I'm getting paywalled and won't subscribe to the Washington Post, so I can read the article. However, I assume it's defending Joe Maguire from getting removed from his position. (He apparently wasn't actually fired.). I can accept the argument that he shouldn't have been fired. That's debatable.
What I'm not a fan of is Schmidt's claim that this "doesn't happen in democracies." Two reasons why. First, yes it does, especially with people who are "acting" and not permanent. Presidents pack senior positions with loyalists and people who support their agenda and see the world as they do. There's a reason why Obama didn't keep Mike McConnell.
Second and more disturbing, the presumption of his comment is that the bureaucracy represents democracy more than the duly elected President of the United States. To them, government by bureaucracy, judiciary, and supranational institutions represent democracy, but government by elected officials is not. These guys honestly don't know what democracy is.
Last edited: Feb 25, 2020