Democracy was never designed to be efficient for the people in charge. In fact, one of its greatest strengths is that it can be maddeningly inconvenient. Investigations take time. Courts issue injunctions. Inspectors general ask uncomfortable questions. Independent agencies challenge powerful corporations. Career civil servants remind elected officials that there are laws they cannot simply wish away. All of that friction can feel frustrating. It is also the point. Power is n

There is a difference between giving someone a second chance and handing them a sensitive role inside the Pentagon. That difference should not require an advanced degree, a committee hearing, or a laminated flowchart from Human Resources. Yet here we are, in a political moment where the old rules of qualification seem to have been shoved into a filing cabinet and replaced with one question: did this person prove loyalty to Donald Trump? When loyalty becomes the top qualificat