Civil service is another term for “professional workforce” and we want this in government, right? And yet, as I write this, our government is being taken over by the opposite kind of worker.

The uncredentialed Elon Musk is running a massive government operation. His team of similarly-unaccredited private-sector tech wonks have taken control of the vast Treasury database of our personal information as well as the federal payment database.

In an unprecedented misappropriation of authority, they are deciding who gets federal payments for work authorized by Congress. And, they are reportedly shutting down the U.S. Agency for International Development that was mandated by a 1961 congressional act.

This abruptly halts humanitarian aid and international disaster assistance to tens of millions around the world, all considered critical to national and global security, according to Google search highlights from the agency’s website, which is now shut down.

Although Donald Trump won his first term, in part, by complaining about Hillary Clinton using a private server for certain emails, Musk and his team have gained access to this database of our Social Security numbers, bank information and other highly sensitive data. It’s perhaps the most massive data breach in our country’s history.

Then they locked legitimate employees out of federal computers. When actual government employees tried to stop this raid on confidential data, Musk fired them. With no legal standing, his team sent a letter pushing all federal workers to resign, and are now sending layoff notices to targeted civil service workers across the federal government.

Overriding official acts of Congress could be illegal, but it’s also bad business.

I’d like to find another business manager who thinks it’s a good idea to offer a blanket buyout to their entire staff. Trump and the man behind this idea, Musk, seem to think that all workers are expendable. The insulting effort to “buy out” 2 million federal employees with the threatening “Fork in the Road” letter makes no distinction between experienced employees with valuable institutional knowledge and those who might be cut without damaging government services.

These are not all interchangeable cogs in the federal machinery. They are the people who make sure Social Security checks get to seniors on time and process Head Start money for preschoolers. They have the experience to manage air traffic, rebuild crumbling roads and bridges, protect our clean air and water, and make sure the food we eat is safe from contamination. Mass exodus from these and other key positions would be disastrous for our communities.

We should all be outraged at the news that those employees who stay in government are being forced to pledge loyalty to the president, including questions on who they voted for and when their moment of “MAGA revelation” occurred.

This effort to put Trump’s own interests over the best interests of the American people and even the Constitution is not the pathway to public safety or national security. And it has little to do with the professed goal of eliminating waste in the bureaucracy. Certainly, there is redundancy and savings to achieve with thoughtful reductions in the workforce. But that won’t be the result of Trump’s ham-handed effort to force out any federal employees who don’t pledge loyalty to him.

Let’s be clear that the purpose of civil service is to prevent exactly what Trump is doing.

Early in our country’s history, presidents routinely hired workers based on party affiliation, a practice codified by the “Spoils Act” in 1820. That limited the term of all government officials to four years to correspond with the president’s term. But it wasn’t long before party loyalty tests were understood to be a vehicle for corruption. In 1883, Congress created the United States Civil Service Commission to replace the Spoils System with merit hiring and use professional qualification tests to determine job readiness.

For the first time, appointments were open to all, and tenure protection ensured political neutrality so employees couldn’t be fired because of a change in the presidency. This history used to be found on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management website; today it has disappeared, apparently replaced by an FAQ about Musk’s “Fork” buyout letter.

Congress has updated civil service guidelines several times over the years to keep up with changes in human resource management standards. But there has never been such a thorough effort to usurp this congressional authority and undermine the fundamental goal of preventing political loyalty from replacing professional qualifications.

And the American people should not allow that to happen today.

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Marj Halperin is an award-winning journalist and former Democratic analyst for WGN-TV, currently heard on WGN radio’s Mincing Rascals podcast. A community activist, she’s a leader of the Chicago neighborhood group One Community Near South and Indivisible Chicago’s Blue Beginning chapter.

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