Voting is useless if citizens do not engage in discussion
These are difficult and demanding times to be an American citizen. Within the nation’s borders, deep-seated racial tensions have risen to the surface yet again as Eric Garner of New York, Michael Brown of Ferguson, Missouri and countless unnamed and unarmed others have died at the hands of police following alleged excessive use of force. Then there are stories of countless refugees arriving in America in search of a better life. For them, extreme poverty and violence in several South American countries have been the catalyst for their perilous journey to the United States.
On top of that, there are the men and women American citizens have elected to make sense of these problems. They will return from a five-week recess on Sept. 8 to resume a session defined by bickering and unproductivity. According to statistics from the U.S. Senate’s Résumé of Congressional Activity, the current (113th) Congress has been the most unproductive on record since WWII in terms of public laws passed. Columns of newsprint can be — and have been — filled with criticism of elected officials. At a certain point, however, criticism becomes futile. At some point, the questioners should ask a few questions of themselves.
To slightly modify everyone’s favorite Spider-Man quote, with great political turmoil comes great responsibility. Most of the time, “State of the Union” will explore the responsibility of America’s national and local lawmakers to place matters of policy before matters of politics and deal rationally with the chaotic world we live in.
The responsibilities of the citizens who elect lawmakers are just as important as those of the lawmakers themselves. By voting, citizens forfeit their right to complain about the government when they don’t take an active role in selecting and discussing the actions of elected officials.
That’s where this column comes in. Voter turnout is at a pitiful level; according to the Huffington Post, 58 percent of eligible voters voted in the 2012 presidential election, and the most optimistic studies show no significant change in voting participation since 1972. It’s time, however, to do away with the American misconception that voting is the only way to exercise a meaningful voice in government. The belief that voting relieves folks from any further meaningful participation in civic life is dangerous. True, voting determines the makeup of most governing bodies, but elections for those bodies happen only once in a period of one, two, four or even six years.
So what are we to do in between? As the years of elected officials’ terms slip by, voting and thumb-twiddling in the meantime might be even worse than choosing not to vote. In fact, what voters do leading up to Election Day is far more important than what they do on Election Day itself. A few informed citizens who make a decision are far more important than 20 times that number of uninformed citizens making the very same decisions.
Being a well-informed member of a democracy is about participating in conversations, being able to articulate opinions and engaging in discussions. The media needs to generate more articles that inspire readers to do just that — that’s what this column is for.
The world is in too much turmoil nowadays for things to be merely read and not acted upon — so take to your keyboard, your dinner table or your cell phone, and let’s create a conversation.
Nathaniel Haas is a junior majoring in economics and political science. His column, “State of the Union,” runs Fridays.