Like people taking an expensive cruise, US citizens have come to expect and even demand good service from government workers. Recently they have been treated like servants working in a developing country. Based on the way government workers were abused and fired, they are clearly disrespected and largely “taken for granted.”
If you need to apply for social security, get a passport, drive on the Interstate, predict a hurricane’s path, pay for your parent’s nursing home, get disaster recovery aid, find flood insurance, obtain agricultural subsidies, or do a hundred other necessary and sometimes potentially life-saving things, the government has always been there.
Show me a person who says we do not need government and I will show you a person living in a fantasy world who has not the slightest awareness of how much he (or she) and previous generations have depended on government.
Of course, the illusion of unnecessary and wasteful government services is sold relentlessly by the right-wing media corporations who want to kill government off to reduce business regulation and pay for more tax cuts for the wealthy who are fabulously rich already.
But the government workers who helped us in the past are under attack. Even those still employed during the shutdown are not receiving paychecks and under great stress. The employed and unemployed are both in desperate situations.
The mainstream media will give examples of government workers and those they serve suffering in various ways. However, they are terrified to say the obvious – that these government employees have been treated terribly and unjustly and the source of this hatred and injustice is the Republican party.
And I see the Democratic Party doing almost nothing to defend them beyond trying to reopen the government. Every democratic leader should be giving speeches in Congress about how these government workers are heroes that saved the day for millions of people in the past. They should be saying, “THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE” every chance they get and demanding respect for these workers
But it is not just Congress who should speak up. Every citizen who knows a government worker should be doing the same thing showing their support in whatever way possible. Collectively, we owe government workers a huge debt just as we do those who serve in the military.
I may be missing something but I hear crickets when listening to the mainstream media, to democratic leaders, and to citizens when I look for vocal support for government workers. It is like Democrats are deaf and dumb, frozen and unable to move or speak.
If you are going to march in the millions against a king, why not also march to support the workers who faithfully ran a government and made it a democratic set of institutions rather than a king’s court full of yes-men and servants?
My take: By doing so little to oppose the abuse of government workers, we all collectively owe them an apology.
But it is not too late to support these government workers in whatever way possible. Let’s do better in showing our appreciation in ways great and small in the future and ask our legislators to do the same.
Drawing attention to Republican disrespect for virtually all workers including government workers is an effective way to get these vain, selfish, and slavishly loyal leaders voted out of office
