‘History will remember what was lost here’
FOGGY BOTTOM—A handful of disgruntled former bureaucrats gathered outside the U.S. State Department headquarters on Friday to rally public support for “recently fired state department employees”—a cause no one cares about. They attempted to make the case that Americans should be angry at the Trump administration because their bureaucratic expertise in combating racism and climate change was vital to the U.S. national security. Unfortunately, they failed. If anything, they proved that Donald Trump was right to send them packing.
Nearly half a dozen former government officials pleaded their case to the crowd, if you can call it that. Steven Ramsey, a former USAID contractor and Fulbright alumnus who describes himself as “a passionate sustainability and climate education professional,” read a modified version of “First They Came,” the Nazi-era poem by Martin Niemöller, which Ramsay described as “a poem adapted from the famous—it came from the poem from 1930s Germany—adapted for the context we’re in right now.” Several individuals eventually applauded after he finished reading.
First, they came for the immigrants, and I did not speak out because I was not an immigrant.
Then they came for the journalists, and I did not speak out because I was not a journalist.
Then they came for the universities, and I did not speak out because I did not work at a university.
Then they came for the law firms, and I did not speak out because I was not a lawyer.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.
Thank you very much.
A Washington Free Beacon reporter was one of the only people who bothered to attend, but the bureaucrats refused to answer his questions. They proceeded to disparage the Free Beacon in what can only be described as a dangerous assault on the pillars of American democracy, morally equivalent to physical violence if not literally genocide. “I know your outlet, and I’m trying to combat disinformation,” said Ramsay.
“I read your headlines, they aren’t fair,” huffed an unidentified woman in a weird hat and fanny pack. She held a multicolored sign quoting the portion of the government oath about defending the Constitution against “foreign and domestic” enemies. Michael Duffin, the former white supremacy expert who organized the event, refused to answer a question about what the Founding Fathers would think about his defiant act of courage in the face of creeping fascism.
Duffin, who holds three graduate degrees and is a regular speaker at the “Eradicate Hate” global summit, has grown increasingly agitated since losing his job earlier this month, when the State Department fired more than 1,300 employees as part of a broad reorganization effort. After joining the department during the Obama administration in 2013, Duffin helped develop “some of the first programs to counter white supremacy and other forms of violent extremism.”
The mass layoffs prompted an outpouring of performative angst from State Department employees, who posted a bunch of obnoxious signs around the office urging their colleagues to “resist fascism” and “remember what was lost here.”
Duffin has been particularly outspoken on social media. After receiving his notice of termination, he posted photos of the various awards for “meritorious honor” he received during the first Trump administration on Bluesky, the social media app for deranged liberals who hate America. He did so in an effort to prove that he has “provided non-partisan expertise.” One of the awards was for “promoting efforts to counter violent extremism to non-traditional stakeholders,” while another was for developing “rehabilitation and reintegration efforts for repatriated foreign terrorist fighters.” If that’s not an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars, we don’t know what is.
The ex-bureaucrat even posted a screenshot of his farewell email to colleagues, titled “So Long, Farewell,” in which Duffin quotes from the Von Trapp family’s famous ditty from The Sound of Music, a reference he felt was “strangely appropriate” due the fact the he lost his job “for countering neo-Nazis.”
In a LinkedIn post announcing the rally, Duffin said he was looking for U.S. ambassadors and other “senior officials” who’d be willing to take part. Apparently nobody was interested. He has posted prolifically over the past several days, sharing photos of his diplomatic passport, videos of him speaking into a bullhorn at a previous rally surrounded by makeshift gravestones for “democracy” and “human rights,” as well as a letter allegedly written by a 10-year-old boy urging his U.S. senator to oppose further cuts because “USAID saves lives.” In another post, he thanked the terrorist-adjacent Al Jazeera network for “amplifying” his message of “resilience.”
In his spare time, Duffin takes an inordinate amount of selfies and posts them on his social media accounts. He is probably going to run for Congress because of tireless courage and selfless commitment to the fundamental American values of growing the federal bureaucracy and rehabilitating terrorists.
God bless these heroes.
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