Our system of selling ambassadorships has major & #39;empire in decline& #39; energy. https://twitter.com/CarterRubin/status/1309187820003553281">https://twitter.com/CarterRub...

I suppose I am a bit of a soulless technocrat but shouldn& #39;t the people who have dedicated their lives to the foreign service be representating us abroad rather than, uh, random soap opera actors...?

It& #39;s easy to dismiss these Western European positions as glorified vacations, but recall that the president was quite recently floating the idea 80% of Denmark& #39;s land area. Do you want a qualified professional in the middle of that or an unqualified political donor?

This is a bipartisan issue. Take Hungary, a young dictatorship and the site of a humanitarian immigrant crisis. Under Obama the ambassador was a soap opera producer (yes, really!) and Trump& #39;s ambassador is a guy who ran a telemarketing company. This makes us weak.

This isn& #39;t a new practice: since the 1950s about a third of ambassadorships have gone to donors and political connections. What *has* changed is that (a) Trump cranked that share up to 40% and (b) the appointees have grown much less qualified. https://www.lawfareblog.com/troubling-trends-ambassadorial-appointments-1980-present">https://www.lawfareblog.com/troubling...

In a distressing number of countries—not only in Europe but also in crucial South and East Asia—our ambassadors frequently don& #39;t even speak the local language.