How to make government work in ways more visible to the public.

Most government works just fine, if you really want to know the truth. Social Security, Medicare, the funding of scientific research (before RFK, Jr. began to dismantle it), the U.S. Army, the VA, and much more. At the state/local levels, K-12 schools (most of them), higher education (same), and road repair when the budget is there.

Government fails to achieve what people expect all the time. Yet, a lot of the "failure" and "success" is in the eye of the beholder. Voters often know almost nothing about what govt actually does and is trying to do. What the goal of govt should be is often contested and frequently lied about. Even for the program eval. experts, success or failure can be hard to measure.

Government's failures are often either well-publicized or ignored entirely by the media- both of which are a problem.

On October 6th at the usual time and place, join Civilized Conversation for an informal roundtable on the different ways to think about what govt should be trying to accomplish, what failure or success can mean to different actors in the system, and finally: Are there ways to make govt not only work better, but to make the good stuff it does more easily visible to a mostly out of touch and jaded public?

Perhaps our member John M. can help us with this one, since he has been both a local elected official, a congressional aid, and an investigative reporter. DavidG knows a bit, too, based on my background as one of those program evaluators.

Optional Backgrounders –

· TBA.