Here we are, on the eve of the 2020 General Election. The final in-person votes will be cast tomorrow and by tomorrow night, hopefully, the country will know in most of the local, state and national races who has won.
But amid the celebration of the winners and laments of the defeated, it is also an appropriate time to consider the greater purpose of it all.
Today we take for granted the revolutionary idea of 1776 captured by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence: “Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
From the very beginnings of the country it was established that the power of self-government rests with the people, not with an accident of birth to royalty or the muscle of the military.
The decisions of governance belong to those of us who choose to participate. As James Madison wrote in Federalist 51, the government we get is ultimately about who we are.
“What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.”
So, our system of government is also a dichotomy. The power rests with the people, but the people choose a government that provides the parameters for behavior. Alexander Hamilton explained it this way in Federalist 15:
“Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.”
Thus, when we as citizens participate, by voting for example, we are at once exercising the power that comes with our freedom, but also acknowledging that our freedom bears a certain responsibility and caution.
Granted, it took too long a time for the awesome wisdom of the Founders to catch up to all. “What to the slave is the Fourth of July,” said Fredrick Douglas during a lecture in 1852 on abolition. Women were denied the right to vote until the 19th Amendment was approved in 1920.
But the founding principles inevitably provide the framework for eventually getting it right.
It is easy during these tumultuous times to be consumed by acrimony, hate, fear, disgust, and a weariness of it all. One might even argue that “the system” is broken. However, elections are ultimately about optimism, an expectation that we will do better.
There are naturally differences in what that future will and should look like, but it will ultimately reflect who we are as a people and as a country.
Voting is an expression of our stake in our government. Jefferson said, “The government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.” The long campaigns wear us down, but Election Day is our day, our opportunity to exercise the original intent of self-determination.