The left lost power through a combination of entitlement, inadequate, milquetoast policies, and a complete lack of accountability. Now the right are in the process of losing power because their governance has demonstrated a complete lack of commitment to basic fairness. Government is a three-legged stool. It needs accountability and efficiency, but it also needs to adhere to principles of basic fairness.
The administration violated fairness through illegal firings of federal workers. For example, the Trump administration fired approximately 1,300 State Department employees via email as part of Marco Rubio's radical restructuring that eliminates bureaus focused on promoting human rights and democracy abroad: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/state-department-mass-firings-supreme-court-b2787357.html . This approach mirrors the policies outlined in Project 2025, which states that it is the task of a conservative President to fire federal employees and make war on white collar workers.
The State Department's 'Friday morning massacre' was on top of the 24,000 new hires in February the government fired during the St. Valentines Day Massacre. Documented workers with "above fully successful" and "outstanding" performance reviews were f*cking fired for alleged poor performance:
I honestly thought this move would rewrite everything for me. I’d been trying for years to escape my hometown in Indiana and this new federal gig I had lined up in DC finally felt like the break I’d been waiting for. I had visited the city for a week and I found a couple of coffee spots I now adore, met some genuinely great people, and I just really saw myself living here. When the layoffs finally slammed down it was over before it ever began. I packed my things and headed back, no position waiting for me at home. I feel like I’m living someone ’s life. Still a part of me keeps holding on hoping for more.
Federal employees have civil service protections specifically designed to prevent political purges. Courts have ruled these firings illegal. The administration sent identical performance-based termination letters to workers who hadn't been there long enough for performance evaluations. When courts ordered them to explain their criteria and justify specific terminations, they refused. If there's government bloat, there's a legal process to address it: identify specific positions that aren't needed, follow RIF procedures, provide proper notice, allow appeals. The administration didn't do any of that. They did mass political purges with fabricated justifications that courts have ruled illegal: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.444883/gov.uscourts.cand.444883.261.0.pdf .
Last week democrats swept Virginia's three statewide races and republicans have only themselves to blame. You don't get to illegally fire 22,100 federal workers in a state with one of the highest concentrations of federal employment and expect no electoral consequences. You don't get to deny legally-guaranteed back pay to 620,000+ furloughed workers nationwide and think their families will just forget about it by election day. You don't get to throw a great gatsby party while millions of workers are going without pay and expect to get away with it electorally: Trump attends another extravagant party at Mar-a-Lago as thousands hit food banks amid shutdown .
Republicans' contempt for fairness extends beyond federal firings to immigration enforcement. You have masked guys in military-style garb throwing unarmed tamale ladies into vans. According to AP data, 70% of these detainees have no criminal convictions and only 6.9% were convicted of violent crimes: https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-trump-immigration-crime-ice-criminal-dangerous-violent-99557d9d68642004193a9f4b7668162e .There was a report just recently where they raided a child's birthday party and put the children in handcuffs. When Americans see stories about citizens kidnapped, veterans pepper sprayed, families unable to locate loved ones – it explains why most independents disapprove of Trump's immigration approach. When the government ignores federal court orders and detains legal residents without charges, we're talking about "rules for thee and not for me", not immigration policy.
MAGA's response pattern has been to find ways to say victims "deserve it." They refuse to acknowledge any problems with ICE's tactics and think all federal workers deserve to be fired. This shows they have abandoned principled governance and the social contract. When your political tribe can do no wrong and targets always deserve whatever happens, you've abandoned the idea that government power should be fair and constrained by law.
The right is going to have to learn that fairness matters if they want to stay in power. Legal protections matter. Due process matters. Courts ruling firings illegal means something.
TL;DR: Republicans are losing power because they violated basic fairness in federal employment and immigration enforcement and embraced cruelty and illegality. Voters will reward the party that delivers both accountability and fairness, not the party that assumes loyalty through tribal identity alone.
Posted by Agitated_Pudding7259
4 Comments
I want to make the quip about egg prices over the social contract, but the number of people online who flipped on a dime to “I’ll pay more *patriotically* ” after making it a huge election issue tell me it’s because the MAGA movement fundamentally wants to tear up the social contract. They want something much more sinister than simple Autocracy.
I’ve maintained for a long time that Republicans would be way more popular if Trump wasn’t Trump.
But massive in your in face corruption, playing favorites, tariffs, lying and cruelty just make people mad.
Like just imagine a world where Trump became president in term one, played golf all day, passed a tax cut and appointed justices.
Republicans would still have gotten all their policy goals AND he would’ve gone down as a good president that resided over a strong economy.
I’d argue same in 2.0.
But he’s physically incapable of taking a layup when handed to him. And too many Republicans are true believers in their causes.
The Right’s promise in early 21st century is the offer of no-nonsense, common sense future but their issue is they are fighting windmills. In other words, to appear like the proponents of common sense politics, the Right chose to paint liberals and leftists as crazy radicals, however, the Right itself started to believe their own lies and thus, this falsehood makes them feel justified in pursuing more extremist policies.
Here’s the problem for the Right: The extremism they got into won’t yield the fruits they desperately need to succeed and become more popular.
People are angry at the status quo. The system (whatever that is) is failing them. So here comes the savior aka Trump because allegedly, he’s the only one understanding Average Joe and he says things how they are.
But there is an important difference to be observed. While Average Joes wish the systematic changes to improve their lives, Trump is a dark triad existence that has no interest in helping any Average Joe and destroying the status quo which made people so miserable. In fact, he’s the main defender of this status quo while trying to act like the real status quo is the collection of strawmen aimed to discredit liberalism.
The question is whether Average Joes are capable of seeing through the illusion of the Right. With every month and every year that Trump doesn’t deliver his promises, the chance of this increases.
One more thing to wonder: Seeing traditional parties in some countries, for example UK, to become very unpopular, one could ask GOP if the party will follow similar path as the Tories.
The Republican voter base is literally just a bunch of people who are pissed that they’re not on top in a fair system, so it makes sense