Sunday, March 28, 2010

Obama and Transparency-

The most obvious fault of the Obama administration is the failure to follow through on the campaign promise of trasparency. The failure has been obvious enough that it mars his greatest accomplishment, pushing through universal health care reform. The failure to keep the promise of transparency has  been obvious enough that a song has been written and produced mocking that particular failure.

I voted for Obama. I did not vote for him because of his promises, and certainly not for his promise of transparency. The philosophy of transparency is impossible in the environment of politics. I voted for him with the hope that someone new at the rudder would change the course of our nation.

I wanted to see the end of two expensive and stupid wars. Afghanistan was necessary in response to a direct attack by an enemy residing there. However, once the enemy had been driven into another sovereign state our mission should have ended. I have blogged elsewhere as to how the mission should have been completed. We should no longer be in Afghanistan.

As to Iraq, I don't think that the war was ever a good idea. Oh, a surgical strike to remove Hussein and destabilize that particular government might have been a good idea, but where do you stop with that? North Korea and a lot of Africa could stand the same treatment. It would probably never end.

Of course, the Bush administration never promised transparency. I never expected it from them. I did not expect it from the Bush-clone the Republicans ran for the 2008 election. Nor did I expect it from Obama, though he made the promise.

Transparency in government and flying pigs have a lot in common. Both are most likely impossible, and if they were possible they still don't seem like a good idea.

As to the universal health care thing, I don't expect much from that flying pig, either. It is an admirable ideal, and it is clear that the current system is driving toward catastrophy, but the government has a poor track record for managing much of anything.

Humans have a great capacity to muddle through just about anything. Though it will be inefficient and expensive and probably miss the target, we will muddle through universal health care just like we have everything else that has come before. We survived other administrations, and we will survive this one.

As to Obama's transparency, he may not truly be so. However, I suspect we won't be able to see him in the White House come the next Presidential election.

Watch out for flying pigs.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just can't get enough of American politics so it's a real treat to have found your excellent and insightful blog.
with love Caroline x

pboyfloyd said...

"The most obvious fault of the Obama administration is the failure to follow through on the campaign promise of trasparency...The philosophy of transparency is impossible in the environment of politics."

So, the most obvious failure of Obama is to not achieve the impossible, we hear.

I'm not even going to touch you're notion that 'government'(armed forces, infrastructure, social safety net, law enforcement etc. etc.) is 'bad'. (there, I did it while saying that I wasn't going to.)

Michael Lockridge said...

Perhaps you are right, Pboy. The real error was to put forth the promise of transparency, which proves impossible in government.

I DO tend to see government as a necessary evil, and therefore 'bad.' I love individual liberty, and government necessarily regulates and intrudes on liberty. That is bad. Unfortunately, humans unregulated are probably worse.

All things considered, the current situation in which I live is not particularly bad. Neither is it particularly good. It is a place in which I can live, and find some degree of contentment.