BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON | JAN 30, 2025
A new year has dawned and so will a new opportunity to reshape the way we are governed and clean up the way we conduct our politics.
There is hope among many Americans that the new Congress will be better than the one just concluded, which had among the worst records in history.
The reason for the optimism may be grounded in pessimism: How can it get any worse? Public trust in government is in the tank.
The governing crisis we are in is not new, of course. The crisis has been creeping up on us like nasty vines that wind their way around the tree, in this our body politic, grown from roots dating back almost a half century.
More than 16 years ago I created this blog (called the New GOP Forum) because a good many Republicans, including me, sought a GOP that could demonstrate an ability to govern more effectively than Democrats.
I had lived and breathed politics and governance for more than 35 years by then and I was driven by the fear that things are crumbling beneath our feet and more had to be done. I believed there was more to citizen responsibility than voting and complaining, especially for those of us privileged to serve behind the scenes.
I also believed we could contribute something positive to civil discourse and civics education for good people at each other’s throats and young people bereft of hope and trust.
We formed a discussion group toward that end and eventually produced a package of reforms and a legislative track to a special committee on the modernization of Congress. All the while we kept hammering away on the blog at the dysfunction and public distrust that was eating away at the Federal Government.
We partnered with other like-minded groups. It was a bipartisan effort, not one that favored one party or the other. Nice try, full of good intentions, good results, but it did not lead to the promised land.
Part of the problem was treating symptoms of the disease, but not the root causes, chief among them the abandonment of core values underlying our system of government—civil behavior, civic education, civic engagement, the preservation of political and social institutions essential in any democracy, and yes, governmental reform and renewal. We must get back to those basics before we can change the way we are governed.
In a democratic Republic such as ours, governing is impossible without public trust, and public trust cannot be restored now unless all of us get more engaged in recovering citizens’ ownership of our system of government. It will require each of us to repudiate current conditions and embrace a Civic State of Mind.
The Republic belongs to the people. It’s our government, if we have the will to keep it.
The new title of this blog reflects that critical mission, without prejudice toward one party or the other.
Editor’s Note: Mike Johnson is a former journalist, who worked on the Ford White House staff and served as press secretary and chief of staff to House Republican Leader Bob Michel, prior to entering the private sector. He is co-author of a new book, Fixing Congress: Restoring Power to the People and an earlier book, Surviving Congress, a guide for congressional staff. He is co-founder and former Board chair of the Congressional Institute. Johnson is retired. He is married to Thalia Assuras and has five children and four grandchildren.