either as elected officials or as appointed Department or project leaders.

    Underpinning the “grand bargain” was the notion that government paid poorly and was full of annoying rules, so the tycoon would be sacrificing the $$$ and accomplishment they could get on their own, by using their gifts for public good.

    (A corollary was that regular government employees were paid relatively little and had no prestige, but their jobs were 100% secure and their duties were light. (I.e. Einstein had lots of spare time to daydream about physics as a patent clerk.) This worked well when government servants saw themselves as noble and self-sacrificing.)

    Of course this was long before the government came to dominate every part of the economy, such that now, being an insider able to make and exploit legislation and regulation, is the best way to vast wealth.

    Interesting that during the “Public Service” era, many charitable foundations and campaigns were founded by wealthy people, and were as or often more effective at their chosen social goals than any “government program”. Both because private enterprise is always quicker and more direct that government, but also because

    **nobody thought it was the government’s job (and also their sole province) to cure any and all social ills.**

    BRetty

  9. “Public Service” died once we citizens allowed the development of a permanent, even hereditary, Political Class. We handed a tiny self-serving minority the clubs with which they could beat us. It may be time to get back to some of the policies used by those old truly democratic Greek city states:

    – limited franchise. Only those people who were contributing to the state could vote.

    – rights earned only through responsibilities. Citizens had to provide their own arms when serving in the army. Rich citizens had to serve in the cavalry or provide their ships at their own expense.

    – representatives selected randomly by lot for unpaid 1-year terms. That was public service.

    – a few key positions filled by election, but only for short periods with no re-election (outside of emergency situations). And those elected individuals were subject to an intense audit at the end of their term in office to make sure there had been no self-enrichment.

    After Our Betters have driven the nation into collapse, those might be good ideas to implement in whatever phoenix rises from the ashes.

  10. From what I have read, it appears that government employees have higher salaries, higher benefits, higher retirement benefits, and greater job security than similarly qualified employees in the private sector.

    Public service? No, at the public trough.

  11. “Public service” at the level of an elected official or high-level appointee should require, if anything, *higher* standards of an individual, not act as an excuse for lenient treatment or for nonprosecution.

  12. Haven’t seen a hair sniffing pass like this since Epstein got a Federal DA/FBI/CIA sweetheart deal on his pedophilia.

    They know we notice. We know they know we notice.

    Meanwhile Trump is dragged through every hack star chamber for not tying his oxford shoe laces left over right vs right over left.

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