The public is not to see where power lies, how it shapes policy, and for what ends. Rather, people are to hate and fear one another.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The problem is that the American public is suspicious of executive power shrouded in secrecy. In the absence of an official picture of what our government is doing, and by what authority, many in the public fill the void by envisioning the worst.
The people currently in charge have forgotten the first principle of an open society, namely that we may be wrong and that there has to be free discussion. That it's possible to be opposed to the policies without being unpatriotic.
Without the ability to talk about government power, there's no way for citizens to make sure this power isn't being misused.
Government, in the last analysis, is organized opinion. Where there is little or no public opinion, there is likely to be bad government.
At least in the West, politicians, corporations and media moguls can no longer take for granted their power to control the public discourse - and have it go unchallenged.
As long as the wrong people hold power, how can the right political climate even arise?
I repeat... that all power is a trust; that we are accountable for its exercise; that from the people and for the people all springs, and all must exist.
Power tends to protect itself merely to maintain its own status and control. Principle gives up power for the sake of creating the best public policy.
There is a power in public opinion in this country - and I thank God for it: for it is the most honest and best of all powers - which will not tolerate an incompetent or unworthy man to hold in his weak or wicked hands the lives and fortunes of his fellow-citizens.
Politics is not about power.