Government gets a bad rap.
Just about everywhere you turn, it seems people are ragging on government, as if they’ve given much thought to how much positive impact government actually has on their lives.
Let’s take a look at a few obvious things:
- Internet: Enjoy Facebook, Twitter, websites, email? All of those communications functions come via the Internet, which was developed by, yes, the government (or Al Gore if you believe in urban legends). Does the Internet help you communicate or do business? Thank the government.
- Military: The Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard and National Guard — all provide government protections for the country and keep America strong. Also government: the PX where members of the military and veterans can shop; the Veterans Administration and TRICARE, where they get health care; and pensions they receive for their service.
- Interstates: The nation’s Interstate highway system allows for comparatively quick travel between major metropolitan areas and is buttressed by the system of federal roads in between. All are paid for by the government. Without these roads, people wouldn’t be able to connect as easily throughout the country and commerce would be slower.
- Satellites: Enjoy the Weather Channel, cable TV or Google Maps? Remember it was a government program that launched satellites for weather, communications and mapping.
The government makes a difference in our daily lives in countless ways, from protecting our food and water supplies to ensuring medical drugs are regulated; to keeping our communities safe thanks to firefighters, first responders and police; and to educating our children so they can be tomorrow’s innovators.
But much of government’s functions have become so commonplace and assumed that today’s Americans forget how hard it was to build their infrastructure and make sure they helped people move from the daily subsistence of living on the farm to modern-day life in which they didn’t have to worry about growing their food, protecting their homes or teaching their children.
California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, in a much-heralded new book about using technology to make government more innovative and helpful, observes people now mistrust the government so much that they’re getting less and less involved.
“When ordinary people feel politics is irrelevant, the whole Jeffersonian model of democracy is in peril,” he writes in “Citizenville.” “We’re becoming a government of the elites, the opposite of what our forefathers intended, and the opposite of what has historically made America strong.”
While the book subsequently focuses on how to make government more transparent, accountable and innovative by opening up huge government databases so that people can build technological applications to improve how they interact with government, he makes an observation that could remind us how thankful we ought to be for government, despite the messiness that sometimes comes with it:
“We experience government every single day, directly and indirectly,” Newsom writes. “But because government can’t brand all its projects with its own little Nike swoosh, people don’t realize that fact. Because government doesn’t have an official PR department to help burnish its image, people go about their daily lives oblivious to how enriched they are by it.”
So stop right there. Just why can’t government brand itself consistently to show people everywhere it prevails? Newsom suggests a national “coming out day” for the nation’s 23 million government workers to celebrate government. Fine. But why can’t government start putting a Captain America-like logo on every government product, service or program that affects people? Folks in Louisiana have been branding government bridge projects for years.
A branding campaign for America wouldn’t be hard. It would cost virtually nothing. But it could make a big difference to remind us how our lives are better overall through government, regardless of whether you are Democratic or Republican. If we could get people to stop denigrating government all of the time, maybe we could start working together more towards new goals, such as the innovations outlined in Newsom’s outstanding book.
“Government is us,” the former San Francisco mayor writes. “It’s the police officer, soldier, educator, IT worker, secretary, lawyer or engineer who lives next door. Helping people realize that would be a great first step in cutting through the disdain and mistrust people have for government today.”
Andy Brack is publisher of Charleston Currents and Statehouse Report. He can be reached at: brack@statehousereport.com.
