If you’re an American, you might be feeling sick, angry, and helpless right now. You see injustice and wrongdoing on your screen seemingly every day. One outrage after another. And you wonder what you can do and if you can possibly make a difference.
These kinds of feelings are natural. I feel them too, as do so many that I know (and far more that I don’t). But the danger lies in letting these feelings bring you to despair or into inaction.
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I wrote about how we *can* make a difference, and drew on examples like Dr. King, who faced powerful foes in a hostile environment and won, despite his youth and inexperience.
The key is something we Americans often fail to appreciate, which is the power of democracy.
As the old saying goes, a fish doesn’t know it’s in water. America is the first and oldest large-scale democracy in the history of humanity, and native-born citizens like me have been swimming in its waters our entire lives. We see its flaws and problems, and feel despair when we can’t find easy solutions.
We have no idea how remarkable democracy is, flaws and all.
The core idea of democracy is simple but profound: We all matter, simply by being born or naturalized as a citizen. Each of our votes counts the same, regardless of wealth, fame, faith, or occupation. Of course some individuals have more power than others, but ultimately the power of a democratic government comes from all of its citizens.
One of my personal heroes, Abraham Lincoln, put it best when he spoke the ringing phase, “Government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
Our elected and appointed officials have and exercise power, but that power comes from us. It is not their power; it is our power, of which they are meant to be faithful stewards. And if they fail to be faithful stewards, we can reclaim that power.
The current administration has chosen to exercise power in ways that a strong majority of Americans find repugnant and wrong. It has been able to do so because it won an election, and elections have consequences. I may not have chosen this administration, but America collectively did so.
However, presidents are not intended to be dictators. Their job is to uphold the laws and the Constitution, but at an even more fundamental level, their job is to be faithful stewards of the power the people grant them. And even the most authoritarian presidents understand, on some level, that they blatantly violate the will of the people for long.
Right after the murder of Alex Pretti, this administration tried to sully his name and justify its actions. But within days, the clear outrage of the majority of the American people prompted it to change course, including the apparent demotion and forced retirement of the so-called “Commander At Large” of the Border Patrol, Gregory Bovino.
The administration did not take these actions because of a sudden attack of conscience. Its initial impulse was characteristic of its entire term–refuse to accept responsibility and blame everyone else. It changed course because it is afraid of the true power of you, the American people.
You have power. Whether through protest, economic boycott, or communicating your anger to your Congressional representatives and senators, you can make a difference. You just did.
That is why people in other nations around the world are willing to risk and lose their lives for the cause of democracy. Millions of Iranians continue to defy their oppressive government, even after crackdowns that have killed thousands of unarmed citizens.
The worst democratic government has to consider the will of the people more than the best autocratic government.
So if you’re an American citizen and you feel helpless and hopeless, channel those feelings. Make your opposition to wrongdoing known, to your friends, your neighbors, your elected officials, and especially to the businesses that rely on your dollars. You can make a difference. Maybe not alone, but you aren’t alone. There are 330 million of us, and the government works for us. That’s the power of democracy.