Failing Up

In both of my deployments in the Global War on Terror I commanded men that I had not worked with before. We gelled well overall. We were recognized for our work in some very remote and hostile areas of both Iraq and Afghanistan. But on both deployments, there were men assigned with little notice who seemed to be solid dudes….at first. But each time they quickly became insubordinate, even dangerous, and in both cases I got rid of them and the team improved as a result.

The real shock came when, in both instances, I learned after the fact that each of my problems were prior failures who had been booted from teams on previous deployments. No real record. No real consequences. Both men got promotions and wound up with me later. They were allowed by feckless leaders to fail up which put my teams at risk.

General Carl Stiner, one of the first commanders of US Special Operations Command, once said that if you cannot trust a man in combat, you should get rid of him right away. My only regret was that I had not done so sooner.

When did it become okay to reward failure with promotion? Short answer: never.

Alexandr Wang is one of the young guns of the tech world. CEO of a $14 Billion artificial intelligence company Wang announced earlier this year that there would be no hiring at his firm based on so-called diversity, equity and inclusion. In contrast Wang is promotes meritocracy based on what he coined “MEI”, or merit, excellence and intelligence. Hiring “only the best person for the job, we seek out and demand excellence” he said. Doing so “results in the strongest possible team, but also ensures we’re treating our colleagues with fairness and respect.”

The American dream was built on risk and reward. The idea that achievement is possible with a strong work ethic, decisiveness, and a willingness to stake one’s future on sound effort in the present. Yet, in some circles, we too often see there is no need for merit. No need for achievement. No need for even being right. No place sluffs off meritocracy more so than government.

Too many empty suits with a guaranteed government paycheck, no skin in the game, and no requirement to show a profit, form a zombie-like sleepiness of effort. Add tenure to the recipe and you get a constant level of people failing up. To be sure, good people exist in the government employ. Hard workers doing hard work. But among their ranks are the fail-ups.

Worst among them are appointees to major positions in the Biden/Harris Administration.

Has anyone in the Biden/Harris admin lost their jobs for failure? Nobody did from the Afghanistan debacle. Nobody has for the southern border disaster. No economic advisors were fired for epic inflation and deficit spending. None from the CDC or National Institutes of Health over Covid vaccine mandates. Transportation sector malfeasance on EV charging stations, energy sector lost independence, yet all jobs are secure.

One man stands out as most egregious among them all. One man has presided over the most epic failings of US policy without once being reprimanded by his alleged boss yet still walks the halls of government like a ghoul. That shambler is none other than Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas - the poster boy for failing up.

Customs and Border Patrol is overwhelmed. The southern border has had in excess of ten million illegal migrants storming our borders. An exponential increase in the number of illegal border crossers on the terror watchlist have been released into the interior. Fentanyl trafficked across the border has killed over a hundred thousand Americans. The CHNV parole program was shut down for fraud then restarted, bringing upwards of 30,000 more migrants into the country every single month. Who is in charge of our border security? DHS Secretary Mayorkas.

In recent events the Republican candidate for President, former President Donald Trump, survived two assassination attempts. One of those attempts grazed him with a bullet and killed an innocent bystander. Secret Service ranks are filled with DEI hires, drone operators have little training, morale is low and recruiting and retention are down. Who is in charge of the Secret Service? DHS Secretary Mayorkas.

We are now watching recovery operations in the Carolinas and other southern states in the wake of Hurricane Helene. The death toll is well over 200 as whole towns were wiped out. The Biden/Harris administration waited days before activating military assistance. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was slow to get on the ground. Yet to this day FEMA states on its website that the number one goal of FEMA is not disaster relief, it is “equity as a foundation of emergency management”, whatever that means. Mayorkas announced just months ago that FEMA was “tremendously prepared” yet now says that FEMA does not have the funds to assist Americans in the wake of this disaster. But in the past few years FEMA has spent hundreds of millions of dollars supporting illegal immigrants. Who is in charge of FEMA? None other than DHS Secretary Mayorkas.

For only the second time in US history Congress referred articles of impeachment on Mayorkas to the US Senate.  Majority Leader Chuck Schumer killed the Senate impeachment process. Mayorkas has no accountability. He continues to serve in a vaunted position of great authority.

This level of allowed failure leads to the reasonable conclusion that it is not failure at all. Perhaps these were his desired outcomes. Mayorkas may the best for the job if harm to America is the end result he seeks.

But the public needs accountability. Yet in the Biden/Harris administration there is no accountability. There is no need for merit. Mayorkas will continue to fail up.

At our expense.