“TO THE VICTOR BELONG THE SPOILS OF THE ENEMY”
This quote, or at least some paraphrased version of it, has passed through the mouths, pens, keyboards and camera lenses of millions of people from nearly every position and profession for literal centuries since it was coined some 213 years ago.
Recorded as far back as the early 1800’s, the expression was cemented into the national – and international – lexicon in 1832 by New York Senator William L. Marcy during a speech he delivered in defense of political hires made by then-President Andrew Jackson. Senator Marcy argued that the person who wins the Presidency has the right to appoint or hire for any position within control of the office.
Known as the “Spoils System” or patronage system, political operatives and campaign workers for winning political parties were rewarded with plum cabinet positions, lucrative government contracts, ambassadorships, and special favors, often with little more than loyalty as their primary qualifica-tion for the job.
These flagrant acts of patronage would continue unabated until post-Civil War reformists launched efforts to reign-in these rampant and ever-growing abuses of office. Signed into law in January of 1883, the “Pendleton Federal Civil Service Act” – named for Ohio Senator and ardent reformer George Hunt Pendleton – sought to create a mer-itbased system to curtail the climate of political patronage by requiring potential hires to pass a competitive examination process.
Eventually, the practice of merit-based hiring would grow to encompass government at every level. As a consequence, until fairly recently, the appearance of blatant disregard for merit over political patronage has frequently resulted in deep scrutiny by governmental agencies and media outlets alike. Often, this created great embarrassment for the offending person or party, which then, on occasion, led to a larger correction within the system. And, while it has been tested, its boundaries stretched and strained over a century-plus worth of various challenges, the system has always held, a stalwart representative of American democracy.
That is, until now.
democWith a list of potential cabinet nominees widely perceived as “unqualified” loyalists; a rapidly growing body count of over 240 federal employees cut from the past administration, including several “political enemies” and 17 inspectors general; and hundreds more reassigned, reclassified or in danger of outright termination, it is clear that under the current administration, the patronage system is back in full-effect.
But, why should you care about a handful of political appointments and the housecleaning of government officials from past administrations? If you are paying even the faintest attention to any of the vast array of media outlets, then you’ve read that life as you’ve come to know it is about to change. Whichever side you may have been on before January 20, 2025 – unless you happen to be one of those political appointments or a good friend of one of them – the change that’s coming may not be for the better.
In power for less than a month, the current administration has not only scrapped the idea of meritocracy, but it has seemingly declared war on the United States Constitution, and the rule of law itself, tearing at a fabric that has bound us together by a common ideal for more than 142 years with the introduction of the Pendleton Act. While it would take a far larger space to fully list all of the dangerous, even illegal, actions that the current administration has either enacted or attempted, their potentially disastrous impacts are worth noting: tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China would skyrocket the costs of many of the goods we depend on, including food and gas; the acceleration of climate decline; deporting U.S. citizens from the only country they’ve ever known; releasing from justice the felons who attacked our nation’s capital and sworn law officers; freezing trillions in desperately needed federal aid to citizens including access to Medicare, foreign aid to starving nations, and social services; firing members of critically important national security agencies, thus jeopardizing public safety; exposing the confidential financial information of millions of Americans; rescinding some of the hard-fought basic human rights earned by women, people of color, and the LGBTQI com-munity; and compromising our national health and safety by exiting the World Health Organization; among many others.
In this context, it would appear that “the spoils” have been expanded to include our nation’s assets, our resources and, potentially, even, our freedoms.
But, this situation in which we now find ourselves as a country didn’t just materialize from the ether. There have been signposts along the way for years, decades even, calling us out as a nation to stand up against the smaller storms that threatened to chip away at the veneer of our democracy, making it vulnerable to larger squalls.
A look back through the 1920’s, ‘30’s, ‘40’s, and even ‘80’s, provided ample warning against complacent democracy, if only we paid attention.
Now, with the current state of affairs unfolding from our nation’s capital, another often-repeated quote comes to mind, this one by philosopher/author George Santayana:
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
As it was in 1883, so it is today – the only truly effective defense of democracy is an active, consistently engaged electorate wielding history in the fight for its future.
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