Democracy – A system of government that bases its legitimacy on the participation of its people.
America’s been doing this democracy thing for a while now but we have not always been great at the “participation of all its people” part.
Even today, we’re the only advanced democracy that deliberately discourages its people from voting. Now, that might sound like an exaggerated claim, but in 2021, there are still a whole lot of state lawmakers out there proposing new bills that discourage people to vote but just under the guise of “election security.”
The Argument is:
The harder it is to vote, the harder it is to vote fraudulently. But that is not only faulty logic, its faulty logic that comes with a huge price: disenfranchisement.
Which leads us back to:
We’re the only advanced democracy that deliberately discourages its people from voting.
However, right now there is also federal legislation being debated that could start to turn that reputation around, like:
- removing unnecessary burdens to voting (like registering)
- improving our voting system security by funding it more
- ensuring more voters pick their politicians instead of politicians picking their voters
- and reducing the power of special interests
We’re going to continue to deeper dive on what these voting reform bills actually say and how they impact you and your VOTE. (Even registering to vote is a burden!)
Because our system definitely needs some improvements and the debate over what those improvements should be is necessary, but we also need a shared definition of what we’re working towards.
So, if the legitimacy of our democracy is based on the participation of its people…
It feels pretty nonpartisan to say:
“Let’s pass solutions that encourage and enable all of us to participate.”
