“A couple of decades ago, I wrote a book in which I talked about what it takes to be a good citizen in a representative democracy like ours. I thought the principles I laid out were timeless, but I recently reread them and boy, they seem a lot less clear-cut now.
In principle, everything I wrote back then is still key to the functioning of our democracy: you need to vote; you need to take the time to be informed about policy and politics; you need to be in touch with your representatives to let them know what’s important to you; and you need to be involved in making your community, state, and country a better place to live. Each of these still matters. A lot.”