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Perspective from a former government employee [1]

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Date: 2023-10-03  

As an American, witnessing the “intellectual decay” of the US from abroad is heartwrenching. In this era of the narcissistic demagogue Trump, Orwell’s Newspeak is of paramount importance to the Republican Party (and FOX) wherein the converse of truth is reality. Newspeak is defined by Orwell as diminishing the range of thought; this is what minions are made of. How is it that tens of millions of Americans cannot see the forest for the trees? Why do they believe that they are somehow better off with a self-serving con artist whose only ideology is himself? What is so enticing about making billionaires richer to create the greatest disparity between rich and poor of any other country on earth? Why don’t Americans want their taxes to benefit themselves through government programs instead of financing yachts and mansions? I wonder if the US education system has failed us.

I reside in Taiwan — and feel safer in this vibrant democracy than in the US, even with China as the neighborhood bully — but have worked for the DoD in Germany some 13 years. The two-party political system of the US was usually ridiculed on German newcasts as dysfunctional, rightly so when considering how well their coalition form of government works in a social democracy. The percentage of the vote that a political party receives in a national election is proportionally represented in the Bundestag, resulting in a greater crosssection of the people. German citizens receive Kindergeld, universal health care, a shorter work week, better (subsidized) education, 30 holidays a year, a 13th month salary, superb transportation system, freedoms like the Autobahn, etc., and they are still the strongest economy in Europe. Their taxes are not much higher than ours. Why do Americans believe there must be some kind of conspiracy behind the US government providing these kind of services to its citizens? It’s mind-boggling. This is not an issue of “freedom” but of ignorance.

Still, when we treat our elected representatives as kings and queens — or select those who are unfit to serve — making them millionaires, the SNAFU of Gaetz and McCarthy is practically a fait accompli. Just what will a government shutdown in November accomplish? All of this against a backdrop of a national debt that is a runaway train. I resigned as a GS-13 because of the waste I witnessed within the US Defense Department. More money to defense doesn’t mean greater defense. Obviously, the determinant is how it is spent. As Citizens Against Government Waste put it decades ago, “If only the government spent our tax dollars as scrupulously as it collects them.” The gist of that message is not understood in US government or how the people feel disenfranchised … leading to the Alptraum emergence of Trump. I am as progressive as they come — my favorite subject in college was humanties — but any sound political decision requires a balance of idealism and conservatism, lest the result be naivety or sterility, respectively. From a perspective abroad, that kind of compromise is what most Americans desire, sorely needed but rarely found. The turmoil expected in 2024, like Orwell’s dystopian1984, will be a watershed moment for the American experiment. I pray the guardrails hold and the orange menace recieves his comeuppance.

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