But I didn't expect it to be a begrudging 'transition' while still not being graceful in defeat. I can only imagine the intense behind-the-scenes discussions (or 'discussions') that have been happening to prepare for this strange middle-ground.
When is somebody going to make subtitles for that Downfall scene for this stuff?
To be honest i get crestfallen whenever I see someone's used that scene, it was probably fun the first time but it's become increasingly more of a lazy and boring way to meme something up. That kind of thing only plays to the faithful and is it really that interesting to watch the same scene over and over with subtitles explaining obscure points of law and government?
https://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/us-politics/drama-inside-us-presidential-transition-as-joe-biden-loyalists-complain-theyre-being-overlooked/news-story/c5211a1ae3633f07a80f3ea2b5c8e6baSome people upset in the Biden camp about appointments:
None of these choices are, in themselves, remotely controversial. But taken together, there is a distinct trend – most of Mr Biden’s picks also served under Mr Obama.
According to Politico, that has rubbed some of the president-elect’s staff the wrong way. Reporter Ryan Lizza describes the mood as “concern bordering on panic”.
The Obama staffers are now cutting out the people who got Biden elected,” the senior Biden official we mentioned earlier told Lizza.
“None of these people found the courage to help the vice president when he was running, and now they are elevating their friends over the Biden people. It’s f***ed up.”
Another Biden adviser said that was a “valid criticism”, and many of Mr Biden’s long-term staff were now “living in uncertainty”, unsure whether there will be a role for them.
“There’s real doubt about whether they will be taken care of,” the adviser said.
There's definitely a tension there, however we shouldn't
want Biden loyalists "taken care of" with senior appointments, people shouldn't get the red carpet rolled out and just be appointed Secretary of State for being "loyal". The thing is: if they're hiring people who
didn't jump on the Biden bandwagon, I feel better about that actually. Sticking people who were campaign zealots or big campaign donors into roles was what Trump did. But I can see how Biden campaign faithful could feel betrayed by that at the same time.
The thing is, this is the exact opposite of "jobs for friends" which is why the people who have ingratiated themselves in the "friends" category are upset. What Biden's team is doing is bringing back lower and mid-level Obama era people and putting them as the heads of things: these people weren't Biden's best friends, they were junior people in the Obama administration, i.e. "deputy XYZ" but they proved their mettle and now they're "head of XYZ". This is just common sense: putting someone as the director of an organization but they've never seen how that organization is meant to work from the inside - but also
after that organization has been completely gutted by Trump - that would be fucking chaos. If you want to fix a gutted department, you need to put someone in charge who knows what it used to look like before the gutting, not some partisan hack loyalist.
The point is that they are announcing the major postings first, those are going to people with a track record, and these are promotions from their Obama days, they're not just sticking the same people back in the same roles, that's not what's happening. The Biden loyalists can basically stand in the queue, get junior postings, then
work your way up to "deputy XYZ" and if you're really rockin' it, you can be "head of XYZ" in ... a while.