David Noll
@david.noll.org
26K followers 1.8K following 8.3K posts
Vigilante Nation: www.simonandschuster.com/books/Vigi… Updates on the meritocracy: tinyurl.com/56u9n6zc
Vigilante Nation: www.simonandschuster.com/books/Vigi… Updates on the meritocracy: tinyurl.com/56u9n6zc
![This misleading treatment extends to early American presidents, whom Roberts portrays, to a man, as adherents of the Unitary Executive Theory. Jefferson and Adams, Roberts writes, both agreed with Washington that it was their “‘indispensable duty’” to remove officers who—in Roberts’ words, not Washington’s—“failed to live up to [their] expectations.” Why might Roberts have chosen to substitute his own words for those of our first chief executive? Perhaps because what Washington actually wrote was that removal of an officer was an “indispensable duty” when that officer “is f[oun]d incompetent, remiss in his duty, or pursuing wrong courses”—a list strikingly similar to the “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office” for which President Trump was permitted, under the terms of the Federal Trade Commission Act, to remove Rebecca Slaughter. In fact, as Joseph Story explained nearly two hundred years ago, the few removals Washington made were for cause, a model of “moderation and forbearance” that was followed up until Andrew Jackson’s presidency.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ata7hvtdry3oi7b2yaqmbwz4/bafkreicpqylqgjqslghn2p522z2x5v2iqylyqzp3tjyvt2hr6bgpy75aee)
