Broken

This year, I failed to do my civic duty. 

I voted, of course.   I always vote. 

But I’ve never regarded the mere act of voting as sufficient. 

Since the Golden Age of Athens, in the fifth century BCE, the whole idea of democracy has rested on the assumption that most citizens will be reasonably well-informed; willing to engage in public discourse; and strongly inclined to think for themselves.

Ideally, these citizens will also attempt to balance their natural self-interest with an equally powerful commitment to the common good – what our Founders called the commonwealth. 

Citizenship in a democracy, or a democratic republic, involves active engagement.  A citizen should speak out – at least among his or her neighbors.  And speaking out should involve some courage – some risk:  the risk of offending family, friends or neighbors; the risk of being corrected on the facts or challenged on one’s reasoning; the risk of being proved wrong.

American democracy once involved a robust – even rowdy – exchange of views.  In big cities, small towns, and isolated villages, the issues which divided the great deliberative bodies at our national and state capitals were also debated, with equal fervor, among people who knew each other well. 

Out of those local controversies, citizens gained a clearer understanding of the issues.   Sometimes, they were also able to spot rising young leaders who saw things with unique clarity or expressed themselves particularly well.

Today, in most communities, Americans seem to prefer not getting involved.  Except in presidential years, most of us don’t even vote.  And, for those who do, voting has come to be regarded as sufficient.

It’s not.

Among the commentariat – the media pundits and political scientists – this lack of public engagement is often deemed apathy.  Personally, I’ve never seen apathy as being the problem.  Indeed, from what I can tell – from personal conversations and on social media – interest in national and global affairs has been on the rise for some time. 

Certainly, that has been true since 9/11.  The trend became even more pronounced after the banking crisis which precipitated the so-called Great Recession.

But this growing public interest has yet to translate itself into public involvement – and therein lies the problem of our times.

In a functional democracy, citizens believe that they can make a difference.  They take action.  When citizens are convinced that they wield no actual power – that their votes and opinions don’t matter; that there’s no point in volunteering for a campaign, or displaying a bumper sticker or yard sign; that sending a modest contribution to a preferred candidate will have no impact – when that situation obtains, democracy is broken. 

And when a great nation – long accustomed to the blessings of liberty and self-government – loses confidence in its democracy, one of two things will happen:  reform, or revolution.

Personally, like most people, I prefer reform.  But our political system, as presently constituted, seems to have become incapable of reforming itself.  The system of campaign finance regulation – never robust – has been gutted by a Supreme Court which is far too politicized to serve its proper constitutional functions.

Political advertising and partisan shouting have replaced virtually all other forms of public discourse – reducing debate to simple-minded slogans, empty symbolism, and the worst sorts of defamation of character.

With only two major political parties – both utterly dependent on unregulated, and often secret, contributions from wealthy individuals, corporations, and unions – no mechanism of reform appears to exist.

Meanwhile, with two-party political warfare confined to sensational – but often unimportant – issues, efforts to meet the great and serious challenges that face us continue to be ignored, postponed, filibustered, or mired in partisan gridlock. 

Little wonder that so many citizens feel alienated from the entire political process.  Yet, given our history, it’s impossible to believe that the American people will long remain willing to live under a system which pretends to be “government of the people, by the people, for the people” – but which is actually none of those things.

An explosion is coming. 

May it come soon!

If this explosion is to be peaceful and political – if it’s to be an explosion of reform, rather than revolution – the majority of Americans need a mechanism with which to wrest power from institutions which no longer work. 

I have long thought that the proper mechanism is a third party – committed to complete reform of our political process, and to other issues which are regularly ignored by the two-party duopoly. 

For years, now, I’ve tried to think of an alternative scenario – a scenario in which one or both of the existing parties initiates the reforms we need to restore American democracy.

But I can envision no such scenario, and no one else has suggested anything that seems workable.    

Last Tuesday, I voted.  But that was hardly enough to claim that I’d done my civic duty.

Does anyone out there share the sense that citizenship in this once-great democratic republic demands more than casting a ballot?

Is anyone else willing to act?