What is Done in Darkness

I would like to take a moment out of the regularly scheduled broadcasting to send a little message to the US Americans in the world. We out here in the rest of the world keep being reminded of your self-vaunted perspective as the bastion of freedom and democracy, but permit me if you will to let you in on a little secret…

You’re not.

Last week, the Orange Administration finally put a lid on the White House press corp, by revoking nearly all press passes under ridiculous new requirements. Those that yet retain their passes have reportedly done so as exceptions made by Orange Administration press secretary and wilful puppet Sarah Sanders.

I say finally, because truth be told, this has been brewing for over two years. With the Orange Tyrant branding journalism as a public enemy, just like any burgeoning despot would. It’s just that the very idea of a press pass, of a vetted pair of eyes that are uniquely privileged to look beyond the curtain, is not a very democratic idea…

Imagine, if you will, a democracy where the government, and the ruling regime, were unconditionally and constitutionally required to let anyone in. To let anyone listen and see, and let anyone interact with the way that the government was being run. We hear that the Orange Hydra refuses to let Congress see his tax returns. Imagine if you can, a democracy where it wouldn’t be in his power to deny the population such a thing. Where tax returns were available to the public. Listen to your Democratic Speaker of the House Pelosi excuse her requests for reports and documentation (the latest of which being the Mueller report) by expressing sympathy for the government agencies and organizations that are loathe to let the public see their works. Because it would, and I para-phrase because such a passing remark of note doesn’t even seem to make American journalism bat an eye, ‘interfere with them doing their jobs’. Imagine then a democracy where government agencies are obligated to do their job out in the open. For anyone, Congressperson or civilian alike, to take part of.

This imagery that I have asked you to conjure up is what an open society looks like.

A pipe-dream, you say? You may claim that any functioning government can’t work under complete transparency? Well, what if I told you that the Scandinavian nations, and some seventy other countries, have constitutions and laws much to that effect? What if I told you that most western democracies do not allow their government agencies to work in the darkness? What if I told you that you’re doing it wrong?

Well, obviously, you’d probably go off on some nationalistic tangent, trying to beat your dead horse Lady Columbia. Perhaps some of you would sadly shake your heads and lament how far your nation has fallen. Because to us, we on the other side of the Atlantic, that look upon your behaviour and policies, you don’t look like much of a democracy at all.

True, most of these public principle laws that govern how many European democracies function, have caveats. In my native Sweden, of which laws I’m most familiar, the constitution details a number of exempts. For example, in the case of the security of the nation. Or in the case of information that could damage any private person, like medical or social services records. But even then, the records themselves are never sealed. Only tid-bits of information in those documents. I can, as a citizen, on any given day, walk into just about any government agency, and demand to see their records.

When we, your former European allies in democracy, look upon your leaders’ excuses for keeping the workings of your government in the dark, we do not see a bastion of freedom. We see a dystopian farce. For in our eyes, a democracy cannot function, cannot exist, when the government works in darkness. Away from the knowledge and insight of the general population.

For what you’re doing, dear sweet America, is criminalize transparency. Where you let your Orange Despot dictate who can and cannot be around to see his works. Where your justice department, the very foundation of law and order, hide incriminatory materials away from your eyes. Where daring people go to jail and are defamed for having the guts to show you what your government is doing when you’re not looking.

What I’m trying to say is this, America: You’ve lost sight of what a democracy is. For what is done in darkness is in its essence undemocratic. Which would be fine if only you kept your trail of shit in your own home. But you don’t. You make all the dark workings of your megalomanic government become our problem.

So, clean your house. It stinks the neighbourhood up. That which your government has hidden away in the back of all those locked closets are shit-factories. And all that gunk is your job to clean out. Get back to being a proper democracy. And go get your shit together.

/Sebastian Lindberg 14/5-2019