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runlai_jiang

The cost of our war on public life - The Washington Post - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...8-9de1-147dd2df3829_story.html

politics trustcrisis

shared by runlai_jiang on 05 Mar 18 - No Cached
  • We didn’t appreciate having a government that was relatively honest and free of venality until we had one riddled with corruption. And we didn’t know how wildly irresponsible Republican criticisms of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were until the GOP fell silent in the face of abuse after abuse from President Trump. Obama was “not presidential” for wearing a tan suit? Benghazi? Really?
  • Ryan said he did not run the committee, thus pushing away an obligation to act. Imagine that: A House speaker who uses all of his prerogatives to push through his own priorities claims utter powerlessness in the face of a runaway committee chairman.
  • how Trump springs new policies with little preparation and changes his views news cycle to news cycle; how ill-prepared Trump and many of his aides were for the rigors of the White House; and how recklessly they cast aside norms and rules aimed at preventing conflicts of interest and sleaze.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • How did we get a government of this sort? For decades, our country has been witness to a war on public life.
  • We value expertise from our doctors, nurses, engineers and scientists. But when it comes to government, there is a popular assumption that those who spend their lives mastering the arts of administration, politics and policymaking must be up to no good.
  • It has turned the word “politician” into an epithet, even though most of our best presidents (Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt especially) have been politicians through and through
  • And viewing our civil servants as mere timeserving “bureaucrats” fails to appreciate the contributions they make and the extent to which our government, in comparison with so many others, has been remarkably light on corruption.
  • s. But repairing our problems requires citizens willing to engage in public life, not shun it, and people in government who respect the work they are asked to undertake.
  • runlai_jiang on 05 Mar 18
     
    People don't trust their government even though they are trying to do good things, leading to the chaos now
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