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Civil Service and Project 2025
Liz VanDerwerken, proactive root director for Mormon Women for Ethical Government, recently spoke with Erica Newland, counsel at Protect Democracy, about broad reforms to the civil service proposed in Project 2025. Here is a summary of their conversation. What is the civil service? The civil service is the civilian workforce of the federal government. For example, engineers at the Environmental Protection Agency and your local mail carrier in the U.S. Postal Service are civil servants. Civil servants most often keep their jobs when a presidential administration changes, while political appointees are chosen by elected officials and change with administrations. For example, a newly elected U.S. president will appoint a new…
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The Importance of Improving Global Health
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently donated $55.8 million to 12 nonprofit organizations dedicated to strengthening health and nutrition systems in countries throughout the world. The money is expected to reach 12 million children and 2.7 million expectant mothers through programs focused on treating and preventing malnutrition, providing maternal mental healthcare, and strengthening food systems. Relief Society General President Camille M. Johnson stated, “Whenever we do anything to bring relief to others — temporal or spiritual — we are bringing them to Jesus Christ and will be blessed to find our own relief in Him.” Improving global health is one of the greatest ways to bring relief…
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The Peaceful Transition of Presidential Power
After King Benjamin advised his people concerning their dealings with one another, he urged, “And see that these things be done in wisdom and in order,” repeating, “all things must be done in order” (Mosiah 4:27). Applying this counsel to our citizenship, we can support the peaceful transition of presidential power by advocating for a process with wisdom and order overarching. After serving two terms as the first president of the newly formed United States, long before term limits were established, George Washington declined running for a third term, in part to keep a promise he made early on to not seek “unfair power.” Thus began the history of the…
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Presidential Pardons: Possibilities, Precedents, and Problems
With presidential pardons in recent news, MWEG offers a Q&A to sort through possibilities, precedents, and potential problems with this presidential power. Q: What are the purposes and types of presidential pardons?A: This power allows a president to forgive criminal offenses through pardons, amnesty, commutation, and reprieve. Informed by the British monarchy, the executive power to pardon was intended to add elements of mercy and clemency to the Constitution. The assumption held that men of virtue would exercise this power for the good of the people and not for their own purposes. Pardons grant the person complete legal forgiveness of a crime, as if it had never happened. Amnesty does…
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The Post-Truth Era
Analysis by Alexa Dadson Historically, political decisions and debates have been informed by widely agreed-upon facts. However, as people increasingly use social media as a news source, and as journalistic institutions turn to sensationalism in order to compete, trust in sources formerly considered to be credible is decaying. Research institutions are accused of having political objectives or bias, adding to the widespread distrust. Disagreements over historical or scientific facts take up more time in political discussions than discourse about solutions to issues. This combination of factors has created a “post-truth era” characterized by a deteriorating consensus around public truth claims. Post-truth denotes “circumstances in which objective facts are less influential…
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Understanding the Electoral College Today
After each citizen votes individually, a group of electors called the Electoral College makes the final choice for president and vice president of the United States of America. The Constitution outlines that each state appoints a number of electors equal to its number of senators and representatives, with an amendment later adding the District of Columbia. (U.S. territories do not vote for the presidency, and, therefore, do not have representation in the Electoral College.) With 538 total electors, a presidential candidate needs the majority of votes, or 270, to win the election. The highest number of votes from a state is 54 (California) with the lowest tied at 3 (Alaska,…
