The Rise Up Legal Defense Network Is About Obstruction, Not Justice | The American Spectator

You don’t need a business degree to understand accountability. Most people figure that out by simply showing up to work because, in the private sector, not going to your job leads quickly to not having one. Studying business taught me how expensive dysfunction can get and how quickly systems fall apart when no one’s held responsible. Moreover, it taught me that if a process is broken, it gets fixed. That’s the only answer that matters to the shareholder and the company brass.

But in Washington, it’s a different story.

Within the Beltway, failure is not only tolerated but insulated, and bureaucratic bloat is protected. That bloat is an ever-evolving get-rich-quick scheme by individuals and organizations peddling their own agendas. Now, thanks to a new coalition of progressive legal activists and union allies, even the idea of holding federal employees accountable is now being spun as a threat to democracy — and political opportunists are ready to pounce. (RELATED: As Trump’s Federal Layoffs Continue, Critics Miss This Crucial Point.)

The Rise Up Federal Workers Legal Defense Network sounds like a parody, and it should be relegated to one. Sadly, though, it’s real and it’s giving pro bono (read: free) legal support to fired federal workers they falsely claim have been “fired illegally.”

This organization, fittingly located on Black Lives Matter Plaza in D.C., is partnered with federal employee unions and the AFL-CIO, among others, as well as politically charged organizations like the People’s Party Project. According to its website, the People’s Party Project is “a movement of law students and attorneys organizing for a democratized legal system which empowers working people and opposes subordination in any form.” They also say they “believe that public policy decisions should reflect democratic values, rooted in a combination of majoritarian rule and a justice-oriented ideology.” (RELATED: A ‘War’ on the Civil Service or Controlling a Powerful Union Political Machine?)

On its surface, this coalition says it exists to defend civil servants from unlawful firings amid ongoing workforce reductions. In reality, it’s a coordinated effort to resist the federal government reform demanded by the American people at the ballot box in November. This organization exists solely to shield underperforming bureaucrats from accountability and politicize a constitutionally protected — and logically needed — power of the presidency. The organization seeks to give more protections to already professionally bubble-wrapped individuals and only serves to entrench workers who believe themselves superior to the American people in the federal government.

This isn’t just stupid — it’s Level Seven Turbo Stupid.

In addition to its pro bono legal advice, Rise Up offers federal workers free “know your rights” training in response to what it calls an “onslaught” of workforce changes by a duly elected president. The organization is not hiding the fact that its aim is to resist the American people’s democratic demand to fix and streamline the federal government. In its words, it is preparing to help workers “fully vindicate their rights” — which, in practice, means gearing up to challenge any reform before it even takes place. (RELATED: Serving the Servants: Ending ‘Stakeholder’ Government)

Let’s make one thing abundantly clear: this is not about workplace rights or unjust firings; this is about resistance by any means necessary, even if you look foolish while doing it. The Rise Up network isn’t responding to violations; it’s preemptively challenging the very idea of civil service reform. These are the same organizations that have consistently fought efforts to increase transparency, improve performance standards, and bring the federal workforce in line with the priorities of the American people. And when reform gets blocked, real people suffer.

The Department of Health and Human Services is a prime example of a federal agency needing serious scrutiny. For decades, its budget has grown in the name of public health. HHS spending has skyrocketed by more than 547 percent, far outpacing the growth in overall federal spending. And for what? A sicker, sadder, more vulnerable population. Recent alarming statistics underscore this failure: more than one in five children over the age of six is now obese, a staggering 270 percent increase since the 1970s. The rate of prediabetes in teens has more than doubled in just 20 years, now affecting over one in four. Childhood cancer rates have risen nearly 40 percent since 1975.

It’s hard to know what, if anything, HHS could do differently to change those outcomes. But a change is needed. Flooding the agency with cash hasn’t made it, or the American people, healthier.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) revelations have shown similar wanton spending at the Department of Education, the Department of State, and almost everywhere across the federal government. Oftentimes, this irresponsible spending is done at the request of unelected bureaucrats who believe their big spending idea will net them an award or promotion.

The Rise Up Legal Defense Network only exists to protect these individuals and ensure that abuses of taxpayer dollars can continue. This is just backwards activism in favor of the entrenched Washington machine over the American people, plain and simple. It is an Ouroboros of grifting, willing to keep eating its own tail so long as it can keep pushing its two-minute hate against the Trump administration and anyone who disagrees with its muddled prescriptions.

The American people didn’t vote for a permanent class of bureaucrats. They voted to challenge that culture and reform the federal government to serve We, the People, not Them, the Bureaucrats.

The Rise Up Legal Defense Network isn’t standing up for justice. It’s standing up for special interests and the federal bureaucracy.

Houston Keene joined Democracy Restored after a career working in Congress and as a nationally syndicated journalist covering politics, including the executive branch and government ethics. Houston was born in Austin, Texas, and is a proud father, husband, and Baylor Bear.

READ MORE:

As Trump’s Federal Layoffs Continue, Critics Miss This Crucial Point.

A ‘War’ on the Civil Service or Controlling a Powerful Union Political Machine?

Serving the Servants: Ending ‘Stakeholder’ Government