There’s a quiet revolution taking place in the federal whistleblower community. Once-obedient and silent whistleblowers are starting to take note that the professional advocates who speak for us are no longer sensitive to our needs. There’s a schism between two major groups, the Government Accountability Project and the National Whistleblowers Center, over the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (or at least there used to be. NWC has not come out against the WPEA recently).

More of us are beginning to see NWC’s criticisms as valid after we engage in independent research, despite GAP’s attempts to poison the well. Tom Devine, Legal Director of GAP, once told me to eschew community organizing tactics in favor of Machiavellianism. The results of his favored approach are not difficult to see: the public is ignorant of the extent of retaliation and lawlessness in the federal government because the professional advocates eschew empowering ordinary citizens in favor of backroom deals and clientelism.

There’s a paternalistic streak running among these professionals, who believe that whistleblowers must be kept silent and obedient, lest the public look at any intra-group conflicts with horror and dismiss us all as cranks. I, for one, have more faith in people’s abilities to judge a situation on the merits than obsess over its optics. A quick look at GAP’s marketing propaganda and reports portrays whistleblowers as two-dimensional mannequins without free will or agency. That’s not without purpose.

The constant obsession over “tactics” being counterproductive begs the question – counterproductive to whom? And to whose agenda? Because GAP’s current tactics certainly don’t benefit me.

Perhaps the straw that broke the camel’s back was when Devine told me that our role was to give Congress a “pep talk,” not criticism, lest their staffers turn their backs on us and our attempt to pass legislation to protect federal employees and taxpayers. Also, that lobbyists and these staffers are the “lower common denominator” to whom we should simply defer.

Forgive me, Mr. Devine, but the lower common denominator are the whistleblowers your organization purports to empower.

The sooner you realize this, the better our chances at passing real reforms.