12.4 More on Transparency

I just received an email on my iPhone regarding the Obama transition team. David Plouffe, Campaign Manager, asked me to make a donation to the Obama-Biden Transition Project. My previous contributions to the campaign have kept me in the email and text communication apparatus. The email goes on to say that in the past, the process of transitioning the new president has been secretive and funded by DC lobbyists. The 'change' message continues with they are "going to do things differently". According to Cheney et al., page 323, Dimensions in Change, the book talked about the degrees of change. The book goes on to talk about philosopher Gregory Bateson's first and second-order changes. This election for 'change' is an example of what Bateson says is "when the entity (the presidency) becomes something fundamentally different than it was."

In the email Plouffe talks about differently, and makes the case that he needs some money from me instead of the tried and true sources of lobbyists and corporations. And he ads that since I made a contribution during the campaign, they will need my help in order to build a "more transparent and open government", and they need to rely on a broader group of people to get this done. I clicked on the email link and I as brought to a page where I needed to type in my name, address, employer, my occupation, phone number, along with the amount and my credit card number. I was looking for the transparency in all of the previous contributions I made. Over the past few months I have read about the large numbers of donations being raised by Obama's campaign. I was curious to see if I could see where my money was going. The only glimpse of transparency I could find on this particular page was this: "As a condition of receipt of appropriated funds under the Presidential Transition Act, the OBAMA-BIDEN TRANSITION PROJECT must publicly report the source, date, and amount of every donation. The PROJECT will also publicly report the city and state of residence, and employer of each donor." I guess I need to ask myself, does it really matter to me where the money is going? I can only hope that the people in-charge of the campaign are doing a very good job. They managed to help elect a junior senator from Illinois with little or no experience to run the country. They seem to be creating leadership that the country was destined to embrace. Are we going to be part of the 'process' and interact with the decisions being contemplated? Are we going to give our opinions on the cabinet selections? So far, these decisions are being made within the transition team. Maybe some transparency in who they team may be considering for cabinet positions would have been keeping in line with the new 'change' this campaign has promised.