How Much Do You Value Expertise?

A Saturday Prompt

Gen. Randy George, a four-star general and Army Chief of Staff, was ousted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth two days ago. (Photo by Win McNamee via Getty Images)

When you’re a passenger in a car, you want a skilled driver. When you’re flying in a plane, you want a skilled and experienced pilot. When facing surgery, you want to know that the surgeon knows exactly what he or she is doing. These things are obvious.

So why wouldn’t we want a skilled and experienced president and a skilled and experienced Defense Secretary? And why wouldn’t we want to be sure they have surrounded themselves with the best and brightest advisers to make the best possible decisions? This too would be obvious, at least in a sane world.

In that world, Americans wouldn’t have elevated an arrogantly ill-informed and reckless man to make the gravest possible decisions for our nation. Nor would the U.S. Senate, once known as the world’s greatest deliberative body, confirm men and women deeply ill-equipped to perform their duties. Such “leaders” would recognize their responsibilities to enhance education, advance science and promote the best among us to lead our nation. They would not have removed the skilled and experienced in fealty to a White House occupant who despises people of color and believes in antiquated ideas that the military should only be led by white men.

Yesterday Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired Gen. Randy George, the Army Chief of Staff who was known as an innovative combat leader, an unsettling move in the midst of the war in Iran. Among the reported reasons: George reportedly believed Hegseth was “interfering unnecessarily” in decisions about Army personnel, including removing skilled and experienced military officers based on their connection to “woke” culture. In fact, last week Hegseth refused to promote four Army officers to one-star generals, two of whom are Black and two women, each of whom has reportedly provided “exemplary service.”

Of course, Trump propagandist Karoline Leavitt weighed in by insisting Hegseth is “doing a tremendous job restoring meritocracy throughout the ranks at the Pentagon, as President Trump directed him to do.” That “tremendous job” has included firing or sidelining more than two-dozen generals and admirals. As The New York Times reported last week, “Currently, the chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, all five service chiefs and nine of the military’s 10 combatant commanders are white men, a return to the status quo that existed for decades.”

As for the removal now of Gen. George, a West Point graduate who served in combat roles dating back to the first Gulf War in 1991 and is the highest-ranking Army officer, it’s yet one more sign that the confederacy of dunces that surrounds Trump cares more about showcasing its bigotry than acting competently. As one U.S. official said to Axios, “Here is a four-star general who is actively working to get equipment and people into theater—to protect U.S. forces—and you fire him? In the middle of a war?”

So what do you think? How much do you value expertise? How alarmed are you by the continuing actions and policies of the Trump regime that are driving out competent public servants based on race and gender? Perhaps you’d like to share a story of how you have relied on experts in your own life, be it doctors or teachers or pilots or even a skilled car mechanic.

As always, I look forward to reading you observations and the opportunity for the America, America community to learn from each other. Please do be respectful in your remarks. Trolling will not be tolerated.

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