The Dream of America

Every time someone says "I'm not interested in politics", "I don't waste my time voting", or something else to that effect, I am reminded of the Iraqi elections. Displeased that they were losing the absolute power they had enjoyed under Saddam (and I'm simplifying, of course; this is a blog, not a dissertation), the Sunnis boycotted the elections - only to discover that doing so effectively silenced what voice they might have had in their own government.

If you claim to be disinterested in politics and are proud to be unaware of what goes on in the government, you are an irresponsible wastrel upon whose shoulders rest the burden of guilt just as surely as on those who commit those crimes against the Constitutional ideals. You are what has empowered these corrupt politicians. You are what has permitted them to remain in power. You are their accomplice, their willing cohort, their meek servitor.

You are the problem.

America was not founded to be a nation of uneducated serfs who vote by blind allegiance. The idea - the dream of America works only if the voters are educated, intelligent, and above all critical of their elected officials. The Republic is the most precarious of governments because it requires not that the bureaucrats be diligent nor that the rulers be wise, but that the people - the common folk on the street - be both diligent and wise, for they are their own rulers and the bureaucrats work (much as they may wish to deny it) for them. The responsibility for the regulation and maintenance of the government lies on the collective shoulders of the common man. This is not a novel concept, nor is it a particularly difficult one. Ben Franklin remarked on the precariousness of the Republic and responsibility that lay on the individual citizen very nearly as soon as the Constitution was drawn up with his answer of "A Republic, if you can keep it." This was understood on Day One.

Why have you forgotten? Is the eternal vigilance demanded of free men too hard? Are the obstacles too great to overcome? Are the difficulties in setting right what has gone wrong insurmountable? Is there a price too great for the dream of America - for the land of opportunity, for that nation dedicated to the principles that all are created equal and endowed with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?