On Trump, transparency and democracy

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Date: November 7, 2017 at 9:01:32 AM EST
> To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] On Trump, transparency and democracy
> Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
>
> [Note:  This item comes from friend Robert Berger.  DLH]
>
> On Trump, transparency and democracy
> By Sunlight Foundation
> Jul 20 2017
> <https://sunlightfoundation.com/2017/07/20/trump-administration-open-government-record/>
>
> Introduction
>
> Over the first six months of this young presidency, President Donald J. Trump’s approach to the office has been 
> characterized by self-interest, defiance of basic democratic norms, and often incoherent or self-contradictory 
> communications and priorities.
>
> In the face of historic lows in public trust in government and an increasingly polarized electorate, we’ve seen a 
> regression to secrecy in both Congress and the White House. The change has not gone unnoticed around the globe, as 
> our nation’s standing to defend democracy and our government’s ability to advocate for anti-corruption efforts has 
> been precipitously eroded.
>
> In this report, we offer a comprehensive but not exhaustive accounting of the Trump administration’s record on open 
> government to date. More than seven months after we first considered what Trump would mean for open government, the 
> questions we sent to the White House were never formally answered. The actions of this administration, however, speak 
> for themselves.
>
> Whatever transparency the President of the United States is demonstrating by speaking directly to the public on 
> Twitter is outweighed by his refusal to disclose and divest, undermined by the opacity of their authorship, and 
> weighted down by false claims and misleading assertions. This president publicly accused his predecessor of 
> wiretapping his campaign with no evidence. If that’s transparency, the word itself has been devalued.
>
> Our conclusion on the Trump administration’s record on open government at six months is inescapable: this is a 
> secretive administration, allergic to transparency, ethically compromised, and hostile to the essential role that 
> journalism plays in a democracy.
>
> In the following report, organized into sections we consider the record to date, in context. Six months from now, we 
> will compare and contrast the Trump administration’s progress — or further regression — with the Obama 
> administration’s mixed record on open government and reflect further on the way forward.
>
> We welcome your feedback and comment, including from the White House itself, which has declined to answer our queries 
> regarding these issues.
>
> THE TRANSITION
>
> Last August, Sunlight published principles for transparency and accountability in the transition. The Trump 
> transition not only fell far short of all of those recommendations, but carried out a transition whose missteps and 
> overreaches have developed into scandals of their own during the first six months of the Trump Presidency. Instead of 
> embracing ethics and disclosure to the public, the transition sold access to lobbyists and donors.
>
> In addition to the secret meetings with foreign officials during the transition that now shadow the Trump White 
> House, officials deleted the transition social media accounts this spring. The Trump White House also had blank or 
> missing resources and services online at launch, and made little progress on key appointments for transparency and 
> accountability related positions.
>
> How presidential candidates conduct their campaigns and transitions carries into the White House. Trump is no 
> different. Candidate Trump’s attitudes toward transparency and the press set the tone for the Trump presidency.
>
> After making himself available to the press through late July 2016, Trump set a low bar as one of the least 
> transparent modern presidential candidate in modern history. As president-elect, little changed: he held no press 
> conference until January 12, never disclosed his  tax returns, made no proactive disclosures around the transition or 
> inauguration beyond those required no law, and failed to fully divest from his business interests — decisions that 
> all unfortunately set the tone for the beginning of President Trump’s term.
>
> [snip]
>
> Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: http://dewaynenet.wordpress.com/feed/
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/wa8dzp



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