Failed Virtues
They'll tell you raising the sea level raises all boats, but only the boat owners would argue that with those who have houses by the shore.
“I agree that plenty of agencies and deadwood employees should go gently into that good night, and sooner rather than later,” Tom Nichols writes for the Atlantic, “But folding up federal agencies and firing their employees is a complicated business, requiring a scalpel rather than a sledgehammer.” Nichols has recently retired from 25 years of federal service, including the Department of Defense and as a member of the U.S. Senate staff. His words capture best the arguments being chanted by thousands of protesters, and positions being manned by countless Democrat lawmakers in response to Trump’s steamroller approach to slimming down the federal government.
Whether Trump’s actions on USAID are a masterful stroke of political cunning, or just ham-fisted slash and burn federal downsizing remains to be determined. Regardless, on matters ranging from foreign aid, how to streamline the federal government, to DEI issues a troubling truth emerges in which the Left are saying the quiet parts out loud. During the first Trump Administration, and through decades of government gridlock virtue signaling could be mistaken as virtuous action, but in 2025 it just acts as an excuse.
That the federal government is bloated, an amassed red tape nightmare that gets nothing done quickly if at all is not a unique belief. Never mind Democrat positions in the lest election that called for reforming the Judiciary and obliterating long standing roadblocks to reform and progress. Nichols above makes the point himself: plenty of federal agencies needed an overhaul and deadwood employees living large off the federal budget needed elimination. Except in 25 years of federal service, Nichols failed to achieve it. In fact, despite decades of politicians campaigning on reforming the government - none have. There lies the problem: you can’t just virtue signal change into reality.
This isn’t an endorsement for Trump’s execution of the mandate, which regardless of your voting preferences certainly exists because both major parties campaigned on change. A scalpel certainly would be more ideal, but every Emergency Room doctor will tell you sometimes you have to take drastic measures to ultimately save a life, even if that means procedures you would prefer to avoid over others you don’t have the luxury to use in the moment. After all you have to downsize the government with the government you have, not the government you want. At time of writing 40-60,000 federal employees have elected to resign under Trump’s program. Undoubtedly some of those people will leave massive holes in government programs - and yes the American public is going to feel that. However, we should have equal confidence that those who remain are capable of stepping up to the plate and doing the job too.
To the Left cause is more important than the actual result the cause is intended to serve. In Gaza, Trump has shaken the world. Yet his proposal lays bare this phenomena: Egypt, Jordan, South Africa, Ireland, Spain, and the remaining Arab world are most horrified at the suggestion that Gazans not remain in Gaza - despite the fact many of them do want to leave. Palestinians are the only refugee population in the world who are not allowed to leave a war zone because whether or not any Palestinians are left alive matters not so long as a Two State Solution is implemented. Despite loud protestations for the Palestinian Cause, these states refuse to do anything of real substance for actual Palestinians. They and the Western Left are horrified about the living conditions, the suffering and the difficulties ahead with reconstruction - but they refuse outright to allow the people who actually have to live through it any other option.
In fact, they continue to protest loudly as the IDF today makes preparations to allow by land, sea and air any Palestinian who wants to leave to do so. The same Left who calls Gaza an “open air prison” are the ones who are outraged by Israel’s allowance that they be allowed out of it. Never mind that Trump’s outlandish positions are well known to be intentional opening bids that could be implemented but should be negotiated down. For months, and in the last month in particular, the Left has pointed out that following the cease fire it’s clear Hamas has no plans to give up control, a known sticking point in future negotiations to continue the peace. None of them has a suggested solution, but the sudden reality that with US backing Gaza could be emptied, various powers in the peace conference suddenly are willing to think outside the box and search for a workable solution.
Even so far as DEI programs. A meme is floating around the left side of social media insisting that those who are against “DEI” should have to say the whole thing out loud: “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion” so as to make the point that they’re not against an acronym but those three individual virtues. This ignores the fact that DEI is a specific reference to specific programs with horrible track records of success in promoting diversity, equity and inclusion; and when they manage to do anything of the sort it is always at the expense of someone else’s inclusion and equity. Like the deadwood federal workforce, actual reform is irrelevant so long as one proselytize the demand for it. If eliminating DEI programs actually lead to improved lives for minorities in America those most upset about DEI funding being stripped wouldn’t notice or care. Plenty of Legislators have come out swinging on the need to curtail AI companies, loud speeches and regular website additions on actions needed, but actions never taken. Instead they take meetings with AI firm leaders, and accept their campaign contributions.
The overwhelming majority of Americans wanted reform in the government, one way or another. Thousands of people protest in the street regularly for a change in the situation in the Middle East or elsewhere. The system is dysfunctional we all believe, but when a politician goes beyond just signaling their virtues and acts on them, all hell breaks loose. Today politicians who built careers on virtue are now stuck defending what is otherwise unpopular - not because ultimately they are right in their beliefs, but because the broken system they have perpetuated for decades is suddenly being reformed as they argued for - just not by who they wanted to do it, and how they wanted it done, even if that was just a pipe dream. Sometimes you have to just pull the bandaid off quickly.