Dear Reader:Ah, the political season.
Television filled with political ads. Personal attacks, empty promises, plans, road maps and the usual pandering for votes. Little is changed and the divide in our two-party system has become a chasm.
Cynical? Yes, probably. I consider myself an independent these days as both parties pretty much have it wrong. It makes it hard to vote.
Once reaching elected office elected officials go in with a "mandate" to change things. However, soon the system engulfs the elected and partisanship reigns. Things seem to be getting less civil in our two-party system.
The "mandates" are based on political ideology. Elected officials fighting over big picture public policy. Public workers marginalized as not elected officials are ignored. I am convinced that the much maligned public workers - or the distasteful label "bureaucrat" - may be the voice of reason. Government workers understand the problems of political ideology.
Also, draconian laws designed to improve one problem create more problems. Law has taken the place of higher principles to live and work by. Good sense has been lost to new laws handcuffing workers to care or help.
Knowledge from legislation comes after the political ideology in the form of costs that create waste and blow up budgets. The taxpayers and the recipients of services both pay the price.
Government management is going to need to step in and start showing evidence about the waste. They will need this evidence to sway a skeptical public. Evidence becomes knowledge and once government understands the "what and why" of the system at work, a plan to experiment with method can be born from knowledge as opposed to assumption/ideology.
There will always be a place for government, running it with better thinking is our challenge.