Krumm Calls for Transparency
State senate candidate Bob Krumm has an outstanding and enormously important post today regarding the need for transparency in government. Krumm writes:
We also both recognize that under the current legislative leadership, we don’t get that open, fair debate that all should expect under our form of government. We get wedge issues instead of discussion, rhetoric instead of compromise, and confusion instead of clarity. No one is served well by such a system. No one, except for those who run the system. They apparently are serving themselves quite well.
For anyone who cares more for public policy than political gamesmanship (that is to say, for almost all ordinary citizens who pay attention), Krumm is absolutely and indisputably correct. Legislators and political consultants who talk about wedge issues or who feel the need to sneak backdoor deals into law not only talk and behave unethically, but they show disdain for voters who truly care about this or that issue. Serious policy issues in any area are not wedges, they are causes for which people care. That politicians in Washington are now discussing the possibility of making ethics a wedge issue in the fall elections sickens the soul of anyone who cares about ethics.
Elections involving people such as Bob Krumm will test whether enough people are paying attention to choose transparency over cynical manipulation.
Even if Krumm were on the opposite side of the fence, I would make an argument that we need people like him in government.
We also both recognize that under the current legislative leadership, we don’t get that open, fair debate that all should expect under our form of government. We get wedge issues instead of discussion, rhetoric instead of compromise, and confusion instead of clarity. No one is served well by such a system. No one, except for those who run the system. They apparently are serving themselves quite well.
For anyone who cares more for public policy than political gamesmanship (that is to say, for almost all ordinary citizens who pay attention), Krumm is absolutely and indisputably correct. Legislators and political consultants who talk about wedge issues or who feel the need to sneak backdoor deals into law not only talk and behave unethically, but they show disdain for voters who truly care about this or that issue. Serious policy issues in any area are not wedges, they are causes for which people care. That politicians in Washington are now discussing the possibility of making ethics a wedge issue in the fall elections sickens the soul of anyone who cares about ethics.
Elections involving people such as Bob Krumm will test whether enough people are paying attention to choose transparency over cynical manipulation.
Even if Krumm were on the opposite side of the fence, I would make an argument that we need people like him in government.
posted by MCO at 8:33 AM
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