Alan Caron’s column of Jan. 29 points out that the Trump administration faces resistance from an underappreciated quarter, “… 2 million civil servants will confront Trump’s 4,000 ideological but inexperienced appointees.”

We speak of three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial. But the “executive branch” is really two branches. The political appointees, many requiring Senate confirmation, get a lot of attention.

Below them, though, is the second part of the executive branch: highly professional members of the federal civil service. They know the laws that pertain to their particular organizations, offices and responsibilities. They have seen administrations come and go. The senior people could be making more money with less frustration in the private sector. They are surprisingly well-protected in their positions. They are hard to reassign and harder to fire.

I did a short stint as director of a small federal agency. My “deputy director” was a pro who knew my job far better than I did. I clearly recall asking him, “Jake, could I require ( I’ve forgotten what)?” His answer was, “You could do that. You’d probably go to jail, but you could do that.”

Career federal civil servants have been targeted for abuse by candidates running for office for the past 35 years. The abuse has taken its toll. But these are dedicated, capable people who understand the law and the political environment very well, better than their doctrinaire political bosses

They will be challenged even more than usual in this administration. We will see reasons that federal civil servants are required to follow the law rather than the whims of short term political appointees, and are protected by the law. They will take a pounding but survive to serve the country well.