The Yawn of Democracy
If you think too many people care too much about big political issues, the data shows you’re wrong: not nearly enough people care at all.
This weekend I’ll be moderating a panel at the upcoming “Civic Saturday” event, an effort to bring together people across partisan divides and figure out how we might work together going forward (still time to join – sign up here).
To get ready for the event, I’ve been looking through the 2024 North Carolina Civic Health Index, a fascinating report produced by the National Conference on Citizenship that was released in April of this year. So far there has been about as much reaction as to the latest report on new beige paint tones.
We yawn about reports like this. That’s a shame. This is important stuff.
The national effort surveyed folks across the United States to determine their levels of engagement in civic life. The state report I have been studying looks at the responses in my home state, North Carolina. Then it offers analysis of the state’s relative strengths and weaknesses, as well as suggestions of how folks might improve their levels of civic engagement.
As a North Carolina resident, my first instinct was to find out how “we” stacked up against other states, and it turns out we aren’t doing very well.
· On the plus side, North Carolinians apparently spend slightly more time with family and friends than folks in other states. We are more likely to “frequently” talk to neighbors, to frequently do favors for neighbors and to participate in groups.
· On the minus side, North Carolinians volunteer less often than folks in other states. We are less likely to watch, read about, write about or talk about local issues, either face-to-face or online. And we are about the worst among all states in registering to vote, actually voting, going to public meetings or talking with elected officials.
There is plenty to say about those findings and plenty of work to do to improve our position relative to other states, but that’s not what I found shocking when looking at the Index.
Take a look at the percentages of Americans who are participating in various levels of civic life:
Community activity or action
· 79.3% of Americans “frequently” hear from or spend time with family or friends
· 26.9% of Americans “frequently” speak with their neighbors
· 10% of Americans “frequently” do favors for their neighbors
· 23.8% of Americans report being part of any type of group
· 23.2% of Americans report that they have volunteered in the past year
· 48.1% gave to any nonprofit or religious organization
Political activity or action:
· 9.4% reported giving money to a political organization
· 9.5% contacted a public official
· 8.2% participated in a public meeting
· 7.9% “frequently” discuss issues with neighbors
· 6.2% “frequently” post views on issues on the Internet or social media
· 69.1% of Americans are registered to vote. When it comes to actually voting, 52.2% turned out for the 2022 midterms (the percentage voting in the latest election is not yet known, but based on past elections, it should be about 62%)
(Quick question: Take a moment to review the 12 areas above. If the 12 “civic participation” questions above were a quiz, and 8/12 was a passing grade, how would you do? … I’ll share my barely-passing results if you’ll share yours.)
If you were to draw conclusions from those survey findings, I think you would have to determine we must be a country of folks burned out on this whole civic ideal, a group of people that just wants to stay at home and disengage from each other and the world.
Start with the areas where we do “best” – the areas where ballpark half or more of us report doing something. What those numbers tell us is that…
· One in five of us don’t even have a relationship with family or friends.
· Two in five of us can’t be bothered to show up to vote once every four years.
· And not even half of us give money to any organization trying to help people other than ourselves.
The other indicators are even more depressing.
· Only about a quarter of us volunteer for anything, report being part of a group or regularly speak with our neighbors.
· Fewer than a tenth of us participate in any meaningful way in the nuts and bolts of democracy – going to meetings, discussing stuff, telling public officials what we think or want.
There’s an obvious response to this. Who cares? Maybe we want to sit back and let government or charitable organizations be our proxies while we wall ourselves off from interaction with others, watch Netflix and play video games.
All I can say is…. NOOOOOOOOO! Democracy as we practice it has always been, partially, a proxy system – we vote for some people to do some of the work for us. But then we have a set of responsibilities as humans and citizens. As exhausted or cynical or cyber-addicted as we may be, we are better human beings when we are in relationship with others; when we, even for a moment, take the time to think and act outside of ourselves and our interests.
I’ve written here in the past about the responsibility I think we all have to work to restore trust; to share our time, talent and treasure with others, to develop skills for listening to people we disagree with, and to rejoin things like knitting circles and bowling leagues. We need all that for self-interested reasons – among other things, being in relationship can smite our epidemic of loneliness. But we also need to do that “work” to maintain the country we love.
The partners on the NC Civic Health Index (the National Conference on Citizenship, NC Campus Engagement and four others) have some ideas about what we as a nation and as individuals might do to begin rebuilding our civic health: we need solid research to help us better understand our growing apathy; nonprofits should look for ways to mobilize more people behind their causes rather than depend on their professional staffs; schools and colleges need to do more to teach students how to talk to each other; municipal officials need to schedule meetings at times convenient to working parents; journalists need to look for more ways to recreate trusted local news sources and to mobilize social media as a virtual town square.
There are ten or so other thoughtful suggestions. But none of them work until we shake ourselves out of our apathy.
Franklin’s warning was right on the money.
One of the most famous quotes from the US Constitutional Convention in 1787 came as Benjamin Franklin emerged from the proceeding. He was asked by a friend, Mrs. Elizabeth Powell: “Well Dr. Franklin, what have we got? A republic or a monarchy?” “A republic,” said Franklin, “If you can keep it.”
But “keep” is an active verb, not passive. And “keeping it” is not something we can outsource. That’s on us.
Maybe start super small by committing to go to one public meeting by the end of the year, and doing one nice thing for your neighbor before Thanksgiving. I will if you will...
-Leslie
Notes:
Link to NC Civic Index report: https://ncoc.org/research-type/2024-north-carolina-civic-health-index/
Voter turnout in past non-COVID presidential elections: https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2017/05/voting_in_america.html
The Franklin-Powell exchange, in context: https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/constitutionalconvention-september17.htm#:~:text=“A%20republic%2C%20if%20you%20can,a%20republic%20or%20a%20monarchy%3F%22