Isn’t it interesting that a president who claims to be for
workers is willing to, during what he claims is a vibrant economy, freeze
federal workers’ wages? He touts
that his policies are bringing prosperity to steelworkers
and coal
miners (despite evidence to the contrary). But then the one group of workers for whom he
has a direct control sees their wages stagnate.
If you looked at the rhetoric of the right wing over the
past 40 years, you’d think that the ranks of federal employees has become so
large that it has choked our economy. According
to the Bureau
of Labor Statistics, federal workers comprise 1.79% of the nation’s workforce. Despite claims of a growing and bloated
federal workforce, it’s one of three employment sectors that BLS predicts will
decline between 2016 and 2026. The other
two declining sectors are manufacturing and self-employed agriculture, two sectors
of the economy for which the president reserves his most serious pandering. In contrast, federal workers have been part
of the right wing’s symbolism for decades.
They get pilloried along with “welfare moms” and liberals. As is the case for all of these other
generalizations, federal workers are a convenient target, and how they’re
caricatured is far from reality.
That’s how divisive politics works. Reagan fired the air traffic controllers in
1981. It was a symbolic act more than
anything else as he showed his “strength” against unions. It was politically expedient and a significant
shift from his time as governor California in 1968 when he signed the nation’s first
law giving public employees the right to bargain collectively. After all, Reagan had been a union member of
sorts, having served extensive terms as president of the Screen Actors’ Guild. By 1981, though, he saw a chance to make
political gains by attacking those air traffic controllers. In the time since, right-wing politicians
learned a valuable lesson as they discovered a convenient enemy that could be
readily mocked, demonized, and easily blamed.
It’s actually how bullies always operate: Pick on someone whom you can defeat and call
that a victory. The belief is that then
others will defer to your superiority. Federal
workers, because they are relatively few in numbers and have lost much of their
collective bargaining power over the last three decades, are any easy target
for a bully.
And that’s what’s really going on here. Yes, the current administration gave away
billions to the wealthy and now claims that there isn’t enough money to pay
workers. But that’s been the pattern for
failed trickle-down Republican tax policy for decades. This focus on federal workers is more than
just that; it’s a symbolic statement. It
is intended to show that the president is powerful and in control. It’s the fundamental lesson that any bully
seeks to send.
So let’s be clear here.
Federal workers have become a tool, here, for a dangerous message by a
despotically leaning president who’s using them to show his superiority and
willingness to push them. The president doesn’t
care that these folks have made career commitments to service. When he was out night clubbing, bragging
about assaulting women with impunity, and golfing, these folks were keeping the
business of government operating and forming the steady foundation for our
democracy. It’s clear that the president
doesn’t care about their cost in the overall federal budget. As he does with most of his actions, he’s
sending a message that he’s in control, and that no one other than him can lead
this nation – that he, as a person of action, offers the answers. There’s no thought to the people who will be
affected or how this act diminishes their service and dedication. It’s the same megalomaniacal beliefs that purportedly
led Mussolini to declare:
“Democracy
is talking itself to death. The people do not know what they want; they do not
know what is the best for them. There is too much foolishness, too much lost
motion. I have stopped the talk and the nonsense. I am a man of action.
Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy. You in America
will see that some day.”
Although this quotation may be apocryphal, it rings true to
Mussolini’s overall approach to governance as cited in many of his
speeches and writings. The
echoes to comments from the current president demand that we pay attention.
Refusing cost-of-living raises to federal employees is about
strongman optics. That’s done in the
corporate world all the time. A CEO will
“hold the line” on workers’ wages to earn favor with the board of directors and
stockholders. It may be tolerated there,
but in a representative democracy, it’s a dangerous gamesmanship that defies
the nation’s egalitarian ideals. No
group should be targeted for use in politically expedient lessons. The idea of a strongman government where the
leader can so easily target one group should be abhorrent to us. Mussolini was wrong to cavalierly dismiss
democratic systems in favor of his own judgment, and so is the president.
