Transparency, elitism, and The Republic

Transparency and open government were to be such a keystone of the Obama administration that the day after his inauguration, the President issued a memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies on the subject. In the memorandum and in the subsequent publication in the 21 January 2009 Federal Register, our President states government should be transparent, participatory, and collaborative. In soliciting public input in the Federal Register dated 21 May 2009, the Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy summarizes the benefit of this openness:

• Transparency promotes accountability and provides information to citizens about what their Government is doing;
• Participation enhances the Government’s effectiveness and improves the quality of its decisions by tapping knowledge that is widely dispersed in society; and
• Collaboration harnesses innovative tools, methods, and systems to promote cooperation across all levels of Government and with the private sector.

Consistent with these principles candidate Barack Obama stated 21 August 2008 regarding health care "we'll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so the people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents and who is making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies." Such openness is refreshingly laudable.

In a complete reversal of these principles House Speaker Nancy Pelosi talking at the White House on 06 January 2010 said "The House and Senate plan to put together the final health care reform bill behind closed doors according to an agreement by top Democrats." Press Secretary Robert Gibbs declined to refute the decision stressing instead "the president wants to get a bill to his desk as quickly as possible."

The reversal is not surprising. I posit the President, an academic, conceptually sees political utopia in Plato's The Republic. Plato, one of the cornerstones of public education, encourages telling our children false, but noble, stories to achieve desired ends. This is analogous to his statements of transparency. By excluding the population as a whole, Republican legislators, and even most Democrats, Plato's elitist guardian class - which apparently is, at least in this situation is defined as "top Democrats" - will determine what they deem to be best for the vast majority of us in the producers and auxiliaries classes. Given this perspective, it is completely rational to then exclude the guardian class, who by definition know best, from the rules imposed on the majority as they are different.

Today's so-called progressives should remember the conclusion of The Republic is the banishment of the poets, the same voices who praised the pursuit of justice.

References:

• http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/TransparencyandOpenGovernment/
• http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-12026.pdf
• Town hall meeting on 21 August 2008, in Chester, Va.
• http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/promise/517/health-care-reform-public-sessions-C-SPAN/
• http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/06/eveningnews/main6064298.shtml