Introducing: Government That Doesn’t Suck

In February 1972, an 18-year-old college student named Ellen May Thompson registered to vote in Elkins, West Virginia, becoming the first of 11 million Americans between 18 and 21 to do so under the newly ratified 26th Amendment. Her brother Robert had been drafted, served in Vietnam, and was killed in action one day before he was scheduled to return home—old enough to die for his country but not old enough to vote. Thompson later said she felt she was registering for him, too. That story opens the first episode of Government That Doesn’t Suck, a new podcast from professors Greg Jackson and Lindsey Kormack, and it sets the tone for everything that follows: the American experiment has worked, often imperfectly, sometimes beautifully, and it depends on citizens who show up.

The case for paying attention

The central argument of the episode is straightforward: government is going to happen to us whether we like it or not, so we are far better off understanding the rules and participating than checking out. Jackson and Kormack are not dismissing real problems—they are explicit about that—but they argue that the prevailing narrative of total dysfunction is misleading. The country has gotten a great deal right, and most citizens have no idea how much of what they rely on—roads, weather forecasts, mail delivery—originated in government institutions that actually worked.