The United States government has historically low trust levels from the public. The U.S has not advanced as a nation for a while now. Part of the problem is that the same people have been in the legislative branch as Congressmen and women for 50 years. If the country is supposed to advance, new people need to be involved. Change is necessary to continue this democracy. The U.S needs to stop classifying unnecessary information that is not a threat to the country. For a country to be successful, it must have the trust of the people.

As of September 2020, only 4% of the public has a great deal of trust in the legislative branch. The last time that ten percent of the public had a great deal of trust in Congress was July of 2000 ("Congress and the Public" 1).  The federal institutions are not as efficient as they once were. The politicians of today do not even seem to worry about the increasing national debt. Every time Congress comes up with a new budget, it includes an alarmingly high deficit. The deficit for the 2021 fiscal year is estimated to be $2.3 trillion. That is a half trillion dollars more than it was estimated to be in September. The current deficit is equal to 8.6% of the GDP for the United States (“2021 Deficit on Course” 1). The government needs to start working on real problems like this. 

The government classifies much of its information. Classified information is not able to be requested under the Freedom of Information Act. The government uses three different classification levels to organize information; confidential, secret, and top-secret ("What is classified information" 2). Top secret information can only be classified by the president, agency heads, and officials designated by the president in the federal register. Agency heads and officials can classify confidential information with top-secret or secret classification authority ("Legal Resources" 1). The Department of Defense has the Mandatory Declassification Review. The Mandatory Declassification Review is how an individual or entity can request any federal agency to review classified material for declassification (“MDR” 1). An MDR request is sent to the Department of Defense branch with custody of the requested record when the requested document is less than twenty-five years old ("Declassification" 2). Information is considered for classification in ten categories ("Legal Resources" 1). The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, commonly known as NATO, has four levels of security classification: NATO Restricted, NATO Confidential, NATO Secret, and COSMIC Top Secret. COSMIC is used to tell people that the top-secret material is property of NATO ("NATO Security Indoctrination” 2-3). 

The government does not prosecute very many leaks. A leak is when a government insider shares secret information with a member of the press. There are many laws that pertain to leaks. One states that “it is a crime to disclose information related to national defense with the intent of injuring the United States or aiding a foreign nation.” A survey of some current and former government officials said that 42% of the people surveyed leaked information to the press at least once. Some leakers are considered whistleblowers; a leaker is considered a whistleblower if the information they disclosed is about a government agency violating the law, wasting money, or abusing its authority. Whistleblowers are protected under the Whistleblower Protection Act. This is meant to protect a whistleblower from being fired, demoted, or face any other retaliation from the agency they work for. Leakers are rarely prosecuted (“Leaks and the Media” 1-2).

Since the first law against leaking came into effect in 1917, only around a dozen people have been federally prosecuted as of 2013. Eight of the twelve people were prosecuted during the Obama Administration. One reason that there has been such a small number of people prosecuted may be that classified programs involve a large number of people, and journalists can get information about things from multiple sources. Another reason that there has only been a few people prosecuted is that it may be more harmful to the United States to go to court because even more information could come out in a case. The government cannot usually stop a journalist from publishing a leaked story because they  would have to prove that the information would result in direct, irreparable harm to the United States. There also is not much keeping a journalist from publishing this information because the journalist cannot go to jail as long as they did not do anything illegal when getting the information. The first amendment protects the press in most situations. This is because the press was initially supposed to serve as a "watchdog" for the government so that the public would be able to hold the government accountable. Different courts have decided that this also includes publishing information that the government does not want to share. There is an instance where the journalist can be jailed if the government demands that they reveal their source and the journalist refuses. Most states have "shield laws" which prevents the government from forcing journalists to reveal their source. There have also been at least five landmark Supreme Court cases pertaining to leaked information (“Leaks and the Media” 1-2). 

Leaks can be prosecuted to various degrees. According to the Cornell University Law School,

 "A person who knowingly and willfully communicates, furnishes, transmits, or otherwise makes available to an unauthorized person, or publishes, or uses in any manner prejudicial to the safety or interest of the United States or for the benefit of any foreign government to the detriment of the United States shall be fined, imprisoned for no more than ten years, or both fined and imprisoned" (Cornell Law "18 U.S Code 798" 1).

