when a government operates in secret, hiding its actions from its own citizens...

[mike_c]

...then it becomes unaccountable to its citizens. Even when it claims to work on their behalf, if it hides behind a veil of secrecy, government ultimately serves its own entrenched power base, not the best interests of most citizens.

Some will counter that there are things all governments must do in secret, but I think that ANYTHING governments believe they need to hide should immediately move to the forefront of public debate, and perhaps should not be legitimate roles for government to pursue. If a democratic government is accountable to its people, then it should not keep secrets from them. Period. If the government feels compelled to perform actions that it MUST keep secret from its citizens, then it is no longer a democratic entity.

Paraphrasing Justice Louis Brandeis, sunlight is the best disinfectant. But the corollary statement is that secrecy is the universal corrupter.

This is what I've been thinking about this morning.

[MuseRider]

1. It assumes we can't handle the truth

and treats us like children who would have no clues or ideas worth listening to (lol given our most current worry) and that we are just better off being taken care of by some daddy figure or perhaps a king.

Doing this the right way and involving people is cumbersome certainly but it is what we require to have this country even slightly resemble what we say it is.

It makes people suspicious. I don't care who it is, if they are lying to me I am going to have a difficult time ever trusting them again and everything good they have done will always be tainted by the fact that they lied to us as if we don't matter.

Good OP mike_c.

[1-Old-Man]

2. Let me finish for you: 'it ceases to be a Government of the people, by the people, or for the people

It is not a Government of the people because it entrusts its secrets and plans only to a chosen few.

It is not a Government by the people because the people do not keep secrets from themselves.

It is not a Government working to serve its people either, because no service is provided to the people.