About Us, but Clearly Without Us

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.

By Lisa Saye
March 3, 2025

Humanity is random. The mask of dissimilarity is dirty and torn. Democracy is losing audience as distance gets shorter and shorter. The team is absent from the field. This can be seen as severely muddling the metaphor, but in actuality any of the previous sentences can stand as a headline describing the current environment. Present decisions of government have abandoned the quiet signals of evil. No, today those signals are bare, raw and loud. So much so that it is in this air that the kind of control that acknowledges the meaning of freedom, equality and justice and what is meant by a principled government has become little more than smoke.

So, what are we watching Here and Now? Or maybe a better question is, what are we allowing to happen? Is democracy still colorless or is it now wearing a cloak of invisibility? To be sure, democracies have never strived to get their names and photos plastered on the Quitter’s Wall of Government. We woke every day to serve, to change, to advance and to comfort. How quickly it seems that those goals have been pushed aside to revisit the historical baggage of anger and separation. Why in the world would anyone want to create new trauma and allow disdain to increase the distance between all of us? Democracy has always been the expanded edition of humanity and nothing should change that.

The current environment calls for the need for a notable amount of caution, but not paralysis. A frightening reshaping is driving government toward daily chaos and confusion. Unelected and untested elements are trying to get one past the citizens. A plethora of cuts and deletions are whirling about as final policy absent of congressional review or approval. Program elimination and drastic staff dismissals should be recognized as what they truly are—reductions of democracy by other means. Attempts to feign correcting centuries of the hangover of historical baggage and anger is no way to govern a nation. Policy and program reform, where needed, are always encouraged, but rapid structural destruction is suspect. 

Public administration is the visible form of government. That fact cannot be overstated. We must understand that to diminish the services the citizens expect from us means to limit our approach to time-tested resolutions. In doing so, we lose the coalition between state and voter and the essential connections between you and me. Our main alliance as public administrators is with the collective citizenry and not with a particular person or persons who are at best temporary employees. The number of public administrators it takes to deliver services at all levels of government demonstrates the manifestation of the promise of government by the people that is made and executed for the people. That’s the lane we must stay in. 

Democracy is not a gingerbread house you design with gumdrops and icing. It is actionable and measurable public service conducted everyday. Each strand of democracy is united on the notion that the more we serve, the better we serve. The definition of political legitimacy has not changed. What seems evident is the change in the will of government coupled with a complacency in the hearts of those who know better. Speaking up has nothing to do with how many dollars you have or don’t have. It does, however, have everything to do with your personal measure of courage. Although for some, it has taken the threat of losing democracy to recognize that we must always be ready to mobilize to save it. To those I say, better late than never. Without our resistance, we will find ourselves managing and navigating a moral and humanitarian crisis where none should ever exist.

The protections for the voiceless, traditionally manifested through policy creation and policy implementation, must continue to reign as the main goals of good government. These protections must be crystallized, they must be codified and they must be irreversible. We should not be unwilling to condemn any type of goof-ball governance with our loudest voices. Wrecking-ball democracy does not exist. As public administrators, we still have work to do, still have a schedule to keep, we still have a spreadsheet to complete and we still have a citizenry that we are honor-bound to serve. We are far from finished. Our duty remains ahead of us. As a country, we have been preparing to meet this moment since our inception in Independence Hall, in Philadelphia on August 2, 1776. We’ve been ready. So, Let’s Get It!

The ^@Democracy Ain’t Gingerbread photo was taken and titled by Lisa Saye

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Author: Dr. Lisa Saye served as Fulbright Specialist in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and as International Consultant for the United Nations Development Program in The Maldives. She also served as Chair of the Division of Social Sciences and Humanities and as Associate Professor of Public Administration at American University Afghanistan. Dr. Saye can be reached by email at [email protected].

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