What Will You Federal Employees Do Under President Trump?
With our quadrennial presidential election nigh, folks are at wits' end. I hear Canadian consulates are swamped with visa queries from would-be American refugees who are planning ahead in the event collective derangement drives their fellow citizens to install Mr. Trump as the next president. Other reports, no doubt apocryphal, have it that seppuku website searches are at an all-time high, visited by despondent Yanks wanting to know the proper manner for eviscerating oneself. As one who lives near the northern border and knows many of the unmanned land and water trails into eastern Canada, I'm setting myself up as a coyote human smuggler, fluent in Quebecois as well as Canuck English, eh. I'll just dust off those routes used by Harriet Tubman to deliver escaped slaves out of the country. Besides, the money should be good.
But I digress. This is indeed serious business. I've been through it all. I came into government as the utopian social engineers of Jimmy Carter were leaving and the Jesus-crazed supply-siders of Ronald Reagan were flocking into federal offices like so many escaped creatures from Pandora's box. And I left just as impeachment-wracked, starry-eyed Clintonistas were being replaced by the Brooks Brothers clad corporate neo-cons of Dubbya. While often exasperated, I was never tempted either to emigrate or tear my guts out. I simply steered my diplomatic assignments away from those issues with which I disagreed to fight the good fight on other weighty policy matters. A Trump presidency, on the other hand, poses special challenges. I mean, who among you readers would carry out a direct presidential order to "go much stronger than water boarding" to extract information? Or, who among you is ready to play the role of Godfather enforcer Lucca Brasi to extort more cash from our allies in return for "protection"? Let's face it. Donald Trump is more than a piece of work. He's nuts.
Which has gotten me to pondering: How will our government civilian and military personnel function under a Trump administration? What if, unlike me, you won't be able to dodge illegal, immoral or crazy orders? Mainly because all of the orders will be illegal, immoral and/or crazy? During the Vietnam War, some officials resigned rather than carry out policies they regarded as unjust or lacking a moral foundation. Some of these, e.g., Richard Holbrooke and Anthony Lake, subsequently returned to government service, and at senior levels. Former DoD official Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers, revealing the true policymaking behind U.S. intervention in Vietnam.
I believe many feds out there are asking themselves what they will do when told by the Trump White House to round up, Gestapo-style, hundreds of thousands of undocumented aliens; or to reject visa applicants under article INA 212(m) - inadmissable for being Muslim; or to deliver the message to South Korea and Japan that "You're on your own now"; or to prepare a state visit for North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un; or to sign a Friendship Treaty with Vladimir Putin that not only recognized Crimea as Russian territory, but ceded defense of the Baltic states, who are NATO members; or to launch "carpet bombing" raids on already ravaged Middle Eastern cities.
Which gets me to a sensitive request. As many of you know, I contribute articles relating to foreign policy to national publications as well as blog here. And, occasionally, I offer commentary on national radio and television. I am writing an article with the working title, "What Would Feds Do?" - i.e., what would federal employees working in foreign affairs agencies do if faced with legally and morally questionable orders from a President Trump? To round it out, I need input from those who would face this dilemma. Therefore, I would welcome private and anonymous comments from those of you working in foreign affairs agencies. Don't give me your names. But I would welcome knowing your agency affiliation. You can contact me at the email address attached to this blog. And beware that I am very skilled at screening out frauds from the real McCoys.
Meanwhile, commit the following to memory: "Je souhaite demander l'asile politique."
See also --
Donald Trump’s Farcical Foreign Policy (Washington Monthly)