Americans are afforded a privilege which, while not rare, is certainly unavailable to billions of other Earthlings: We’re allowed to vote for those who represent us in government.
The words “privilege” and “allowed” are used with a purpose: The U.S. Constitution gives Americans the right to vote, but does not require us to do so. If voting were a legal requirement, in the 2000 election 100 million Americans could have been arrested, as pundits lamented the “Vanishing Voter” phenomenon.
But by the 2016 election, voter turnout had transmogrified from apathy to engagement with a record number of ballots cast – 137.5 million. Indeed, we’re experiencing one of the most promising phenomena of the current age: increasing fervor and investment of the American electorate in the political process.
Nothing bad happens when Americans get fired up about the political process, regardless of whether a voter spins to the left or the right or marks time in the middle, because taking a political position typically manifests in a more knowledgeable voter. And the best way for America’s challenges to be addressed is for those same voters to require political representatives to stand up and serve with leadership, rather than slouch with the self-anointed political class.