Amid the the fourth week of Donald Trump’s presidency and Elon Musk’s unprecedented blitz against the federal government, dread abounds for the country’s federal civil service — the 2.3 million career government employees who handle everything from managing national parks and taxes to overseeing public health and homelessness aid.

Some 75,000 federal employees, or 3 percent of the workforce, accepted the murky offer for “deferred resignation.” Since roughly 7 percent of federal workers voluntarily resign every year, there’s no indication yet that these voluntary departures will exceed typical levels. On Thursday night, the Trump administration directed agency heads to fire thousands of federal workers, including most probationary staff, a move that could affect up to 200,000 employees.

Musk and his allies have made clear they have no plans to stop their broader crusade to shrink the federal government, automate more of its tasks, and potentially cut spending by dismantling agencies one by one.

The aggressive campaign against the civil service parallels a long history of attacks against another type of public sector worker far more familiar to most Americans: teachers.

The current portrayal of civil servants as “deep state” bureaucrats pushing far-left ideology draws from the same playbook conservatives have long deployed against the 5.4 million Americans who teach in K-12 public schools. Examining these movements together reveals striking similarities in both rhetoric and strategy — and offers clues to the longer-term dangers ahead.

While the most immediate risks from the civil service attacks include a collapse of critical services, economic fallout, and a security vacuum, the consequences could reverberate far beyond this particular purge. Though civil servants have weathered previous onslaughts, the assault from the Department of Government Efficiency stands alone in both its scale and ambition. The warning signs are already visible in another public sector — just as teaching has become an increasingly embattled profession, the prospect of joining the federal workforce may become so diminished and insecure after the DOGE ambush that we face a more lasting degradation of policy implementation, accountability, and enforcement. A nation that devalues its public servants ultimately devalues its own future.

Attacks on “efficiency” and a “bloated public sector” didn’t start with DOGE

When conservatives talk about shrinking........

© Vox