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Together, we the people make our government work

By John Burbank

I chaired my precinct caucus last week. We had 120 people stuffed into a church lunchroom (most likely a violation of the fire code), with lots of enthusiastic young people newly involved in politics.

Our caucus reminded me of town meetings in Vermont. These are exercises in direct democracy, where people in very small towns decide the town budget, whether to buy a new snow plow, and when to hire a new teacher for the elementary school. Basic stuff, that eludes most of us in states where you can't get everyone together to make these decisions. So that's why the precinct caucuses were exciting -- we were getting together to make one decision that actually counted this year -- who our state should support for the presidential nomination of both parties. And we did this in very personal ways -- meeting with our neighbors, taking a public stand, putting forth our most persuasive arguments. The caucuses presented the opportunity for shirtsleeve politics that elude us when we fill out an absentee ballot by ourselves and drop it in the mailbox.

But you can't caucus about everything, and in fact, most policy in a state like ours must be decided through the American system of representative democracy. So we elect our city council members, our school board, our PUD commissioners, our state legislators. Then we expect these people to hold our best interests close to their hearts as they decide the fundamentals of public service for the people. We give them a sanctuary in which to convene our democracy -- that sanctuary is our government.

We have witnessed in the past 30 years a concerted campaign to make government the scapegoat for social ills. It is a campaign that has been shared by Republicans and Democrats, with Bill Clinton helping out by declaring in one State of the Union address that the era of big government is over. But try telling that to the 70-year-old widow who depends on her Social Security check for survival. Or one of the more than 1 million children in our state who are in public schools. Or the parent who calls 911 when her child has a seizure. Or the accident victim along I-5 who gets rescued by the state patrol. Or just knowing that when you turn on the tap for a glass of water, it is safe, clean, and good to drink.

These are all the products of government in our democracy. Sure, our elected officials and the governments they build make mistakes. Private businesses make huge mistakes and build extremely wasteful bureaucracies that we can't do anything about as citizens. When a government does this, we can act. Thanks to one such government agency, the state auditor's office, we found out that the Port of Seattle misspent tens of millions of dollars. Now the Legislature is figuring out how to clean up the mess, by enabling the elected port commissioners to exercise public oversight and put into place transparent and competitive contracting processes.

The great thing about representative democracy is that if our representatives make the right decisions, we can re-elect them and if they make the wrong decisions, we can throw them out. Legislators come and go, constantly bringing in new perspectives, refreshed from the latest election victory or chastised by defeat. Combined with long hours, low pay, and the long stays in Olympia away from family and friends, they don't usually stick around for decades. They get tired, for good reason. The result is a constant refreshing of political viewpoints and the development of new solutions for the greater good.

This coming campaign season I have decided to join the fray, running for a House seat from the 36th District in Seattle. I have pursued public policy from the outside for 30 years. It's time I helped in the inner workings of democracy. And it looks like this year the Democratic standard bearer for president will be the one who started out as a community organizer from Chicago. So it is appropriate that someone who started out as a community/labor organizer could also run for and win legislative office. That's me!

So I have to say goodbye to you. I have very much enjoyed writing this column, as well as the reader response, both positive and negative. That's the debate that makes our democracy work. Thank you.



John Burbank, executive director of the Economic Opportunity Institute (www.eoionline.org ), writes every other Wednesday. Write to him in care of the institute at 1900 Northlake Way, Suite 237, Seattle, WA 98103. His e-mail address is john@eoionline.org.