Openness keeps this democracy from going sour

We often think we live in a democracy, but that’s not quite true.

America is a representative democracy. We vote for someone who takes our place at the decision-making table, someone who holds our proxy when it comes time to vote. If we don’t like the level of representation, we can vote for a new representative.

What our system doesn’t offer, Tim Eyman’s efforts notwithstanding, is an opportunity to vote on every issue, every item that needs resolution to keep an increasingly complex system running with any semblance of smoothness.

Under such a system as ours, the need for openness and transparency is absolute.

It is true that governance requires skill, talents that can be honed in those who heed the call to serve. However, trusting that altruism is an antidote for the less admirable and all-to-human pull of wielding power is a foolish and lazy perspective, one that voters and the system can’t afford or survive. The greatest danger to the American way of life doesn’t come from some external force, but from within. That threat builds when elected officials move beyond appropriate compromise and represent their views, not ours.

Recently, “Sunshine Week” was sponsored and supported across the country by groups championing open government. The groups included media organizations and others, including Washington’s own Attorney General Rob McKenna. Odd that the lawyer for government advocates for throwing the cloak off a system that is bound to have abuses? Not at all. McKenna isn’t alone in the knowledge that sunshine is a natural disinfectant for all sorts of rot.

Good government can be tedious and time consuming, it should be to make sure that all voices are heard before directions are chosen. It is when those involved begin to think they know best and don’t need an open and honest process that bad things begin to happen. And that’s why it is critical to make sure the curtains are always open, letting the sunshine in.