Bringing together the sharpest thinkers to reveal the real-world impact of American government, one episode at a time.
The government gets a bad rap. But the roads under your feet, the forecast on your phone, and the letter in your mailbox are all government too. Hosted by Professors Greg Jackson and Lindsey Cormack, Government That Doesn't Suck brings together the sharpest thinkers to reveal the real-world impact of American government, one episode at a time.
About 200 years ago, We the People created a baseline for a Government That Doesn’t Suck. "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity. In today’s episode, Greg Jackson and Lindsey Cormack discuss the United States Constitution and why we are all founders.
With its lavishly funded mandate to put a man on the moon, the Apollo mission promised to reinvigorate a country that had lost its way. But a new breed of activists denounced it as a colossal waste of resources needed to solve pressing problems at home. Neil Maher reveals that there were actually unexpected synergies between the space program and the budding environmental, feminist and civil rights movements as photos from space galvanized environmentalists, women challenged the astronauts’ boys club and NASA’s engineers helped tackle inner city housing problems.
It used to be that federal government jobs were awarded via a "spoils system," where political patronage and loyalty were the primary criteria for hiring and firing government employees. This system led to widespread corruption, incompetence, and inefficiency, as unqualified individuals often held positions due to their political connections rather than their abilities. The assassination of President James A. Garfield in 1881 by a disgruntled office-seeker who felt he was unfairly denied a position highlighted the flaws of the spoils system and fueled public demand for civil service reform.
Lindsey Cormack is an associate professor of political science at Stevens Institute of Technology, the author of How to Raise a Citizen (And Why It’s Up to You to Do It) and Congress and U.S. Veterans: From the GI Bill to the VA Crisis, and co-host of the podcast Government That Doesn’t Suck!. She is also a featured co-host and contributor to the National Constitution Center’s Civic Parenting podcast. In 2009, she created DCinbox, an extensive archive of official email communications sent by members of Congress, and she now translates findings from that collection for a broader public through the substack DCinbox Insights. Cormack’s research examines Congress, political communication, civic education, elections, veterans’ politics, and women in politics. Her scholarship has appeared in journals including Political Research Quarterly, Political Behavior, Political Science Research and Methods, American Politics Research, and Congress & the Presidency. Her public-facing work and commentary have appeared in outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, NBC News, ProPublica, MarketWatch, and The Hechinger Report. She earned her Ph.D. in government from New York University and serves as Secretary of Manhattan Community Board 8. Across her research, books, podcasts, public service, and civic education work, she focuses on helping people understand how government operates and how ordinary citizens can participate more confidently and effectively.
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