Federal Incompetency

Opinion by George McClellan:On Fox New Sunday, 19 April 2015, the panel discussion turned to the security problems faced by Wash. DC police agencies, especially those new problems presented by low flying aircraft like the recent gyrocopter incident and remote drones that have so far freely penetrated the no fly zones around the White House and the Capital building.

There was even the recent penetration of the West Wing by an intruder who scaled the fence not to mention the woman who threw a bag out of her car window at the WH gate, called out that it was a bomb, and sped away. To make matters worse, apparently two Secret Service supervisors, in an intoxicated condition, ran over the bag.

The discussion soon shifted to the myriad of other problems the Federal police agencies have faced like alcohol abuse, consorting with prostitutes in foreign countries, partying on funds supplied by drug cartels and even, for the ATF, supplying arms to drug cartels as we learned in the Fast and Furious debacle. This is a culture of incompetency pure and simple. Why?

Mr. Brit Hume, in his panel comments on the issue, saw a larger pattern emerging, a pattern of mismanagement across the spectrum of government agencies including the Secret Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, VA Hospitals, Bureau of Land Management, USDA, IRS and etcetera. Mr. Hume was quite correct but he didn’t go far enough. Look who now makes up the largest percentage of the federal work force. Minorities.

I saw this problem coming in the 1980’s when government agencies, almost over night, became paralyzed with the poison of political correctness and stumbled all over themselves to embrace the new social utopia of “affirmative action” filling the ranks of federal police agencies, and others, with people possessed of a totally different culture, a different mind set, and different social values, a culture that eschews competence or reaching for their highest capabilities. We experience this every time we submit to the odious screening practices of the TSA at airports.

Many of those early first hire’s, ones that demonstrated a spark of quality, were quickly moved into the ranks of low level management even over long standing, highly qualified professionals who worked hard to move up the ranks as was once the career path for advancement. Annual personnel job evaluations from that time forward carried an entry “ S/A so and so, heartily endorses the affirmative action policies of this agency” and, one who did not get that PC mark on his performance evaluation soon learned he was doomed to a long and uneventful career rarely interrupted by promotion.

Now, nearly thirty years later, the weed of that philosophy is bearing bitter fruit. The professional culture has changed. Consider, the Great Seal of the POTUS falling off his lectern. Consider his limo being high centered in the driveway of an Irish Castle. Consider his teleprompter remarks being substituted for the Irish Prime Ministers remarks. These thing would never happen under the guidance of a professionally trained and highly experienced Secret Service protection team.

Now, thirty years later, we see our military leadership eviscerated by a petulant Commander-in-Chief whose unAmerican philosophy is reducing our country to the lowest common denominator of a Banana Republic, simply because he subscribes to the philosophy outlined in Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto. Nothing I can do about it now. Remember, freedom is the goal, the Constitution is the way. Now, go get ‘em! (19 April 2015).