Government Employees Think People Hate Them. Increasingly, They're Right (Reason)

[Cyber Liberty]

Government Employees Think People Hate Them. Increasingly, They're Right

Many arms of government are unpopular with large swathes of the American population.

J.D. Tuccille | 9.19.2019 11:20 AM

"People actively hate us," one recently retired U.S. Border Patrol agent complains in a New York Times piece on morale and recruitment problems at the federal agency. In El Paso, an active duty agent admitted he and his colleagues avoid many restaurants because "there's always the possibility of them spitting in your food."

What's remarkable about the piece isn't the poor treatment directed at many Border Patrol agents; it's that you could replace "Border Patrol" with the name of any one of several other federal agencies and find a similar news story from recent years. Many arms of government are unpopular with large swathes of the American population, and people are not shy about expressing their contempt.

For those of us who want a smaller, much less intrusive government, that should be viewed as a trend to nurture and encourage. And what a trend it is.

For instance, the tax man can't catch a break.

"The IRS has long been disliked, but its employees aren't used to being vilified," Bloomberg reported in 2015, in language that foreshadowed current reports about the plight of immigration-law enforcers. One retired IRS agent told reporters that "throughout his career, he dealt with antigovernment tax avoiders in Arizona, but once the Tea Party scandal broke, his encounters with otherwise law-abiding ranchers became more hostile."

More:  https://reason.com/2019/09/19/government-employees-think-people-hate-them-increasingly-theyre-right/

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The money quote:

Helping the major political tribes attack each other's favored agencies won't formally reduce government the way libertarians like, but it could continue to hobble agencies so that they're less of a threat to our freedom and rights. At least for now, the most effective means of protecting liberty may lie less in winning political battles than in assisting the major partisan tribes in waging war against each other and the government agencies they currently disfavor.