Cedric L. Alexander served some four decades in law enforcement and other aspects of public service leadership. A CNN and MSNBC contributor, his "In Defense of Public Service: How 22 Million Government Workers Will Save Our Republic" will be published in January 2020. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN.

(CNN) The depositions began on October 17 and were followed, less than a month later, by the televised public hearings of the House Intelligence Committee. By November 21, the nation had heard, live and in person, from 11 unelected career public servants and one recent Trump-appointee, hotelier Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union.

The testimony followed the allegations of an unelected government whistleblower that the president and other top government officials had pressured foreign nations, primarily Ukraine, to investigate former Vice President and 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter. The Trump administration directed these ( and other ) individuals not to testify, according to The Washington Post . But some, including Sondland — who had secured an appointment as EU ambassador after contributing over $1 million to Trump's inaugural committee — came forward after subpoena without challenging the writ in court, as others in the administration have.

Cedric L. Alexander

We don't yet know what effect the testimony will have on the President or anyone else, including those who stepped up. But what we do know from the impeachment hearings is that the whistleblower and the public servants who have appeared so far did what members of the unelected government do daily: They served the people.

Their public service was to bear witness and report on deeds, words, and events spoken or carried out at the highest levels of elected government, outside of public sight and hearing. For Americans who have lost faith in their government — frustrated by a hyper-partisan era in which left and right often can't even agree on such elementary tautologies as fact is fact , and truth is truth — the responsiveness of these public servants is a sorely needed reminder: There is another part of government, which is entirely unelected, that continues to function and uphold our democracy.

Fortunately, while the Constitution mentions no "Fourth Branch," one exists, and it dwarfs the other three in size and immediate importance to daily life.

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