The constitution of the United States mentions 5 separate times “the right to vote” (1). Voting is certainly not just a privilege, but the right of every US citizen to vote. But with this right to vote comes a heavy responsibility! Each of us as US citizens must cast our vote to fulfill this important civic duty. This November, fulfill your civic duty and vote.
We must remember the examples of the great revolutionaries, people like Madison and Hamilton, who formed America, and gave us our constitution and our right to vote. We must remember Lincoln for emancipating the slaves, and suffragette leaders like Susan B. Anthony who got women their right to vote. It’s important to remember leaders from around the world like Mahatma Gandhi who resisted an Empire on whom the sun never set, or our own Martin Luther King Jr, who had a dream. They used the power of people’s voices to overturn the impossible. We ordinary citizens can certainly emulate them in a small way and overcome the problems we perceive today by fulfilling our civic duty to vote.
Even though the right to vote has been so hard won for every group (women, African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, young people, etc), voting in the United States is treated as a perfunctory exercise by all groups, and only slightly more than 50% of eligible voters vote in any presidential election. The input of citizens is a necessity for true democracy, and if only half the citizens vote, inputs are inadequate and incomplete. For democracy to work, each of us must participate, not just observe and criticize.
Most of us citizens accept gracefully and solemnly our civic duty to sit on juries, and our duty to defend the country in war, so why not when it comes to our duty to vote? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if each of us took voting as an important civic duty, and we had 80 to 90% voter participation? High participation levels would increase confidence in our leaders, and the leaders in turn would have clear mandates on how citizens expect them to lead, at every level whether it be President or Senate or city council. There would be no place for suppression or obstruction of voters, and government would be forced to make voting easy and accessible to all. Large and regular voter turnouts would also reduce dependance on dark money. Many groups (2) are advocating mandatory civic duty voting, and while I dont go so far as to force people to vote, I do strongly feel it is an important responsibility and moral obligation of every citizen to cast a vote, and I hope you will too this November.
(1) https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/09/voting-right-or-privilege/262511/
(2) https://www.brookings.edu/research/lift-every-voice-the-urgency-of-universal-civic-duty-voting/