Source: Law & Liberty
by Jeffrey Polet
“Americans fetishize voting. Granted, exercising the right seems an important act of democratic citizenship, and denial of the franchise typically accompanies the denial of a whole range of civil rights and liberties. But our focus on voting, and especially national horse-races whose conclusions result from the plebiscite, too often distracts us from the real work of citizenship, which is studious attention and attendance to the near-at-hand. Democracy certainly involves speaking, but more significantly, requires seeing things clearly and for what they are, and then responding accordingly. Our attentiveness wanes at a distance or when mediated through someone else’s ‘lens.’ Politics operates more humanely microscopically than telescopically.” (11/05/24)