“The most important political office is that of private citizen.” — Louis Brandeis

“Till civic intervention becomes the norm, political intervention will achieve nothing.” — Abhijit Naskar, “Rowdy Scientist: Handbook of Humanitarian Science”

I firmly believe the greatest threat to any well-functioning democracy is not autocrats or oligarchs or tyrants, but public apathy.

I believe no tyrant could overcome an engaged populace, no matter how big the tyrant’s army or how many nukes he has, because true power lies forever in the governed, not the governors.

And that is why, as theologian Theodore Parker said and Martin Luther King Jr. reminded us, the long arc of history bends toward justice.

Because, though sometimes it takes long and bloody years, the people always win out in the end.

If they stay in the fight.

Last year’s presidential contest drew to the polls 63% of the American population eligible to vote, according to the American Presidency Project at University of California Santa Barbara. That’s the second-highest eligible voter turnout rate since 1980, the first year for which UC Santa Barbara has such data.

Only the 2020 election — at 65% — drew more eligible voters.

Those contests drew such voter interest because, as Joe Biden’s administration and the early days of the second Donald Trump administration have proven, those elections had sharp consequences for the direction of the nation — perhaps the sharpest consequences since the Civil War era.

Voters recognized the significance of the choice before them and showed up.

But another way to look at those figures: Despite arguably the most consequential decision in a century and a half, the highest turnout in a generation still left 35% of eligible voters — millions of people who were registered to vote — at home.

A surprising number of people with whom I speak tell me they still don’t care who occupies the White House, despite the whiplashing seesaw the nation has ridden over the last eight years.

That’s dangerous.

When fewer people pay attention, when fewer people care, bad things happen. At the least, powerful people have less incentive to make their decisions based on the will of the people. At the worst, powerful people find it easier to do unsavory things unnoticed.

Too many people pay attention and get involved only in the fall of presidential election years. After the record-breaking 2020 presidential election turnout, turnout in the 2022 midterms dropped almost 20 points, the Pew Research Center said — and that turnout was high for a midterm contest. Turnout drops further still when you look at local elections such as school boards and city councils.

Too many people drop off the political map right after the presidential election. Either they figure their candidate won and they’ve got nothing left to do or they figure their guy lost and there’s nothing else they can do.

I encourage every reader to stay involved, regardless of which side of the aisle with which you align.

If Trump is your guy, stay involved. Hold him accountable for keeping his promises and do your part — by voting, demonstrating, writing to your representatives in Congress, volunteering, writing letters to the editor to your local paper, maybe even running for office — to ensure at least the parts of his agenda you support come to fruition.

If you loathe Trump, stay involved. Do your part — by voting, demonstrating, writing to your representatives in Congress, volunteering, writing letters to the editor to your local paper, maybe even running for office — to slow his agenda and lessen the effects you see as detrimental.

Both sides need to do their work civilly, with grace and understanding for the other side, recognizing that the other side feels the way they do because they believe their candidates and their policies will lead to a better life for them and their families, just like you.

But both sides need to stay involved, working their competing ends, so that maybe the policy will end up somewhere in the middle, looking like something that serves the interests of the majority of Americans and not just politicians’ coveted base.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Democracy works best when all voices are spoken.

So speak up.

Without your voice, only the activist edges of the political spectrum — who tend to yell the loudest — will have a say in crafting policy, and that will leave you and a whole lot of your friends and neighbors out of the equation.

When that happens, America doesn’t look like her people, anymore.