John Bolton, who was the National Security Advisor in the Trump Administration for two years, recently wrote a book involved in an extensive legal battle over whether or not his book includes classified information ("The Law of Classified Information" 1). According to Section 798, title 18 of the United States Code, the maximum fine for the disclosure of classified information is $10,000. Anyone convicted of violating section 798 

"forfeits any property constituting, or derived from, any proceeds the person obtained, directly or indirectly, as the result of such violation; and any of the person's property used, or intended to be used, in any manner or part, to commit, or to facilitate the commission of such violation." 

Any forfeited property or proceeds are deposited in the Crime Victims Fund. This applies to the states and the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and any other U.S territories ("Title 18-Crimes and Criminal Procedure" 175-176). Edward Snowden is a whistleblower who leaked highly classified information from the NSA in 2013 when he worked in the Central Intelligence Agency. He has been seeking asylum in Russia since then and, in 2019 he published a memoir  titled Permanent Record. In September 2020, a U.S Federal court ruled that the U.S Intelligence mass surveillance program, which Snowden exposed, was illegal and unconstitutional. This federal case also ruled that Snowden would have to forfeit all of his royalties to the United States government (“The United States Obtains Final Judgement and Permanent Injunction Against Edward Snowden” 1). Some people believe that Snowden did the right thing by leaking that information.

One way to help fix the problem of distrust in the government is to elect a trustworthy candidate. The most trustworthy one is not always the most popular one. This is important even on the local level. If an untrustworthy candidate is elected, then nothing will change for the better. According to the League of Women Voters, the first step to finding the right candidate is looking at them in two ways: the positions that they take on issues and the leadership qualities and experience that they would bring to the office for which they are running. The second step in choosing a candidate is finding information about them. Knowing their background is essential when choosing. The third step is to gather materials such as ads, speeches, debates, letters, and newspapers. In local races, interviews are helpful. If the candidate is an incumbent, then their voting record is also essential to look at. The fourth step is to look at their stands on different issues. Another essential part of choosing a candidate is deciding whether or not they have the leadership abilities. A person who does not have strong leadership abilities would not be the person to lead their constituents and help make crucial decisions. One last way to help decide which candidate to elect is to talk to others and see how they view the candidate ("How to Judge a Candidate"). Congressman Matthew Santos made a very true statement in an episode of The West Wing:

 "It's been suggested to me that party unity is more important than your democratic rights as delegates. That's right. It's not. And you have a decision to make. Don't vote for us because you think we're perfect. Don't vote for us because of what we might be able to do for you only. Vote for the person who shares your ideals, your hopes, your dreams. Vote for the person who most embodies what you believe we need to keep our nation strong and free." ("2162 Votes" The West Wing).

Another way to fix the problem is for the different political parties to come together. The Democratic and Republican parties oppose each other now more than ever before. In a recent survey, 55% of Democrats said that Republicans scare them and 49% of Republicans in the survey said the same thing about Democrats. Most people can agree that the far left and the far right are both extremists. The far-right has the KKK, and the far-left has the Communist Party. A report put out by the University of Maryland School of Public Policy shows that the majority of Republicans and Democrats agree on nearly 150 issues, including social parts of security, some parts of immigration, the federal budget, and poverty programs ("Major Report Shows Issues Republicans and Democrats Agree On" 1). Though both parties may agree on many issues, the problem is that that cannot agree on fixing them. House Resolution 24, which was for President Trump's Impeachment, was voted on January 13th. A total of 222 Democrats voted for impeachment, while 197 of the 211 Republicans in the U.S House of Representatives voted against it. So far, in 2021 alone, there have been 10 votes within 20 votes of each other. Members of Congress vote with their party; they do not always vote for what they believe and for what their people want. Both of the major political parties are too worried about attacking each other to solve the problems facing the people of the United States. Political parties have never gotten along the best, but now they are worse than ever. A problem with the two-party system is that party leaders know that they most likely will not appeal to the other party. From 1932-1964, Democrats held the White House and Congress with a few exceptions. They relied on southern conservatives who disagreed with human rights to win elections. Democrats used to be known as the working-class party, but Ronald Reagan won his 1980 election with the working class's vote ("How Partisanship Is Fracturing America Democracy" 15-16). If Independents and Libertarians were included in Congress, then there would be many different ideas. One of them might even be acceptable by all parties. 

