Cover up

There are many ways that the un-elected officials (bureaucrats) present a danger to our democracy. One of the most common is the refusal to release information based on the claim of national security. Over the past years since the inception of the FBI in 1908 and its heading by J Edgar Hoover in 1935 many examples of the misuse of power have been revealed. There is good reason to believe that this misuse is still going on to this day. If certain individuals within the system feel they know better than the voters on how the country should be run this will present a danger to democracy. The only protection against such chicanery is transparency but this is blunted by the claim of national security. It is particularly threatening when bureaucrats refuse to give information to congress whose job it is to oversea the activities of these bureaucracies. When whistle blowers reveal uncomfortable secrets the bureaucrats leap into action do discredit those involved. Since the government is divided by parties there will almost always be enough crying disinformation to interfere with the release of information. The dissenting voices will say it is just politics and in time the issue will die. Thus it is years later when the truth comes out and no one cares. One of the most famous was a secret report about the Vietnam War. The report was prepared in 1971 in the thick of the war but it was discredited by the government when some information was leaked. The government declared that this information should not be published in the name of national security. The Supreme Court ruled against the government and the press asked for the report. It was released only in small sections with much information blacked out. In 2011, forty years later, the full un-redacted report was released and no one cared. The report showed that the lies began with Truman and carried right on through with Eisenhower, Nixon and Johnson. 30 years of cover ups over the most critical aspect of government which is war.