I wrote this column on Sunday afternoon, when I had no idea who our next president will be. On this Wednesday morning, it is possible that we still don't know who the next leader of our country will be; maybe we'll have another election-day fiasco, a protracted and ugly recount, a low point of political wrangling that will last for weeks, if not months.
Conversely, we may have an uncontested victory for one presidential candidate, either Sen. John McCain or Sen. Barack Obama. When you read this column, you may be exulting in the victory of your candidate or despondent in your champion's loss. I don't know. But either way, you may feel that you did all you could. You voted, you had your voice heard and now political history will march on while we wait another four years for our next act of democracy.
I want to ask something of you: Don't wait another four years to have your voice heard. Don't lay down your civic burden. We hold dear the concept that democracy is a way of life, a collection of ideals and beliefs that define and shape our identity and morals. This democracy cannot be reduced to filling out bubbles on a piece of paper and putting it in a ballot box. It cannot be encapsulated in one act, the act of voting, but rather it is fulfilled through a less transient commitment.
The democratic theorist Sheldon Wolin has argued that U.S. democracy has dissipated to the point that the average American is not so much a citizen as an episodic participant in our democracy, a stamp of legitimization. We have our opinion asked of us every two years, and the political ads tell us what our representatives have done for us, and what we should believe. In the meantime, we become passive spectators of the political processes of our own nation, consigned to wait until we next have the chance to speak. You can hear it in the political ads: "Just wait until Election Day. Then Senator So-and-so will know what we really think!"
But why do we wait until Election Day? There are so many avenues of democracy-in addition to voting-that may require from us more commitment, but also offer us more reward. Involvement in our community, grassroots organizing for causes we believe in, the building of a more politically aware and empowered citizenry-all these are ways we can involve ourselves more fully in our democracy. And they don't require us to wait every four years.
I've heard about a series of ads on television that a lot of people don't seem to like: It's a bunch of celebrities facetiously telling us, "Don't vote, because one vote doesn't matter." Toward the end of the commercial, they change their minds and tell us that, hey, even though you're just one person, your vote does matter!
And it absolutely does; but it matters less because of its numerical importance than because it marks our collective reaffirmation of the civic norms that uphold our democracy. But voting isn't the end of our civic obligations; it's the beginning.
We have a country that has been hit hard with financial disaster, is involved in protracted war(s) and faces increasingly dire reports of global climate change every day. Meanwhile, it seems like another government official is arrested every week, for fraud or bribery or unethical behavior, while special interests continue to thrive despite their antipathy to our nation's ideals of fairness and equal representation. Both of our previous presidential contenders have promised change, but even if they are sincere in their convictions, they will quickly have to deal with all manner of crises that will bog them down. Despite how strongly you might believe in your respective political party, and despite who is next going to the White House, one man cannot change our country all by himself, even if he is the president. The Greeks entrusted the entire world to the shoulders of one man, Atlas. We know now that no solitary champion can carry all our burdens for us.
For all of those who voted, I congratulate you. I voted for the second time in my life last week, and even if the outcome doesn't go my way, I will still be proud to have done my civic duty. But voting is not my only duty: I have other obligations to advance the well-being of my community and to show solidarity with other Americans (and indeed people around the world) when their rights are violated or when they are subjected to unfair conditions. Democracy doesn't come with a four year timeline; it's an ideal that manifests itself daily. Today will mark a new chapter in American history, and the election of a new president is just the title. It's up to us to write out the story of the next four years.
James Tager is a Trinity senior. His column runs every other Wednesday.
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