Why is there no accountability in politics?

Why is there no accountability in politics? How can lies and corruption be so ‘normal’ that citizens fail in 2020 to find some moral outrage?  How can a party be so hypocritical with no consequence? What does that tell us about the nature of the real problem?

Several of these questions were framed by Robb Smith on Twitter. I have added a few.

This is a muti-dimensional complex issue. 

Where is the education on citizenship, what it means to be a citizen, how our government runs, what are our responsibilities as citizens as well as our rights, and how do we, the people, create change? Should citizenship education be of equal importance to reading and writing?

What is integrity? How do we know if integrity is present? How do we respond if it is not? If we remain silent, are we complicit? 

Let’s talk about media. The old (news networks, papers, etc) and the new (social media, algorithms) How are we being manipulated and colonised by media, most often without any awareness? How do we educate that this is happening 24/7 to almost everyone?

How do we educate and teach for sense-making? How to ask questions, challenge assumptions, dig deeper, trust another who has dug deeper, consider the trans contextual, be willing to be wrong, see the whole picture, inquire as to the consequences.

Do our politicians have to face an independent integrity commission that operates on a continuous basis? That for lying, misleading, corruption…there is real and effective consequences. Transparency of currency flows and decision-making is the practice.

Do we make elections publicly funded, where all parties get the same budget? Where putting any money/or in-kind exchange from other sources into a political party become illegal?

This is by no means an exhaustive list. Please feel free to add your own.

If we want a world with a future we need to change the way we do governance and politics.

Photo taken December 7th 2020