Again, Democracy Works
Yes, we have survived another experiment in American Democracy and it is still alive and well in spite of the politicians who need it and the rest of us who probably expect too much from it. It works because we are willing to let it work. It works because we believe it can work.

Every so often under all kinds of different circumstances we Americans believe that the best thing to do is change things in our government. The Newt Gingrich revolution in 1994 was the last time. The Nancy Pelosi upset in 2006 the newest.

Many will say, of course, that not a lot changes- there’s just a new set of politicians doing variations on the same old things. But in reality a lot changes- or more to the point- changes peacefully. No troops in the streets, no special poll watchers, no threatened revolution if one or the other side wins. It’s just the same old democracy doing its thing.

My deepest sadness comes from the awareness that so few people actually voted. Maybe part of the problem is that voting and elections are so common, expected, part of everyday life. There’s nothing new or exciting about it. I get excited every time I vote. It says I have an opinion, even if I am just one out of 300,000,000 Americans. I can express it without fear.

I have no idea how things would have been different if 60% or 75% of the American electorate had gone to the polls yesterday. What would look different on that ridiculous red and blue map of the separation of states? Who would have won that didn’t and vice versa? We’ll never know, of course. But my dream is that someday across these great United States we’ll get to those bigger and better numbers. Because if we don’t, things might get interesting- and no one will allow us to vote. That would be the real disaster.