It is time for a course change in our bureaucracies

And they are local, state, and federal. Somehow, including civil service protections, these fellow Americans who serve in these bureaucracies have either become unaccountable, or think they are unaccountable. This is a terrible state of affairs, if correct. If much of bureaucracies have evolved to a jobs program, then there is also an expense (beyond financial) of our National survival being drawn down as bureaucracies act in their benefit, first.

There are many hints to citizens who vote, and ultimately pay for these bureaucracies. Locally it is mostly the education of our children issues, though creating new tax generating codes and enforcements (as in new government jobs) comes in, too. State wide it is the balance of paying for all the services promised. For example in SC, a lazy employee fired can enter a bureaucratic kangaroo court , and be advanced by a bureaucrat who is all three things, prosecutor, judge, and jury in deciding unemployment payments, and future percentages of company "contributions". Federally, too many bureaucracies ignore the vote of we citizens to advance their agendas. Hence, there is little unity of effort in the prosecution of the war in Iraq, as an example. The recent surge in Iraq resulted in the Department of Defense accepting over 200 quotas assigned to State (including a friend). In defense of the federal bureaucrats, they claim they know better, and that having to respond to changes in the executive and congress is a real pain in the tail and disruptive to continuity of effort. Yet one of my friends is in harms way, thanks to the bureucrats in D.C. Most citizens will say our vote still counts, and somebody better listen or else. Yes, we voters are a pain in the tail, but of course we still run the country.

How to clean house, as in take control of the bureaucracies, is a problem at all levels, local, state, and federal. So there is no universal solution. But for sure, we are talking about fellow Americans who must be led and supervised according to what we voters want. I personally think the civil service rules we invented to overcome the problems of the past have gone too far. It should be easier to fire poor performers and incompetents than it is today. Now that is something we can elect people to do. And the rise of government employee unions has certain values until it interferes with what we citizens vote on. If it comes down to the old tried and true tactic of hiring our lawyers to fight their lawyers, so be it. Our vote is sacrosanct, and must trump all other things. So getting from A to B will take work. So what. Our Country and culture is worth it.