It’s an interesting exercise to think about the American government as a business – with the President as the CEO and the voters both as customers and as shareholders. The President interviews for a job with his campaign and we give him the job based on our votes, and then we use government programs.
The last administration seemed to carry with it an air of aloofness. As an everyday American that happened to devour news, I found it difficult to get adequate answers from high ranking officials about issues small or large, and policy answers proved even more elusive. Sure, we heard talking points and well-scripted answers that kept a veil of secrecy up between government and the people it served, but that just never seemed to cut it for me.
Maybe I’m being a bit harsh on the Bush administration in terms of transparency in governing (and I understand that some parts of the government should be kept secret), but something tells me that more than a few people share my belief.
This new administration charged into the White House on the backs of small donations (and, really, huge donations from corporations and special interest groups) with the help of the Internet. I don’t know about you, but I was almost sick of receiving emails from Barack Obama during the campaign. And I liked it.
President Obama promised to change the politics of
In the past two weeks, President Obama has been on Leno and 60 Minutes and he held a virtual town hall meeting on CNN where he answered questions from attendees (there live) and the Web. The President is making himself available to the American Public.
I’m stunned.
It’s amazing. I actually feel like President Obama can be reached. Back when I was a kid, if I had some kind of monumental complaint, my mom/teachers/whoever would tell me to write my Congressman, basically letting me know that my complaint was falling on deaf ears, with no solution in sight.
Now, it seems, our President is following in the footsteps of FDR’s famous fireside chats and reaching out to the people, actually hearing our concerns and letting us know what the government is doing to help. The President spent most of his time explaining his budget, his stimulus plan, and his view on the future of the economy (bleak, but, thankfully, fairly realistic), but he had time to crack some jokes as well. Yes, the Office of the President is still difficult to reach, but not impossible.
President Obama started his term facing monstrous obstacles, and while I don’t always agree with all of his policies and decisions, it calms me to know that he is an incredibly smart man that takes his job, and his country, seriously. I hope he continues to reach out to us, the American public, explaining his decisions and listening to our thoughts/fears/concerns/ideas.
He may not take our views into consideration as much as we’d like, and he likely cannot save the jobs we’d like him to save or quickly turn around the economy, but, hey, he’s not Superman. As long as he keeps himself available and attempts to increase the transparency of governance, he can start to cause actual change in
2 comments:
He should stop following FDR's style and start adopting Teddy Roosevelts style. Bust the monopolies and put the modern day Robber-Barons out to pasture.
I had a theory a while back that the monopolies and huge international corporations had only two places they could go.
1) They would collapse under their own bloated weight and the world would again be run by leaner small/medium sized businesses and entrepreneurs.
2) They would become ever more powerful, develop standing armies and eventually take over the world.
I like to think that if left alone, the current recession would naturally let the first happen. Yes, it'd be hard for a lot of people, but it already IS hard and people are losing jobs. Perhaps that's what should have happened, I don't know. What I do know is that Big Business hasn't gotten any smaller, and I don't think I'm very happy about it.
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