Check Your Privilege: Federal Managers Say You Have Too Much Freedom

Here are some interesting numbers to enrich your Tuesday. You will either say, "Oh dear Lord!" or, "That's about par for the course."

Citing Napolitan Insitute surveys of federal managers, the Washington Examiner reports that:

• Fifty-one percent said Americans enjoy "somewhat" to "far too much" individual freedom. (Note: by contrast, 57% of voters say the government exerts too much control over their lives, but 16% actually agreed with the federal managers.)
• Sixty-eight percent of Democrat federal managers felt the country had too much freedom at the "highest levels of the survey." Thirty-three percent of Republican managers concurred.
• Fifty-four percent of federal managers maintained that they would issue new regulations after "carefully researching" an issue even if voters opposed it. Broken down by party, that number accounts for 49% of Republican-leaning managers and 60% of Democrats.

You can read the original press releases here and here. 

RMG Research, which Scott Rasmussen helms, compiled the data. Rasmussen observed:

The Elite 1% wield a tremendous amount of institutional power but are wildly out of touch with the nation they want to rule. Over the years, they have built institutions and mechanisms of regulatory power that are immune to the checks and balances of elections. Worse still, these same Elites own, operate, and control a large majority of media outlets, blocking out the true voice of the American people and broadcasting their own out-of-touch viewpoints.

It can be easy to gripe about federal employees who sit on their posteriors, pushing papers, trying to reach a GS rating, and waiting for the day their pensions kick in. And those people exist. I have seen agency employees do things that made it clear to me that they knew how to game the system. I have also had mind-boggling conversations with people who honestly believed the rhetoric they had been fed. Of course, that problem is also endemic among large swaths of the public.

But I have also met local federal agency managers who, while they may have disagreed with me on some individual issues, also understood that the system was broken if not outright rigged, and they were quietly doing what they could to move the needle. And then there were the rank-and-file employees who knew just how awful things were within the walls of government and were furious about it. They planned to speak out after they retired. One person not only intended to tell everything they knew but ran for public office.  

Those things did not happen. It may be that one gets busy in retirement or, understandably, enjoys taking it easy after working for years. It may also be that these people realized that speaking up could jeopardize their pensions, healthcare, and futures. It isn't easy to start life over from the ground up at 65. So while some people may happily cooperate by following the approved policies and stating the approved messages, there is likely a host of government employees who feel hamstrung in their positions and know that they are powerless against such a massive, well-oiled, and powerful machine.   

Of course, there are plenty of people in the private sector who have had to start life over again at an inconvenient time because of the government; I knew many of them in the oil and gas sector who lost their jobs and homes because of the Obama-era energy policies. The list of people whose lives the government upended is quite long. Until the government stops being the "product" and becomes a service, that list will only get longer.