From Civil Discourse — I got this quote from one of its discussions:

[T]he average American is quite clueless as to basic strategies for political organizing, analysis, and advocacy. We utterly lack a national civic education programme that empowers Americans with the skills and attitudes that are essential for meaningful participation in public life. Studying the Constitution ain’t enough. Americans need to learn how to organize, how to discuss politics in civil and constructive ways, how to analyze political issues incisively, and how to advocate their views intelligently and persuasively in the public square.

More than ever I am starting to veer more and more towards this point of view. I consider myself a fairly intelligent and well-informed individual and I have plenty of ideas on the problems we have in society, the role of government in solving such problems, and how we, as ordinary people, can best appeal to System to address these issues.

Sure, there are systemic hurdles to civic participation and a lot more can be done to make our lawmakers and their representatives more accessible to the general public. But I think the biggest obstacle to actually realizing the ideals of democratic participation in the US today lies in the quote above.

The general American public is deeply ignorant and not educated about the basics of civic participation. I’m guilty of that as well. If you ask me to lay out the nuts and bolts of actually trying to DO something about society’s problems I will admit that I will be at a loss. I wouldn’t know the first thing about grassroots organizing, legislative advocacy, and how to push an agenda through to the various institutions of influence we have in American society. I am currently volunteering with an activist group as a way to educate myself on these things. But I am relying on the leadership of more experienced folks to show me how things are done.

Sure, I learned basic civics in high school and talked a lot of political theory in college. But when it comes to actually being trained in the basics of meaningful participation in public life I am muddling my way through and learning by doing as I go. It’s a shame that I am just starting out at 37 years old but hey, better late than never, right?

I would guarantee you that an active, engaged citizenry well-educated on the basics of political participation and are not bashful about acting upon that education will be a potent force in society. I don’t really see any barriers for the average citizen to educate themselves and to participate except the time and the motivation to do so.

We all have busy lives. However, one of the priorities we should have as citizens is to make time for democratic participation. Judging from the long, long lines at the voting booth in recent elections, there is a huge yearning for this type of stuff among the general American populace. There’s a big demand for people to want to engage in society in meaningful ways. Voting shouldn’t be the be all and end all of democratic participation.