Monday open thread: Power goes to those who show up
The New York Times' coverage of national politics is crap. We can all agree on this. But it is still a stellar newspaper, and does much good national and international reporting. (Not you, Judith Miller.)
Yesterday, as I was enjoying my last day of the life I've been living since the pandemic hit, I came across this story: One Small Step for Democracy in a ‘Live Free or Die’ Town.
Do read it, it's a great piece of journalism. (If you're out of free articles, you can go here.)
To recap quickly, the story concerns a town in New Hampshire in which its school district lost half of its funding due to the apathy of its citizens. And this is the crux of the piece:
“Showing up. That’s the big lesson,” said Chris Prost, 37, a Croydon resident who runs a small brewery from a barn at the back of his house. “And not just showing up, but also knowing what’s going on.”
New Hampshire, that supposed cauldron of participatory, direct democracy, has been victim to the same apathy which affects this entire nation, if not the entire West. People expect "the government" to take care of things. They may or may not vote. It's of no consequence. "The government" will sort things out.
Here's the thing: we are the government. There's no king, no emperor, and, as of yet, no dictator. We are sovereign. Power flows from us. And if we don't bother to exercise that power, then people with intentions with which we don't agree will.
Too many people want the benefits of citizenship without its obligations. I was catching up with my bestie this past weekend. We started talking about Jehovah's Witnesses, and how they neither vote nor serve on juries. And yet, they benefit from all the accoutrements of citizenship. They get Social Security, Medicare, paved roads, clean air and water. But they don't participate in the most basic obligation of citizenship.
To quote Plato: One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. Or, you end up being governed by people who don't share your putative values. How many people who tell pollsters that they agree with the Democratic platform bother to vote? Vast majorities believe in a woman's right to access abortion. Will they vote to codify that? Have they ever voted? Talk is cheap. Telling a pollster that you believe in Roe v. Wade and $3 will get you a coffee at Starbucks. We are past the time of performative politics. We have to act on our consciences. If we do not, then we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Vote. From president to dogcatcher. To do otherwise is to abrogate your duty as a citizen. And it's damned stupid.