Voices: Dr Fauci is retiring. Be thankful Trump never actually did drain the swamp

It’s hard to believe that this time three years ago, few us of knew who Dr Anthony Fauci was. Though he has led the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases for nearly 40 years, the good doctor had largely avoided the spotlight. Then, Covid happened, and this humble civil servant was thrust to international prominence.

The treatment of Dr Fauci by anti-vaccine activists, Trump supporters, and the former president himself was ghastly. It is perhaps understandable, then, that he would choose now to retire – making Joe Biden, perhaps the most genuinely decent man to occupy the Oval Office since Jimmy Carter, a fitting final president for the man who has served since the days of Ronald Reagan. After all, with the very real possibility that Trump or a Trumpian pretender could win the presidency in 2024, why would he subject himself to that kind of humiliation and hostile work environment again?

The retirement of Dr Fauci and his vilification by bad-faith actors and political opportunists – chiefly on the Trumpian right – marks the end of one of the most celebrated scientific careers of the past half-century. It is also a reminder of the remarkable and world-changing work that our civil servants do, frequently without recognition or reward. These nameless, faceless women and men toil behind the scenes, sending emergency aid to natural disasters, expert diplomats abroad, and even robots to Mars.

They represent the best of what our nation can do and make a robust case for government. Far from a swamp needing draining, our civil servants are a force for good in the lives of the American people.

Perhaps no one exemplifies this better than Fauci himself. He was one of the earliest researchers of HIV/AIDS, and though LGBTQ activists in the 1980s argued he (and the entire federal government) did not respond quickly or urgently enough to that pandemic, he nonetheless was instrumental in ushering in many of the developments in treatment and prevention over the past four decades. On top of this, Fauci’s work has spanned everything from cancer drug therapies and rheumatology to preventing Ebola from becoming an epidemic in America.

Ronald Reagan once said that the nine most terrifying words in the English language are “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” That is an ethos that the Republican Party has run with ever since. The rhetoric worked, too; a poll earlier this year found that the American people’s trust in government is near an all-time low.

Despite this, Trump never did “drain the swamp” – probably because he quickly realized he couldn’t. If he did, our government would cease to function. That may be a good thing in the mind of someone like Steve Bannon, who has openly declared war on the “administrative state.” But it would be a disaster for the American people.

In the era of mass surveillance and skepticism about the role of government in everything from policing to healthcare, it is perhaps understandable that a promise to “drain the swamp” resonates with the American people. After all, it is not as though the administrative state always works in the favor of the people. Lobbyists and corporate executives too often are appointed to oversight boards – think of Scott Pruitt, Trump’s EPA director who had concerning ties to the oil industry – essentially to regulate themselves. Meanwhile, agencies like FEMA frequently are criticized for not doing enough; most recently, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, argued the agency was failing in its response to the flooding in the eastern part of his state.

I would agree with Governor Beshear, but neither of us are calling for FEMA to thus be abolished as Trump and Bannon might. Instead, we want it to be better. That is because without the administrative state, there would be no FEMA to respond during natural disasters; no national parks to preserve our history and natural wonders; no Veterans Administration to take care of our servicemembers. And while none of these agencies, nor the folks who work for them, are beyond rebuke – each has issues which need addressing, often arising from chronic underfunding – the American people would be worse off without them.

There was a time when Americans understood government could have a positive effect on their lives. It was the government that built the dams of the Tennessee Valley Authority, bringing electricity to millions of people throughout Appalachia for the first time. It was the government that built the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System. It was the government that put a man on the moon.

These are not the accomplishments of great men in history books, at least not solely. They are the accomplishments of everyday Americans who understood that public service is honorable and that government, when working for the people and not special interests, can transform lives for the better. They were women and men like you and me who wanted to give back not to their government, but to their fellow Americans, for whom the government exists of, by, and for.

In some ways, the American people already understand that service to your nation is the highest calling a person can have. We revere our military women and men and hold up as heroes the soldiers, sailors, and marines who serve our nation. We should, I contend, demand the same level of devotion, and have the same level of respect, for our civil servants, without whom this country would cease to operate.

Dr Fauci understands this. While he is leaving the National Institutes for Health, he is not “retiring in the traditional sense,” he says. Instead, ever the public servant, he plans to spend time “traveling, writing and encouraging young people to enter government service.”

I hope he succeeds. The United States government needs more people like Anthony Fauci. We need a robust civil service dedicated to improving the lives of the American people. We are losing a true patriot and a consummate public servant.

So, thank you, Dr Fauci, for all you have done for the American people. May your legacy be an inspiration to generations to come who will look to your example, ignore the naysayers, and devote their lives to public service. For as you have shown, there truly is no nobler a calling.