Trust with Verification

Posted on July 27, 2004 in Accountability Campaign 2004

Trust with verification. This term was a favorite of Ronald Reagan during Glasnost. It means that we grant trust when we can verify that it is worthy of being given. If you want the United States to trust you, then you have to demonstrate that you have truly disarmed, etc. Or so the refrain went when the Reaganauts talked about the Soviet Union, but never about the Saudis, Saddam Hussein, the Afghani rebels, Israel, or the Contras. These didn’t need to verify that they respected human rights or international law. They got the moral blank check.

Trust with verification is a fine policy when it is consistently — and nonideologically — applied. Which brings us to the problem of George W. Bush. We have here a squatter in the White House who blocks attempts by America’s citizenry to be accountable. The policy of “trust with verfication” works well here: Mr. Bush, if you won’t let us verify then we the People will not trust you.

Trust with verification is an idea whose time has come. Let the American people use it to guide them in making the best choice in the November elections and beyond.