What Does All This White House Transparency Mean?
Obama has made a decidedly lefty imprint on the first week of his presidency. The shuttering of Guantanamo is set in stone, albeit with an uncertain closing date; a New Deal-ish “American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan” (aka, the stimulus bill) is half-approved in Congress; the controversial Mexico City policy was overturned by executive order; Wall Street bonuses that continue amid the economic crisis were slammed; and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act became law.
As significant as the accomplishments themselves is the fact that they have all been televised, updated, and blogged about by the White House almost in real-time. What does this digitally adept presidency means to you? Is all this public transparency nudging toward Swiss-style direct democracy? Big Thinkers of all political persuasions are encouraged to visit their main access point to the adminstration’s daily activities at whitehouse.gov, where they can read any and all non-emergency legislation, and debate their perspectives here at Big Think.
