Voting is our ruling moment but we need to increase our participation in civic life

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Voting is not the only way
By Kevin L. Dooley, November 1, 2013

On Tuesday, Americans will go to the polls and cast their votes for a variety of state and local officials. While the process of voting remains the same, the nature of what it represents and how it figures into our political lives seems to have changed.

Historically, the right to vote has been accepted as an important first step on the road toward gaining greater equality. It is a feature of democratic life that allows citizens the opportunity to experience equality and freedom in a tangible way. When we vote, we have the ability to freely participate with and feel equal to our fellow citizens.

Since an early age, we have been taught that political participation is essential to democratic life because it underscores our ability to voice support or opposition to a particular policy or to provide some public service that would otherwise not be performed.

However if we judge the act of voting by this standard, it is perhaps one of the weaker activities we perform because of its passive and private nature. After all, it is accomplished alone, in silence, within a well-covered booth.

Voting may in fact send a message to our leaders, but it’s hardly loud and clear. It’s much more of a symbolic gesture than a bold statement; more of a whisper than a shout. Voting only gains in volume when enough people agree that one idea or one candidate is better than the rest.

Of all of the ways we could participate, it is the least engaging and the least burdensome. This is not to say that those who face harassment and intimidation at polling stations are not demonstrating a strong commitment to participation; they are, but they tend to underline rather than refute my point.

When political life asserts itself in a public manner, it behaves in a way in accordance with its nature. Intimidation at polling stations is a real threat to the legitimacy of the republic and the reason that it bothers us is because we inherently believe that everyone must have the right to participate in political life.

We are, as Aristotle noted, “political animals,” creatures naturally inclined toward public life who design laws to serve a higher purpose. In other words, we are obliged to enter into political life with our fellow citizens.

When we vote, we are having our ruling moment. It is the one day each year that we get to exert our collective influence.

Unfortunately, voting seems to have become one of the only ways we know how to participate. We like to say that we have voted in the same manner that we like to tie yellow ribbons around our trees or place bumper stickers on our cars signaling our support for a variety of causes. These acts are symptomatic of a culture obsessed with life dominated by the private sphere.

We want to help others. We want to engage our fellow citizens in discourse, but we lack the ability and the will to ask them.

This is largely because our political culture has become defined by anonymity as it is has been groomed by individualism.

We know just enough about the people with whom we share our cities and towns to say “hello,” but not enough to ask them about their political views and surely not who they voted for.

Our largest cities thrive on their anonymity, just as our suburbs and towns have seen main streets and public spaces wither away.

Esteemed political scientist Robert Putnam has told us that Americans are less engaged than ever before, but we continue to ignore the connection between civic life and democratic performance.

Civic life is essential to politics because it informs and shapes our beliefs and those of our fellow citizens. It provides us with various perspectives and shapes the way we fundamentally think and vote. If the necessary link between civic and private life has broken down, then the voting process is less meaningful than it once was.

So, before we head to the polling stations Tuesday, let’s remember that voting is just one way we can express our views collectively.

This is not to say that voting is not important. It clearly is.

However, if we desire to increase the importance of voting and increase the numbers of voters at the state and local levels, we must also desire a shift away from the privatized culture that has come to dominate so much of our political discourse.
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