The Trump administration just took a monumental step toward making the federal government accountable to the public.

On Feb. 5, the White House made it easier to discipline about 50,000 senior federal employees if they refuse to do their jobs. This announcement has already been met with a union lawsuit, but the president is simply ensuring that the most powerful unelected bureaucrats are no longer insulated from the public’s control. This move will benefit presidents of both parties — and most importantly, the Americans who elect them.

President Donald Trump’s action is, at its core, a restoration of the Constitution’s system of checks and balances and popular sovereignty. The United States is supposed to be governed by “we the people,” but over the past century, unelected bureaucrats have carved out an absurdly powerful and unaccountable niche. Civil service rules have effectively empowered them to ignore the presidents who have constitutional authority over the bureaucracy. That’s the opposite of a republic and an insult to Americans who elect leaders because they want to see........

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