A Pivotal Time In America: The Importance of a Smooth Government Transition We Probably Won’t Get
The Trump 2016 Transition Was Awful. He Is Best Not To Repeat It With a Poor Exit As Well.
To ensure continuity in the government post-election when an incumbent is being replaced, there is nothing more important afterwards than getting your transition teams set up and boots on the ground. If there was one, single lesson hopefully learned in 2016, it was how poorly planned and executed Trumps transitioning into office was run. His ill-preparedness and lack of government experience put a deep strain and a high-level of uncertainty on the government workforce of employees and contractors.
Regardless of whether or not Joe Biden is eventually certified as the next president of the United States of America, this is a time of divisiveness, change and uncertainty. And, if you made it this far to have been in the General Election in a top party, you should already be receiving some sort of briefings, and even guidance from your own team, and government officials on how to prepare for a transition. Fortunately for Mr. Biden, he does have an extensive amount of government experience, as well as our previous Vice President under Barack Obama. Now, that doesn’t mean you get the highest level of security briefings. But, post election, if there is a high chance you will be certified — with the tradition, the class, the prestige, and the small fraternity of American Presidents, it serves any President best on their legacy to embrace their potential successor.
Transitions and Presidential Comradery:
The 2016 Election cycle was especially brutal between Trump and anyone, as he flipped and twisted and squashed the entire establishment of the Republican party, even the new Tea Party establishment. And it was certainly just as toxic between two former very good friends in Trump and Hillary Clinton, or Trump and the rest of the Democrats. Many believed Trump to have been a Democrat in the past. Mr. Trump also attacked Mr. Obama numerous times on his birth certificate. But, I will never forget the grace and kindness Barack Obama still showed Mr. Donald Trump and his wife Malania on his inauguration day.
Mr. Obama didn’t have to, and probably didn’t want to, but that is what a gentleman of class would always choose to do. That is what previous presidents instilled into the role, that no matter how much blood was shed, after the battle you shake hands with your opponent and leave them with a nice note of encouragement. No one knows more about what a new president is getting themselves into more than the previous one. Imagine William Jefferson Clinton welcoming George W. Bush after the ‘hanging chad’ outcome in the 2000 Elections. Or, prior to that how George H.W. Bush felt after having to transition to the young, sax playing Bill Clinton.
Ironically, it was George W. Bush who brought his father together with Bill Clinton to spearhead relief efforts in 2004 and 2005 after the Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina respectively. They forged an unlikely friendship that lasted until HW’s passing. It’s just the way it is, and how when your job is done you can put the past behind you. Party divide or not, very few people ascend to the presidency of this country, or even any country for that matter. It’s a small, rare, and exclusive club.
And let us not forget, fellow single-term president Jimmy Carter is still around. If Trump should befriend anyone, it should be Carter so he can learn how to gracefully handle defeat and to transition out with class and dignity — something that Trump lacks — , and still go on to live your best life. Carter lost to the ol’ Gipper, Ronald Reagan.
The Complexities and Importance of a Well Thought-out Transition
Back to the topic of the transitioning of powers — They are unlike anything else, especially for a country as large and complex as the United States. You don’t see a business typically wipe out their entire staff every time a new CEO takes over. And, I am sure back in the Medieval days, a transition of power to a new king meant a lot of hangings and beheadings. But, in government, you essentially do that. You wipe out the staff, or they calmly choose to pack up and leave, and try to make it uncomfortable for the lingering allies of the previous regime. Or, you take a classier approach and allow for bipartisanship to prevail across various offices. Perhaps, say, in the science fields where you have highly skilled and trained doctors and scientists whose work is not as politically based, so their actual knowledge is more valuable.
But, for a transition of power to a new president, they will have to form their transition teams who must connect with every branch of the government. And as planning carries on, they must bring on more political appointees to transition with each bureau of a government department, and even more members to lead executive teams in government offices. All of these sub-transition teams need to plan with each office how to share knowledge, transfer duties, get to know the staff, and share their new incoming policies and directives so people know how to do their jobs and what to focus on. These appointees must also figure out how many seats to fill, because there is always an exodus of employees and contractors when their is a party change at the top.
