Our government has been hollowed out. Not by accident. By design. You can see it spelled out clearly in the Republican’s Project 2025.

Across the federal government, thousands of experienced civil servants are being pushed out. USAID, which for decades has delivered humanitarian assistance around the world, has been defunded. America’s credibility abroad has been squandered, and our standing among nations, weakened. At home, institutions like the CDC and NIH are being gutted, even as global health threats rise. FEMA is being stripped down while climate disasters become more frequent and severe. The Social Security Administration, once a steady pillar of support, is being left to erode, its workforce depleted and its services stretched thin. Even the Department of Education is being quietly dismantled.

The goal is clear: frustrate people until they stop believing government can work at all. Because this isn’t about making government better. It’s about breaking it – so it can be privatized.

Here’s the privatization playbook:
– First defund public institutions.
– Second, point to the failures – the ones you created.
– Finally, hand them over to private corporations whose obligation is profit, not public service.

Privatization turns public needs into private markets. Government responsibility becomes corporate opportunity. Profits come first. This isn’t about efficiency. It’s about discrediting public institutions so they can be replaced, serving shareholders rather than serving people. We’ve seen this before. During the Iraq War, private contractors replaced soldiers and made billions, often with less oversight. In the prison system, corporations profit from incarceration and lobby for longer sentences. In public education, charter networks drain resources from neighborhood schools, creating a two-tier system where income determines opportunity.

But here’s the truth: government can work – and it does. Public schools educate most of our children. Social Security has lifted millions of seniors out of poverty. FEMA responds when disaster strikes. NIH and CDC scientists led breakthroughs that have saved lives worldwide. These institutions belong to us. They are accountable to voters, not shareholders.

So when someone says government doesn’t work, ask: Who broke it? Who benefits? And what do we collectively lose when these public instiutions are gone?

That’s the bigger picture. Let’s keep connecting the dots.