If public employees could talk

     Public employees sign confidentiality agreements.
     Public employees may only access information needed in the performance of their duties.
     Public employees have access to a great deal of information. In some cases, a public employee dealing with a citizen or legal alien asking for a public service can see:
      Name changes, SSN, birthdate and birthplace, citizenship status, work authorization
     The wage record, in some cases going back as much as 50 years
     Employment and unemployment history
     TANF history
     SSI history
     Local welfare history
     Income and assets, including earnings, subsidies, savings, investments, and property
     Tax history
     Mental health history
     Disability status
     Criminal record
     Educational data
     Student aid including grants and loans
     Family status, including marriages, divorces, births, deaths
     Household composition
     Child support information
     Military history and/or VA status
     Medicaid, Medicare, and.or SCHIP records
     SNAP and other nutrition program history
     Section 8 or other housing program
     Credit history, including bankruptcies
     etc. etc. etc.
     Since public employees are under confidentiality agreements, they can't announce that the legislator, alderman, counter demonstrator, or letter-writer is developmentally delayed or mentally ill, that they have no visible means of support, that they have been fired from every position they've ever held, that they are not in fact a veteran as they claim, that they have bad debts, that they have never paid a penny of Federal income tax, that they are on SNAP, or drawing unemployment, or not paying their child support. Public employees have to be discreet.
     Public employees have to take it when they are maligned.
     But if public employees could talk, a large number of  very vocal rascals might quietly resign from public life and slink away.