My political science professor said on our first day in her class that politics is simply an alternative to violence. That stuck with me for decades and came roaring back to mind one January 6th. Nearly four years later, America has voted against politics. In a more recent book, How to Raise a Citizen, another Poly-Sci prof Lindsey Cormack says, “I don’t think anyone who stormed the Capitol on that day thought they wouldn’t get their way.
An idea was able to flourish because they didn’t have an understanding of what was actually going to happen or what our laws say.” She makes a good point. Those insurrectionists were suckered by a con man and didn’t know – most people still don’t know – how representative democracy is supposed to work or why, or how laws and public policy decisions should be made. They don’t quite get that the object of a democratic government is the welfare of the people – all the people. But you do.
We have a responsibility and a mission to make those conversations happen.