If you can look past the politicians and the pundits, past the Georgetown set, past the military and its myriad contractors, you’ll eventually get to my corner of Washington, D.C. It’s a place populated disproportionately, I’ve found, with smart, nerdy people who work in government because they want to do good. I’ve always felt lucky to have a circle of friends and neighbors who’ve devoted their careers to work that makes a meaningful difference in people’s lives, instead of following their better-paid peers to Wall Street or Silicon Valley.
This year, all that has changed. The Trump administration and DOGE came in, literal chain saws buzzing, determined to demoralize and displace these government do-gooders. As Russell Vought, the president’s Office of Management and Budget chief, explicitly proclaimed, “We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected.”
His approach appears to be working.
Elon Musk’s shock troops have left many of my admirable neighbors unemployed or completely miserable, just trying to get through their days without moral compromise. One friend, who spent the better part of a decade at U.S.A.I.D. managing programs that deliver food and medicine in places like the Gaza Strip and South Sudan, fell victim to DOGE cuts this year. Another still works at the Environmental Protection Agency, regulating PFAS, the “forever chemicals” that are likely to cause an array of cancers, but her future is, at best, uncertain. Another friend just took a buyout from the Department of Justice’s civil rights division, and yet another is soon to depart the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Recently, at an outdoor neighborhood concert, I ran into a friend who works as an attorney at the I.R.S. I hadn’t seen her in months and I asked her, as many of us Washingtonians do these days, “How are you holding up?”
She laughed bitterly. Her new boss is an Elon Musk lackey from DOGE. She gave me a dismal report, then asked me, just before we parted ways: “Why did I go into public service? Why did I do this to myself?”
Watching my D.C. community unravel over the last few months, I’ve needed an escape. I found one unexpectedly with “The Pitt,” a new show on Max about a fictional emergency room in Pittsburgh. Played by Noah Wyle of “E.R.” fame, Dr. Michael Robinavitch, known as Dr. Robby, and his team work heroically on the front lines of our health care system. Bingeing their stories from my D.C. couch, I realized how desperate I’d become for a story — even a fictional one — that valorized the helpers and health care workers who devote themselves to their communities. Our television habits suggest we love and admire public servants, whether it’s on “Abbott Elementary,” “Parks and Recreation” or the billionth season of “Grey’s Anatomy.” But now these shows’ celebration of good works feels to me like a strange nostalgia for a bygone era.
Our country has always run on the quiet competence of people committed to their work, whether they’re keeping credit card companies from ripping us off or making sure our airplanes land safely. My distress over President Trump’s blind attacks on the so-called bureaucrats isn’t just about my friends’ losing their jobs. It’s about our entire country losing faith in the importance of expertise that’s wielded in service of the greater good.
Last summer, I spent months talking to medical professionals across the country for a project on post-Roe America. I lost count of how many people offhandedly remarked on their unresolved pandemic trauma, a phenomenon that haunts the staff of the emergency room on “The Pitt.” In the early Covid days, we championed our health care workers, clapping and singing and banging on pots, but as the pandemic dragged on, that good will faded into distrust. Many of these doctors, nurses and social workers are simply walking off the job, retiring or finding work in other fields.
I’ve seen a similar dynamic play out in Washington circles. Even if DOGE hasn’t come for them specifically, many public servants are brushing off their résumés, updating their LinkedIn profiles and looking longingly to the private sector. Who can blame them? Even if some of their positions are restored in a future administration, why would anyone return to public service after the chaos and hostility they’ve experienced over the last few months?
Even if only for purely self-interested reasons, we should be celebrating Americans who serve the public. If you find the American health care system maddening now, imagine what it will be like in the next decade, when the country is expected to confront a severe shortage of physicians and nurses. Picture how infuriating the federal bureaucracy will feel when there is no one to help you navigate it. Think about the cures that will remain a mystery because of the Trump administration’s extensive cuts to the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.
Part of what I’ve loved most about my D.C. social circle is that my kids have been surrounded by adults I want them to emulate — the doctors and nurses who care for us in our worst moments, the lawyers who stand up for equal rights and the rule of law, the scientists and public health workers who are trying to slow global warming or prevent the next pandemic. These are the parents who, for now, fill the folding chairs at my kids’ school assemblies and the houses on my block. I am scared of what my community will look like when the dust settles. And I’m afraid for the world that my children will inherit if my friends in D.C. and the real-life Dr. Robbys — and those they might inspire — reconsider their futures and are dissuaded from serving the public good.
Go ahead and enjoy “The Pitt” and shows like it. While you’re watching, think about the kinds of people you want caring for your family, our country and our world in real life — and how we can best retain these role models as they continue to disappear.
Jillian Weinberger is a senior producer for Opinion Audio.
The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: [email protected].
Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, WhatsApp and Threads.
The post Living Among the DOGE Wreckage appeared first on New York Times.
