Conservatives too often get wrongly pigeonholed as unappreciative of those who are government employees, particularly at the federal level.
That is a shallow misnomer propagated by the Left to portray conservatives as against the idea of government altogether.
Now, we are engaged in a government shutdown, and thousands of employees of the federal government are being inconvenienced and some of the services offered by various agencies are being altered if not temporarily halted.
While it is true that they knew when they signed up for the job that there was the potential of a shutdown, it is also true that no one wants to have his or her job temporarily suspended or income temporarily stopped.
Every American, including conservatives, should be sympathetic to those whose lives are being momentarily affected by the inability of Congress to allocate an adequate amount of funds for border security.
But that is exactly the point. There are sometimes costs that are associated with major changes and national security adjustments that have to be made. Those in the Department of Homeland Security, who serve an administration that the entire nation elected, have deemed that we need a barrier on the southern border to alleviate a national security crisis. That must be the first priority.
As President Trump detailed in his address to the American people on Tuesday night, people all over the country have been victimized by crimes of those who have illegally crossed the border.
Getting a handle on the situation at the border must take precedence over the government reopening if Democrats are unwilling to provide funding.
What I, as a conservative, take issue with is what our government does, not necessarily who’s doing the work (although there are too many examples obnoxious, hyper-partisan activists in government positions who probably shouldn’t be there).
The thankless jobs done by government employees on every level are too numerous to list on this page.
You may join me in feeling that the government is overly bloated in far too many areas. You may join me in lamenting that billions of our tax dollars go to projects that fit the very definition of the word ‘waste’ and are far less practical than a barrier on the southern border.
There are plenty of opportunities to cut back on government and perhaps privatize certain services, but these reformational sentiments are not a reflection of the men and women who go to work each day and perform tasks that many of us are glad not to have to do.
