By Daniel Rigney
When we vote in a democratic republic, every vote we cast is actually two votes. The first is a vote for a particular candidate or proposition. The second is a vote for the democratic process itself.
In the coming days I’ll be going to my polling place and casting two votes in the presidential race. My first vote will be for President Barack Obama, in whose cool head and good heart I am putting my trust as a citizen. You may see things differently, and that’s your perfect right under the first amendment to our constitution.
But however you vote between now and November, I hope you'll join me in casting your second vote for the democratic process itself. I believe our duty as citizens is not just to support this or that candidate, but also to affirm the very process that makes them democratically accountable to us, in principle if not always in practice.
If we lose that process, we and our children and their children, and our precariously democratic republic itself, are lost.
When we vote in a democratic republic, every vote we cast is actually two votes. The first is a vote for a particular candidate or proposition. The second is a vote for the democratic process itself.
In the coming days I’ll be going to my polling place and casting two votes in the presidential race. My first vote will be for President Barack Obama, in whose cool head and good heart I am putting my trust as a citizen. You may see things differently, and that’s your perfect right under the first amendment to our constitution.
But however you vote between now and November, I hope you'll join me in casting your second vote for the democratic process itself. I believe our duty as citizens is not just to support this or that candidate, but also to affirm the very process that makes them democratically accountable to us, in principle if not always in practice.
If we lose that process, we and our children and their children, and our precariously democratic republic itself, are lost.
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