Incognito

I think we could do away with every political focus group in the country, send a bazillion consultants off to find different work, and transform our political world if we just made every official in the nation go out incognito once a month and perform an everyday task, almost as if they were regular people.

I’ve thought about this idea for years, and now others may be coming on board. Delta Airlines is stopping elected officials’ preferential treatment until the TSA agents start getting paid again.

What a great idea. A few decades ago, we took a trip to Washington DC to see friends and they picked us up at the airport. We walked directly past an almost empty parking lot that was reserved for members of Congress so they didn’t have to be inconvenienced. I was grumpy about that privilege at the time, and my grumpiness hasn’t wavered. Around ten years ago I flew to Washington as part of a lobbying group, a nightmare trip that involved wearing a suit and being nice to people. On that trip I saw the little subway system that was reserved for members of Congress, while we regular schmucks trudged through the heat and humidity. I started out feeling pretty respectable in my good black suit, but by the end of the day I looked like Humphrey Bogart in “The African Queen,” except for not having any leeches stuck to me. I may have encountered some leeches of the two-legged variety, but that’s a different story.

So, this incognito initiative could be expanded far beyond transportation. I think the head of the IRS should spend their weekends filling out tax forms. Because I live on a farm and also have my own business, my tax forms are around 60 pages. The task isn’t made easier knowing that every line in the tax code is there to give someone an advantage. I don’t like that, even when the advantage is mine. In some countries, you file your taxes on a post card. The fact that we’re not one of them is just another example of how good people with influence are at working the system.

Here’s another thought. All the people in Congress who sit on committees that write legislation about immigration should be forced to help a valued employee get a Green Card. I started this paragraph by writing that Congress members shouldn’t get a paycheck until they finish the process of sorting out our immigration laws, but that would be too cruel. There would be starving politicians all up and down the Potomac. The current wait time for a Green Card, meaning you’re legally allowed to work, is 9 to 30 months - if you’re a family member of a U.S. citizen. A regular person, with no connections, can wait between 2 and 20 years.

Years.

So many places where people rub up against the government involves frustration, stupidity, and favoritism. I try to keep these columns to around 500 words, but this one could have been 5,000, and if I solicited input from my readers, 10,000.

I do think it’s a good idea for Congress to get in the regular-folks-line for airport security. At least it’s a start.

Copyright 2026 Brent Olson