Voting is not enough for democracy to work

It has been an eventful week in Michigan for labor and, to be frank, I am rather shocked to see that the birth state of the AFL-CIO will soon become a Right-to-Work state.  Despite the catchy name, "Right-to-Work" refers to legislation that seriously undermines the ability of unions to engage in collective bargaining by opening the door for freeloaders who benefit from a contract, but are unwilling to pay for the maintenance and negotiation of that contract.  Labor contracts, after all, are not gifts of a benevolent management, but rather the hard won product of a negotiation between two parties.  When the power of one of these parties is undermined by legislation, such as Right-to-Work, the process of collective bargaining shifts from being that of democratic negotiation to that of codification of power inequality.

I'm going to set all that aside for this post, although I would encourage you to read up on the issue as even non-union jobs are impacted by legislation such as this.  Really, I want to talk about this idea that democracy is about voting.  This semester I taught an introduction to sociology class where the majority of the students were voting for the first time.  When we discussed the issue of voting, they reflected a mainstream idea that voting is a fundamental obligation of citizens in the United States.  For the most part they voiced enthusiasm at being able to participate in the process, although that was often mixed with some amount of confusion and a thread of guilt around "not being more informed" about all the issues.  Once they worked their way though the process on voting day they were mostly satisfied and they felt their civic obligation was done.

In addition to my obvious political stance regarding the current political issues, this is one of the reasons that I am headed to Lansing tomorrow for this rally.  I think it is important that we battle this idea that citizen involvement starts and stops at the voting booth.  Sure, voting is important and you should go vote.  However, I would support someone who organizes like-minded people, meets with and contacts his/her legislators, runs for office, encourages civil public debate, and engages in the distribution of meaningful information on public issues over someone who simply shows up at the voting booth any day.  Vote, but don't stop there.  I would make similar comments to digital activists who always post the latest meme on their profile--spread the word (and sign this petition!), but make sure that you are backing  up your digital activism with real action.

This is important because apathy is concession.  Without your active participation, dollars can easily influence public policy (check out the Mackinac Center budget at http://www.thenation.com/blog/171663/pro-right-work-groups-michigan-outspend-union-counterparts#.)  Without your active participation, politicians will not be accountable for their actions.  Without your active participation, more legislation will be sent through without true public support.  Political malaise in the United States is driven, in part, by the feeling among many people (disenfranchised populations in particular) that their votes don't matter.  The problem isn't that votes don't matter--the problem is that voting isn't enough to make democracy work.