True accessibility in government is sorely lacking

There are a lot of people out there who are angry with the government.

That’s not a stunning, newsflash of a statement, I know. But I’ve talked to a lot of people about a variety of frustrations (a lot more than I’ve written about), and often it seems to loop back to a central idea.

That our government, despite its stylings as a participatory democracy, is often still inaccessible to people for a couple of key reasons.

The first is the obvious one that gets blamed most often for poor participation at meetings and in decisions—People are busy and meetings are boring.

Some people really are busy, and things like streaming meetings and Zoom participation can help to mitigate that.

But when people spend hours arguing politics with each other on Facebook and watch 24-hour cable news channels, I have a hard time believing the only reason more people don’t show up at council and commission meetings is that they’re just not that “into” government.

I think the bigger reason, that stands behind that reason, is that our government—from top to bottom—is ridiculously complex. Further, people are used to having others parse that complexity for them. And that was a fine system as long as those interpreters on the news channels and in the newspapers were held to professional standards.

But now more people are getting their “news” from strangers on Facebook and other dubious sources, which are often misinformed themselves—when they aren’t outright trying to mislead people.

For a democracy to function, we need people to participate, but making our democracy so complex raises the bar for participation out of many Americans’ reach. As I see it, we have two options.

We can make our government simpler, or we can educate Americans better.

I can’t speak for everyone, but when I look back at what I learned about the local, state, and U.S. government in high school and college and then think about what I’ve learned about how government works since reporting on local governments and reading in-depth work by other reporters, I can’t believe anyone thinks that the education we receive is adequate to be an informed voter, let alone a true participant in the government.

And every time I read a bill to parse its intent for Tales from Lansing, I imagine others trying to do the same, likely with less practice, before voting for a ballot measure or politician. I can’t imagine they often find any clarity.

Our government may have an open-door policy, but as it stands, there’s a very high bar across that door, and it blocks entry for too many.