Is a transparent government possible?

Transparency, what does that really mean? Well according to Dictionary.com it could mean:
3. free of deceit
4. easily understood or seen through (because of a lack of subtlety); "a transparent explanation"; "a transparent lie"


Well, I find that it would be nearly impossible for anyone, let alone the government, to be “free of deceit.” That would require abstinence from “little white lies” and skewed use of persuasive tools. I don’t think any human is capable of being “free of deceit.” Imagine if we had to be? Has anyone see the movie Liar Liar with Jim Carrey? There are some things that just shouldn’t be said and some that no matter how gently they are said they will be misconstrued by the receiver. In government, it would mean full disclosure and we should certainly not have that; the terrorists would all know our strategies!!


“Easily understood” should be the definition we are looking for. We want this for our government. However, I am not sure that a weekly posting of the weekly Democratic address will do that. I do believe however, that it can and should be a contributor. I think a (small) part of President-elect Barack Obama’s success can be attributed to his astute use of the internet and social networking tools. However, I am wary of his gift for rhetoric. His gift for rhetoric was a benefit to him in the election. It created a tremendous “hype” around him which caused him to be compared to a rock star. It will continue to benefit him as he deals with leaders in the future. It is something though, to be aware and careful of. It means he has the gift to "sway" us; to deceive us should he choose. The question is, will he use this gift to bring us to a more transparent government?


John McCain was a respected war hero. That does not automatically mean he is fit to lead our country. Barack Obama is a gifted speaker. That does not automatically mean he is fit to lead our country. What it could mean, is that he is persuasive and has immense capability to be deceitful. We can only hope that he will be the man to change the way things are presented to our nation. Will he be able to walk that fine line between what we need to know to protect us and what we shouldn’t know to protect us? The Sarbanes-Oxley Act followed the failure of Enron. It opened eyes to the misrepresentations that many businesses were making in their non-standard financial statements. Barack Obama is coming in and riding on that wave. He is coming in at a time where issues of transparencies have already taken center stage; actions have already been put in place. Let’s hope he is the man to carry that over to government. Let’s hope that he is capable of change. We must remember that he presides over a heavily democratic congress; which is exactly what President George W. Bush did.


The use of social networking tools can help us move toward a more transparent government. It is important to note though, that the reason isn’t so much that government will be talking as much as it is that more people will be talking and expressing their opinions to a much larger audience. Nobody has all the answers. The more people who talk, the more ideas we experience. Remember, an educated consumer is the best shopper; it’s about time we become more versed in our government and its policies. The use of internet and social networking tools is becoming an increasingly popular way to communicate. I firmly believe that if you want to get the word out to everyone, you have to include these tools in your communication strategy. According to a political spokesperson that is exactly what President-elect Obama is doing. "This is just one of many ways that he will communicate directly with the American people and make the White House and the political process more transparent," spokeswoman Jen Psaki told us last night.
A nice beginning. (Vargas, 2008)



Citations
transparent. (n.d.). WordNet® 3.0. Retrieved November 16, 2008, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/transparent

The Internet Movie Database, 2007, http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0119528/

Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarbanes-Oxley_Act

Enron, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron

Vargas, J.A., The YouTube Presidency, Washingtonpost.com, November 14, 2008, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/11/14/the_youtube_presidency.html