Yes, Government Works.

Last week I was speaking to political science students as a part of a panel, and in the middle of it I asked them a question that one of my former professors said to me "made her cringe at first." I asked them, are any of you good at bragging. I can see why that would make a professor cringe (especially one that had me in class), but once I started explaining it, it made sense to everyone. We don't sell our craft very well, even though we do it really well.

A strong majority of Americans think we are on the wrong path. There is an entire political movement dedicated to the vague and undefined idea of "cutting government." "Small government" has been a fad for some 35 years. People really want government "out" of their lives.

But do they really, or is that just what they hear? They drive on publicly built and maintained roads, they send their kids and grandkids to publicly funded schools, and they are protected by a federally funded military. You know those though. What about the food inspectors, the fire fighters, the Social Security checks, the National Park Rangers, the research lab developing tomorrow's innovation on federal funding, or the EPA agent testing water quality near your town? Do people like their public parks, the open space preserved, and the clean water they drink? These are all done by the government, not the private sector or you personally. This is all the "big government" they talk about cutting.

I have friends who go to over seas every year, and they talk about failing governments when they come back. A lack of safety, dirt roads, unsafe vehicles, dirty air and water, unsafe food, a lack of police, unsafe living conditions- those are the norm. You can go to the restaurant for lunch when you're done reading this, and you'll deal with none of those. In fact, things are still so good that millions of people want to come here to live, work, and have a life. That's not because of Citigroup. That's not because of Verizon. That's not because of Wal-Mart. That's not because of Facebook. That was government.

Most people don't know that though. They know when some Mayor gets indicted. They know when some insider-crony gets a good land deal from their local government. They know when a bad contract gets signed. They know when a law is changed to give an advantage to companies over consumers (or they find out). They see Jack Abramoff, they see healthcare.gov fail, they see the Iraq War. These things are terrible, no doubt about that. They also make up a small minority of what federal, state, and local government employees do every day. They are what you read though.

So you don't hear enough about the 98% plus of the time when the government works, and I encouraged that group of students to change that. Government, our political system, indeed our public life, works every day. People need to hear about it. Perhaps then, vague and stupid ideas about "starving the beast" will die. Perhaps then, people will see the important work that goes on in government. One can hope, right?