Every member of Congress, the president, vice president and every government employee, elected or appointed, is required to be a citizen.
That must necessarily include the realization that they are taking on the responsibility of upholding democratic principles.
We the people, as citizens, are required to use our common sense to determine who has our best interests at heart.
This excerpt from an article published by the NEA in neaToday on March 16, 2017, is telling:
“One of the primary reasons our nation’s founders envisioned a vast public education system was to prepare youth to be active participants in our system of self-government. The responsibilities of each citizen were assumed to go far beyond casting a vote. Protecting the common good would require developing students’ critical thinking and debate skills along with strong civic virtues. Blind devotion to the state or its leaders would never be enough. Rather, being American was something to be learned and carried out.”
The longstanding deadlock in Congress is created by those who demonstrate blind devotion to personal power over civic duty, choosing to impose the will of their donors over promoting the common good of all.
Since the Supreme Court overturned Citizens United, we the people must do the work to learn who is buying the loyalty of those on our ballots and whose interests we are really voting for.
If we do that and demand principled leadership from those we honor with our vote on local, state, and national levels, democracy will live.
Joy Beaver
Sequim