The people do not deserve dysfunction

by Dustin Woods
Visionary Columnist

“We the people” need a functional government. Many have been disheartened by public servants who build their value through a dysfunctional government. The government should be an extension of all the people of its country. 

Democracy derives its power through the authority of the citizenry. Representation in a democracy requires that citizenry participates in the process to embody the multitude of varied interests.

But the degenerates who degrade our democracy are at it again. 

Scott Pruitt, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), sued the EPA several times before his appointment to run the department. As the head of the EPA, has taken it upon himself to reverse regulations protecting clean air and water regulations. 

Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, oversees the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. A budget proposal of zero dollars was submitted for this agency. That’s zero dollars to run an agency whose job is to protect the public. 

Former Health Secretary Tom Price used taxpayer money to fly in private planes to meetings. He traded stocks in businesses he was passing legislation on while he was in Congress. 

CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald resigned because of conflicts of interest arising from her purchase of tobacco stocks while she was overseeing our government’s efforts to reduce the spread of disease in the world. 

And don’t forget National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, who is under a criminal indictment for making false statements to the FBI while under oath. He lied about meetings he had with a Russian Ambassador. 

We trust public servants to honor fidelity to the mission of the department. Do these autocrats think there is no benefit to protecting the citizens of this country from nefarious corporate actors who defraud their customers or are they more worried about protecting the corporations?  

No government job is a position from which an individual should be enriching themselves. These government agencies were created to achieve a specific goal meant to enrich the many, not the few. 

It is shameful our President would find it acceptable to give these jobs to people who would concern themselves so blatantly with personal riches, not public benefit or service.

The problem with Hillary’s emails was they contained classified information that could have been accessed by people without the proper clearance to see them. 

However, this President allows members of his private club, Mar-a-Lago, to watch on as international security matters are discussed with the Japanese Prime Minister after North Korea had just launched a missile toward Japan. 

Further, the President’s former Staff Secretary, Rob Porter, who worked by the Presidents side and handled every piece of government generated information he saw, has worked for over a year with only interim security clearance. Full clearance was withheld by the FBI due to allegations of domestic violence claimed by his ex-wives. 

If the principle were protecting American secrets, then you would expect those members of Congress to have some concerns about these flagrant mishandlings of classified information. 

Remember, these are the same members of Congress who spent millions of dollars investigating Hillary Clinton.

The Gayly. March 20, 2018. 5:54 a.m. CST.