Hi, I’m an anonymous person who works at a fairly high level of the federal government, and I’d like to talk to you about how things are more fucked up than you could possibly imagine.
I’m paranoid enough that I won’t talk about my work, specifically, or about the agency to which I’ve dedicated my career, but suffice to say, I believe in what I do. I believe in the power of the federal government to level playing fields, to right wrongs, to help people in their own personal pursuits of life, liberty, blah blah. I’m a true believer. I really am. Which is why it’s so disconcerting to work for an administration that really doesn’t believe in government, mostly because it’s staffed with people who know they’ll never need it for anything but opening markets with war and putting down riots at home.
So it should come as no surprise that those of us who don’t work in either “defense” or law enforcement are seeing an unprecedented assault on even the least controversial programs. Healthcare for the poor and elderly, housing for homeless Veterans, workplace protections for LGBTQAI people, these are all under assault because they’re either expensive in the short term, or they’re red meat for the troglodytes who got us into this place. We’re seeing funding being redirected, programs cut, staff reassigned, and it’s only a matter of time until we start seeing mass privatization again. As one who’s seen this before, I can tell you that the road is well paved and the stupid is unrelenting. Your government is preparing to feed itself to vultures, and it will come fast and under cover of whatever tweetstorm distraction the orange buffoon concocts for the purpose.
So, that’s the current state. We’re seeing precisely the looting of the commons that we saw under Reagan and Bush II. We’re seeing DHHS curtailing services based on “religious freedom,” CDC scaling back for lack of funding, EPA just flat out giving us the finger, and the IRS being trimmed to its lowest staffing levels, ever. What do we do?
Well, believe it or not, we call our representatives in Congress. We organize letter campaigns. We connect with local nonprofits. We show we’re paying attention, because it’s absolutely true Justice Keith said, “Democracy dies in darkness.” When they know we see them, they move more slowly. And when power is concentrated in the hands of despots, even just slowing their power grab is a victory.