The Star - News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area

What makes good government? Many of us would probably contend that we have taken a recess from good government. Sometimes we learn more during recess than we do in the classroom. Polls indicate that our confidence in the way our federal government operates has been declining for several decades. Money has become the governing factor enabling a political candidate to get on stage. At that point, it becomes a personality contest with all manner of pundits rating every syllable, move, garment, and hair style while photographers spot every wrinkle. Pollsters track the score. Does this process produce good government? 

A wide range of institutions have been losing our trust during the past five decades. For the federal government, loss of trust probably began with dissatisfaction with the Vietnam War, falsification of reasons for launching military campaigns, secretly recording American’s phone and computer communications, and failure to properly regulate industries, e.g., Boeing’s 737 Max, or Purdue’s OxyContin, or toxic chemical pollution of air and water. Two million Americans gave their lives defending, among other things, our right to elect public officials. Ninety million eligible voters failed to vote in the 2016 election. 

Public trust of non-governmental institutions has also declined. Business organizations have become large and impersonal. Daniel Immerwahr, a history professor at Northwestern University, reports in How to Hide an Empire that for about 15 years laborers from China, Bangladesh, and the Philippines were lured to the island of Saipan where they worked for next to nothing producing a billion dollars worth of clothing per year—at wholesale prices—that was purchased by Gap, Anne Taylor, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Liz Claiborne, Target, Walmart, and J. Crew. The products were labeled “Made in America.” 

We need to be able to trust our government, our businesses, and our fellow citizens. That process starts by eliminating secrecy. The capability to hide activity prevents accountability and generates mistrust.

Some aspects of our U.S. Constitution need to be clarified. In an ordinary criminal legal proceeding, a prosecutor indicts a person for a specific offense, for example, tax evasion. The attorneys and the judge attempt to seat an impartial jury. The constitutional impeachment and trial process is not based on specific offenses. The constitution merely specifies “high crimes and misdemeanors.” There is no requirement to attempt to seat an impartial jury. The existing senate is the jury. It is easy to understand how almost everyone could be dissatisfied with this process. As this is being written, the U.S. Senate is conducting a constitutional trial of a U.S. President. Regardless of the outcome, the verdict will be appealed to the high court of consequence on Nov. 3, 2020 (election day). Democracy is ours to use or lose.

We would be well-served if political parties formed a set of policies designed to address problems and selected candidates who would implement those policies if elected. Elected officials (public servants) are confronted with just about every imaginable problem. No human being can acquire an expert knowledge of more than a very few subjects. Office holders need to rely on expert advice, and that means that they must possess an ability to distinguish good advice from bad advice. American democracy is still evolving. We can do our share by choosing our public servants carefully.

Jack Stevenson is retired now, but served two years in Vietnam as an infantry officer, retired from military service, and worked three years as a U.S. Civil Service employee. He also worked in Egypt as an employee of the former Radio Corporation of America (RCA). Currently, he reads history, follow issues important to Americans, and writes commentary for community newspapers.