Serving the Servants: Ending ‘Stakeholder’ Government

Just like woke corporations, federal government employees have forgotten their purpose.

Earlier this month, over 1,400 “Hands Off!” mass-action rallies, organized by a nationwide coalition of left-leaning activist groups, were held around the country to protest President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Prominent among the organizers’ list of demands was “an end to the billionaire takeover and rampant corruption of the Trump administration,” including layoffs of federal workers and the closure of several governmental agencies. (RELATED: The ‘Hands Off’ Ignorance)
In his first term, President Trump did little more than pay lip service to reimagining the federal government. But such efforts have long been with us: from ending “waste, fraud and abuse” with President Reagan’s Grace Commission, to “reinventing government” under President Clinton, the notion that an increasingly sprawling, complex government is in desperate need of reform and renewal isn’t a new one, nor has it been seen as a particularly partisan issue.  While such past attempts at restructuring the federal bureaucracy have enjoyed a mixed record of success, who could stand against the concept of a more efficient government, delivering better outcomes at a lower cost?
“Stakeholders,” that’s who.
Washington’s inexorable growth and ever-expanding reach into our daily lives deftly illustrate that the dream of taxpayer dollars being spent wisely has historically been more talk than action. What the “Resistance 2.0” in Trump’s second term is responding to is this administration’s sustained efforts to eliminate entire governmental departments and significantly reduce federal employee headcount.  Prominent in the narratives advanced by anti-Trump activists (those protesting at the “Hands Off!” rallies and elsewhere) is sympathy for federal employees laid off in connection with the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) audit of various governmental agencies, departments, and programs.
The hysteria directed at efforts to downsize and restructure government has been a surprise to many of those who ...