The political environment of today has voters moving to extremes. Partisan divides also include religious, cultural, geographical, and racial divisions. A person used to be able to call themselves conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans. Political parties were harder to distinguish between because people could share common beliefs, and this made it easier to find common ground for parties to agree on. Sometime in the past 30 years or so, this has become unacceptable. Lee Drutman, a senior fellow at the political reform think tank New America wrote, 

"Our democratic institutions, which require compromise and bipartisanship, are not built to withstand this kind of division. A partisan conflict like this - without a shared consensus over a nation's fundamental values - is a politics that is deeply unstable."(“How Partisanship Is Fracturing America Democracy” 4).

 According to Democrats, Republicans are the ones that cause the problems. According to the Republicans, Democrats cause them. As of right now, there is no center where people can come together and agree on ideas. America is also more economically unequal than it has ever been ("How Partisanship Is Fracturing America Democracy" 3). The wealthiest 20% of people make almost all of the economic gains in the U.S. This is a problem because democracy needs a strong middle class to survive. Drutman goes on to later say,  

"The Founding Fathers were not perfect in their wisdom. For them, democracy involved far more theory than practice, and one of their theories was that political parties did more harm than good. They imagined a government in which men of good character and great wisdom (like themselves, of course), would, through the power of reason, see to the public interest and achieve consensus. As a result, there is no mention of political parties in the Constitution at all." 

The first president of the United States, George Washington, was even an Independent. One-party politics, which is what each party is trying to achieve, is not Democracy. It is totalitarianism. The government must have a certain amount of partisanship, but when partisanship becomes the most important thing, democracy cannot function. As long as the two-party system remains organized around race and cultural identity issues, there is a large problem. In 2017, 61% of people that completed a gallup poll said they wanted a third party in the government ("How Partisanship Is Fracturing America Democracy" 20). New ideas that are not from a Republican or Democrats could help solve key problems.  

A very small number of leaks have been prosecuted. Why is that? According to the Federation of American Scientists, there have been at least 523 leaks of classified information between 2009-2018. Out of the 523 leaks, 208 of those were under the Trump Administration. As of November 2017, the then-Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, said there are a total of 27 open investigations ("Leaks of Classified Info Surge Under Trump" 1). If the United States prosecuted more people for leaking information, then maybe people would stop doing it. If a person such as Edward Snowden came back to the United States, he would face at least 30 years in prison just under the Espionage Act. 

A government that gets things done is a trustworthy government. The U.S government has not accomplished much in the past 10 years. The government has to be something that a citizen can trust to do the right thing.  For something to be accomplished in this country, the right people need to be in charge. In the United Kingdom, the amount of people who trust the government is not massive, but it is much higher than in the United States. The approval rating in the U.K is 31%. They get things done. Germany is also able to achieve success. In a Gallup survey of people from 29 countries, 62% of those people approved of Germany's leadership when Angela Merkel was Chancellor ("Merkel Set to Leave Office" 1). In order for the United States to govern effectively, they must have leaders that lead for the people. 

The United States does not only classify material that is harmful to national security, and it classifies its material that is also embarrassing to them. If the United States does not want something to get out, but it is not a risk to national security, it should not have done it in the first place. In 2013, Chelsea Manning was convicted for theft of the United States Diplomatic Cables. 251,287 cables were leaked in total, totaling 261,276,536 words. She was convicted under the Espionage Act and sentenced to 35 years in prison, and was eventually released after seven years of confinement in 2017. Around 130,000 of the published cables were unclassified and did not in any way harm national security. ("United States Diplomatic Cables Leak" 1). 

If the United States' political parties were able to come together and compromise, then this country is better. There is the possibility of stopping the current unrest in the United States. Not everyone is always on the same page; the far-left and the far-right would still be in their own areas, but if the left and right realize they share many ideas, then problems are solved. 

In summary, if the United States is supposed to move forward, then the country must work together. There cannot be any more arguing over useless things. People need to leave the government, and many need to get involved in it. Term limits would drastically help not keep the same people in office for decades. Change is a necessity to keep this country going. Countries across the world are more effective because they are willing to work together solving real problems. Having honest people in the government is only part of the solution. The public has to trust them to make the right decision. People talk about change, but they do not actually do anything about it. It is time to change that.

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