I am very proud of my daughter Leena (her name, school and workplace information have been changed to protect her privacy). She is very smart and has all three proverbial graces of Greek Mythology. She attended an Ivy League school for undergraduate education, went to Harvard medical school, married an Indian classmate and got a job at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Washington DC; a federal job implied life-long job security. She has two wonderful children and lives in a nice house in the upscale town of Silver Springs, Maryland. I often joke that she could not help it because she got her DNA from me. However, I knew that my joke lacked complete validity.
Unlike me, Leena has a very compassionate side from her teenage years. Instead of going into traditional STEM subjects, she wanted to do something good for mankind. It was this mindset that propelled her towards a medical profession. I wanted her to study physics like me. Frankly, I wondered if the long path of becoming a doctor and the stress associated with hard work at all hours of night and day were really worth it. She was determined. Even as a student, she participated in activities like organizing AIDS walks and attending “alternate spring breaks” which involved working with handicapped communities in some way instead of frolicking on Florida beaches and drinking alcohol. Happily, my concerns turned out to be unfounded.
The fact that her husband is also a doctor certainly helped in easing out stress and maintaining a peaceful domestic life. Her job at NIH is both prestigious and secure. My relationship with Leena took a turn for the worse in 2016 with the election of Donald Trump. I have no hesitation or embarrassment in declaring that I am a staunch supporter of Trump. Leena passionately hated Trump and was devastated by Hillary Clinton’s loss in the election.
We had a number of vigorous and often loud debates on the merits of the two leaders. The debates never seemed to have an end as both of us stood firm. While Leena believed that we should always help the less fortunate, be it the illegal immigrants or poor people of colour, I believe that God has given each one of us the ability to take care of ourselves and the only challenge is to get the right opportunities.
I am not an advocate of relying on charity and government handouts. It is like teaching someone how to fish versus feeding him fish every day. I believed that Trump could offer just that; Hillary seemed to favour “pay for play” schemes. Eventually, Leena and I came to a truce: we agreed not to discuss politics in our conversations. The Corona pandemic gave Leena some spotlight within NIH and she felt happy in her job. To make it even better, the government allowed the NIH employees to work from home.
This gave Leena more time to spend with her kids. This included taking the kids to school every morning and picking them after school. One advantage of “working from home” is that the employee can almost be anywhere as long as he/she is close to a cell phone. Leena could carry out an important business meeting while driving her kids to school. Surprisingly, the Biden government allowed most Federal employees to continue working from home long after the pandemic was over. That plan of apolitical family interactions worked out well. Things improved considerably when Trump lost the election in 2020 and faced numerous lawsuits, not to mention the 6 January 2021 riot at the Capitol building, and I did not offer any defense. I even resisted the temptation of mocking Joe Biden for his various failed policies, especially allowing millions of illegal immigrants into the country across the southern border.
No one, except for MAGA enthusiasts like me, expected Trump to come back from all the adversities, not to mention assassination attempts, and win the 2024 election. In addition, his popularity dragged the house and the senate to the Republican side of the aisle. What made me especially happy was the observation that Trump seemed more mature and focused during the present term and the entire GOP was in sync with him as evidenced by votes to confirm Trump’s nominees: in almost all cases, the Republican senators were united behind Trump. Moreover, each cabinet member hit the ground running with policies consistent with Trump’s vision.
One new aspect of Trump’s cabinet was his creation of the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE). Surprisingly, Trump put the tech billionaire, Elon Musk, touted as the richest man on earth in charge of DOGE, even though he never held any elected position. Musk did not waste any time and embarked on a widescale assault on every government activity with the goal of reducing waste, abuse and corruption. He also announced an end to working from home policy and ordered everyone to go back to their offices for in-person engagement. This hit Leena on multiple fronts. The immediate issue was how to take and pick up the kids from school. Then there is the bigger concern about what the Trump/Musk team might do with NIH.
Considering Leena’s credentials and achievements, I am not worried about her getting fired, but a relocation, which would severely disrupt her domestic life, is certainly a possibility. Leena’s “Trump Derangement Syndrome” reached a new high. It seems that she not only hates Trump, but even developed an intense dislike for my opinions because I voted for Trump. In her view, people like me could have stopped him from becoming president again. I will not be unhappy no matter what happens. Coming from the private sector, I have always been envious of government employees enjoying lifelong job security. I heard stories of employees coming to work every day but doing nothing except playing solitaire or watching porn on their computer screen; knowing fully well that they could not be fired.
In my professional life, a feeling of insecurity was part of the job. If Leena is no longer working at NIH for one reason or another, that might be a blessing in disguise. I always felt that she has been wasting her talents and experience base in a government job and can do significantly better in terms of both job satisfaction and financial compensation. I have told her as much: “what is the point of working in a Trump-hating echochamber where you guys just gather every day and badmouth Trump and his policies?
The negativity spills over in your other activities”. She responded by saying that many qualified employees from NIH have already resigned and probably filled all the vacancies for good jobs. I now know first-hand some of the anxieties and frustrations that Musk’s DOGE activities are creating. However, I believe these are only temporary sacrifices.
(The writer, a physicist who worked in industry and academia, is a Bengali settled in America.)