I just woke up to the fact that I’ve fallen into a trap. The trap of believing that because I’m engaged in a political discussion, I’m being a responsible citizen.

I met with some old friends last week for a couple of days. We shared what’s going on in our individual lives and, as is often the case, the conversation landed on the 2024 U.S. election and the future. As a group of intelligent, educated and successful men, we’re engaged and concerned. We will definitely be voting. However, even with all our frustrations, hand-wringing, and sharing of concerns for children and country, we had to acknowledge that we weren’t doing much to impact the outcome in November.

We had drifted into a lively and relatively well-informed conversation about the future without noticing that conversations about the future don’t do much, if anything, to change the future.

Each of us had our explanations for why we didn’t need to be “activists”. There was our age (everyone is in their 60s or older). There was the recognition that plenty of people are already campaigning to have people register and vote. It seems everyone has already made up their mind about who they’ll vote for. The outcome is going to be determined in a few swing states anyway and the rest of the country (where we live) doesn’t count. Blah, blah, blah.

What do you do when you’re facing large questions with large stakes in an environment in which it’s not clear whether anything you do—or don’t do—will make any difference?

The fact is I have been and we were being complacent. This meeting was a wake-up call for both me and my friends. This essay is my first attempt at saying something that might help others to wake up as well. While I am politically and ideologically a ‘blue’ progressive, I am speaking to anyone who is a citizen of this United States of America.

A Responsible Citizen Defined

First, an American citizen can freely choose what commitments they make. Our nation is, after all, founded on the principle of individual freedoms (including the freedom of self-expression, worship, and “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”) and rights (including the right to vote in elections for public officials and run for elected office). I believe—and teach in my work—that whatever the future will be, it will be a function of action, and action will be a function of human commitment.

Only an individual can make a commitment. Said differently, commitment is an individual action, not a collective one. You can commit. I can commit. The idea that ‘we’ can commit—together—is a false construct. What we can do—together—is align our commitments and fulfill them. For none of us can fulfill our commitments entirely by ourselves. We depend upon our relationships and the larger community to make our commitments reality.

Second, we can easily let ourselves become consumed by habitual and generally cynical moods, such as complacency and resignation. Consider how many times have you might have said or thought about the 2024 election in terms of:

• “I’m powerless; anyway, it doesn’t matter.”
• “Why bother? It’s hopeless.”
• “Why try to change the outcome? It’s inevitable.”
• “Who cares? I have no choice in the matter.”

Such complacency and resignation can become a self-justifying excuse for opting out, throwing in the towel and becoming spectators, sitting on the sidelines watching life happen, and self-righteously pontificating or complaining about the way it is.

Your Country, Your Voice

So why should you and I—or any of us, for that matter—bother to vote or become actively involved in the political process? Why should we attempt to be as informed as we can be? Why should we make our conversations vigorous expressions of our commitment to a particular party’s platform or candidate? Why should we actively campaign, if we can, and support others who are campaigning if we can’t?

I think the answer to all these questions comes down to one thing: ours is the only Constitution in the world that puts you, the individual, at the center of our system of governance. Our system of constitutional democracy is all about your voice. At the end of the day, your voice is all that matters.

Yes, this means you and I have the right to sit on the sidelines. We have the right to complain about our leaders, their policies, and anything else we don’t like.

But then why would I give in to complacency and give my voice—my power—to others? Why would I choose to give up this one privilege that is exclusively mine? Why would you?

Our country has been buried in an avalanche of hyper-polarizing headlines and interpretations that force our attention deeper into sensationalism, rather than facts. We’re numbed by the daily attacks on both sides of the aisle, the vitriol and mudslinging, the misinformation and disinformation that undermines our faith in our institutions and sews distrust in our communities. Many are so obsessed with certain events and details related to the Presidential Election that they’ve forgotten—or may soon forget—that the other offices that are up for election may have more to do with our future than just the question of who is our next president.

In spite of all this, I encourage you to think about and act on the fact that, whatever views you hold and whoever you choose to vote for, this election is important and will shape our political, economic, and social reality for the foreseeable future.

This is not a time to be a spectator.

This is not a time to give in to complacency and resignation.

No matter where I stand politically and no matter where you stand, America is your country and mine. It belongs to, and is defined, by us.

Now is the time to wake up and act.

Like it or not, we are all in this together.

PS. I will have more to say in future posts about why I am for the progressive agenda and Joe Biden as President.

_____

Originally published June 5, 2024 at Jim Selman’s Substack “At the Crossroads“