VOTING
IS THE LEAST WE CAN DO
BY
JULIANNE MALVEAUX
|
Monday. There are a gazillion people
standing outside the Supreme Court building, waiting for a ruling,
waiting for rationale, waiting for the nation’s highest court to
rule fairly. They didn’t. They ruled so far off the mark that esteem
for them has been eroded, but the hundreds of people who thronged
outside the court had no way of knowing that some justices had traded
judicial temperament for partisan politics. The people outside were
there, as in vigil, hoping to remind folks of the principle of one
person, one vote. They stood there, hopeful, waiting, wanting to
influence. They were the models of citizen activism.
There was a woman who had come from Colorado, with two daughters in tow. She was vocal when the C-SPAN cameras came her way, vocal and engaged in our "national civics lesson." She and her daughters had come, spending thousands of dollars, because they wanted to witness history. They were joined by a trucker who stopped off on his way north, seeking to say something about the ruling. And there were others – union members, teachers, civil rights activists. They were there to speak truth to power, to honor their beliefs. I watched the hundreds of protesters surround the Supreme Court, I marveled at their commitment to democracy. And I wondered if they understood that had they been able to muster interest and wonder just a few weeks back, they might have made the difference in this election. Why? Their presence, early on, might have reminded folks that people are watching the process. Their presence, early on, might have indicated an interest in all of the details of democracy, details that have, to date, been ignored. They have made a point that will have to make in the next month or so. If democracy is to work, people have to be engaged in its process. Dozens of organizations have spent millions of dollars trying to get out the vote. But voting is not the most we can do. It’s the least we can do. Voting registers our preferences. Activism keeps our leaders accountable. Voting lifts our voice. Activism magnifies it. When the NAACP got people out to vote, they did their work. Their continued work to make sure that voters’ voices are heard represents an appropriate activism. How is it that voting machines in parts of Florida have such a high error rate? Are these the same parts of Florida where the sewers are clogged and garbage collection is late? If this is the case, then we know the deal. Some voters are ignored, while others are coddled. Because voting is the least we can do. If voters want elected officials to respond to us, we have to do more than vote. We have to show up, to get in their faces. We have to make them understand what we are prepared to do when we aren’t answered. We have to touch base and lift our voices. We have to be angry and activist. We have to transform our vote into something more than a preference. It is also a weapon. Too many of us don’t get that. We don’t get that we make our vote a point of power when we follow it up with our civic involvement. We don’t get that we amplify our vote when we show up at demonstrations, but also at those quiet hearings that may well determine whether punch cards or optical scanners convey our voting choice. When we vote for a candidate for President of the United States, we make our vote count. When we vote for a Board of Electors, for a city council member, for a mayor, we are also making our votes count, and also creating the local bridge over which national candidates must cross before their campaigns are actualized. When we see our votes as an end, not as a means to an end, we shortchange ourselves. If the people who had been standing outside the Supreme Court had been standing in wait and in watch in the weeks before the November 7 election, we would not have had the errors and irregularities that robbed Al Gore of the Presidency. (I realize that we are all in this kumbaya state where words like robbing and stealing are swallowed in the name of graciousness, but a crook is a crook and the warm fuzzies of magnanimity have not trickled down to this columnist). If there is a lesson to be learned from the November 7 election and
the debacle that followed, it is that we are only as good as our
systems. Voting is not the most we can do, it is the least we can do,
and those who work to get out the vote must also work to train a cadre
of activists focused on the details of democracy. |