Federal government workers are nothing like the overpaid and too-numerous lot that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, and their attendant DOGE commission, say they are. In fact, federal workers have perhaps been among the groups of workers who’ve been least successful at advancing their interests over the past 40 years.
The reality of how federal workers are and have been treated should be a focal point for a defeated and disorganized left, whether among the moderates blaming the far left or among those who agree with Bernie Sanders that party leadership has lost touch with workers. The fight for federal workers is the first battle in the upcoming assault on the federal government. The left would be wise to use a full-throated defense of federal workers an opportunity to portray Donald Trump, Musk, Ramaswamy and the entire GOP as cruel and unconcerned with actual working people.
