Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Transparency in Government

I've been thinking about politics a lot lately. The turmoil in the Middle East, the uprising in Wisconsin, and the growing sense of unrest politically has me thinking there has to be a better way.

I can't help but come back to the idea that the one thing that is fundamentally broken about our government is a lack of accountability. A government is funded by the citizenry of the country, so why is it acceptable for a government to be anything less then totally open about it's activities?

It's not a perfect analogy but take Wikileaks, the fact that such an organization even needs to exist says quite plainly that something is wrong. Governments should not have secrets from their people. Governments exist at the whim of their citizenry. So why has our government forgotten this fact?

Why has the U.S. government been allowed to spend wantonly, to live outside of it's means, for years?
Why has the citizenry allowed the government to enter into two amoral wars, with no declaration of war from Congress?
Why do the citizens of the United States allow their government to conduct business behind closed doors?
Why do the citizens of the United States allow corporations to get away with paying no taxes?
Why do the citizens of the United States allow the government to be run by special interest groups, by lobbyists, by big business?

Governments, and democracies especially exist because those that are governed wish the government to exist. I can't help but wonder if our founding fathers, when they framed our Constitution could they have ever imagined the corruption, the bloat, the abuses of power that now sully the halls of the capital?

I think they couldn't, for if they had I doubt they would have ever put quill to paper.