The transition is a large and complex effort that you hope candidates begin planning for the moment they win their Primary election, but really ramps up post General election. You hire transition team members who can map out everywhere they need to set up their sub-transition teams and how many they need to hire to fill all of the roles. It is not an easy task by any means. Or, at least I assume it is not, since I haven’t been on a transition team. But, I have been there to witness transitions and feel their impacts, good and bad. For the bad, you have to be concerned for our nation’s security and the potential threats and vulnerabilities it opens us up to. There is too much risk to ignore the immediate planning.
What Transitions Were Like
I experienced the tail end of the Bush era, the entirety of the Obama era, and most of Trump’s term. I’ll say that nothing felt more chaotic, ad hoc, and crazy, leaving so many employees and contractors in limbo more than Trump’s stroll into office. You didn’t know if teams would be cut, whole offices cut, cut a whole bureau, and even the threat of dismantling whole departments. Quite often, there were offices told to expect a transition team member to show up and often times no one did. Or, someone showed up who did not have the experience, knowledge, or skills to do what they were tasked with doing.
For his supporters outside of government, “Hell Yeah! Drain the Swamp!” But, a majority of those people are there just to do a job like anyone else. They don’t make the decisions of the political appointees, they just execute their jobs as they were trained to do, which generally has nothing to do with politics itself. So, when you drain the swamp of lifelong government employees, and cut the contracts of longtime contractors, careers of many hardworking Americans are thrown out the window. They are 9-to-5ers trying to support their families, put a roof over their head, and hopefully save for retirement. How many of his supporters in the government were impacted?
I watched some great, loyal, longtime, dedicated employees end up being forced to, or choose to retire from government before they intended to. I also watched what seemed like a conveyor belt in a factor of the next-man-up as career employees were forced into political appointee roles, and then not long after they were fired or quit. Next man up! But, that depleted the government of a lot of very talented and experienced people.
That trickled down to the now smaller employee workforce having a greater burden of work and responsibilities, but without the full authority, as at times they were only intended to fill in temporarily as “Acting” managers and directors. But, there were hiring freezes in place that prevented the government from hiring new employees to replace those moving up. Furthermore, that put a great demand on the contractors. But, with contractors, you have signed terms to your scope of work. Anything outside of that you want to be paid more. So, you would think more would have to be spent on contractors, but the hiring freezes, the unknown priorities because they might have never seen a political employee, or the revolving door of government department heads, and also because OPM had a severe backlog of processing government clearances, more contractors weren’t always there to ease the burden.
It’s not that I favor any one party of the other with my opinions, it’s just what I experienced. I don’t remember this much chaos going from Bush to Obama, or for any of the political appointees I worked under. Compared to those times, when something used to be viewed as chaotic and unreasonable, what happened under Trump raised the bar. Typically, the change only impacts your priorities, or there are new project opportunities created as Presidents want to leave their mark on their first 100 days.
To wrap this all up, it is not surprising to see how Donald Trump is acting out as his single-term comes to an end, because he essentially entered the government space in the same exact way. And, whether he pulls a miracle with all of his lawsuits and wins the election, or he doesn’t, because JoePrez actually takes the helm, it is extremely important to avoid that mess in 2016.
Joe Biden, and especially based on his experience and tenure in government, should immediately be brought up to speed on our government, and that includes immediately receiving the briefings from the White House that the President would see. Unless, Donald had them turned into cartoons he watched, then by all means, please share them with all of us.
But, there has been a long standing history of humility and grace during the transitions of power in the United States, and it would be great if Mr. Trump could continue that, if only for one time in his life. Can we start taking bets on whether or not he leaves Mr. Biden a letter in the Oval Office? Or is he just going to carve his initials on the desk next to “Biden Blows.” Has he already carved Joe Biden's number in the White House bathrooms with “For a good time, call…”? Because, it feels like his transition out will be anything by normal, sane, or graceful.
Come on, Donnie! There are kids watching! And Joey’s down the street with Kamala waiting to be let back inside.
