I would like to present the following questions to everyone voting this fall, what responsibility do you owe and have to our fellow Americans with our vote? When we make decisions in a democracy, should we not be aware of how our votes and actions will affect others? I would argue that the burden of democracy is that your vote doesn’t just affect you. We therefore owe a consideration to our fellow countrymen when we vote. We are a democratic republic; your vote is a representation of “We the People,” there is a collective factor to voting that we must share.
The burden of democracy and the burden of accountability that comes with our democratic form of government is perhaps its most overlooked consequence. Democracy requires the majority of a nation’s citizenry to participate in the decisions of their government through voting or public office. However, throughout most of European and American democratic history the requirements to participate in government were made restrictive or segregated.
Being white and male were fixed barriers that separated most citizens from participating in democracy through voting. In the second United States census of 1800, only 20% of the population of the United States fell within the voting rights parameters of white male over the age of 21 (disregarding literacy rates or land ownership). Eighty percent of the country that in 1776 declared independence and “…that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…,” was without the most essential right in a democratic nation.
The decisions and resulting consequences of the government benefited the voting citizens, but failed to represent the needs of the majority. “We the People” was an inaccurate description of the voting populace in the United States. The Constitution of the United States allowed for the exclusion of the majority of the American population until 130 years after its signing, and failed to protect those rights for over 150 years. The exclusion of the numerical majority led to some of the darkest events and decisions of the U.S. government, events that many still seek reparations for. The voting majority did not look out for their fellow American, instead they held to their beliefs of superiority.
We are faced now with a new conflict that arises from our hard fought voting diversity. Due to the efforts of so many brave men and women that fought and continue to fight for civil rights, we are in an era of inclusivity wherein nearly every American citizen has the right to vote. In the 2020 election two-thirds of Americans turned out to vote, the highest turnout since 1900, despite the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. The infinite diversity of backgrounds and ideologies which create the ecosystem of the United States voting populace is in turn creating extreme deviations between voter bases. The representatives and parties have become so polarized that the democratic engine does not move in either direction conservative or progressive but is instead slingshots from one political term to the next.
More than 158 million votes were cast for president in the 2020 election, representing 2,100 times the votes in the election of 1800. We cannot forget that this number represents millions of individual human beings with their own cultural backgrounds, national origins, religions, and economic opportunities. Each vote is an individual’s ability to participate in government and be represented by it.
The reality we must face then, with so much variance in self-expression and differences in public opinion is that for you to get everything you want you must vote. However your vote will inevitably be at odds with another voter. To share in success, “we the people” must make compromises. Is it necessary to take from another to get what you want? I would propose that the ethical option then is to find compromises and recognize together that the burden, alongside the freedoms given to us in democracy, is that we share in the eventual outcome of a vote. The majority must recognize it has a moral responsibility to the minority to protect their freedoms in addition to their own.
Caleb Stimmell is a classroom instructor for Orange County Public Schools, teaching U.S. History and Civics.
