The problem with democracy in America today is that we equate it
with elections, when elections are really just the beginning of the
democratic process. As Howard Dean writes today, “On
an A – F scale, voting gets a ‘D’. It is the bare minimum required to
keep our democracy alive.” Yet, Americans treat democracy as a sporting
event that, like the other Greek legacy,
the Olympics, come every four years.

This exclusive focus on electoral politics as the locus of democracy
is wrong. I’m afraid that also includes Dean’s claim that vibrant
democracy requires “ordinary Americans… to run for office,” or at
least contribute to those campaigns. All of this is true, of course,
but democracy is more than just elections and horse races. Democracy happens when we care enough about our polity to
remain involved even after the last vote has been counted. Democracy is
about reading the local newspaper and calling your city council or
state representative to weigh in on issues that affect you. Democracy
means taking the time to find out how the issues do affect you.

Merely holding elections in Afghanistan or Iraq does not suddenly
turn those societies into democratic ones. Neither country will have
democracy until their citizens feel ownership of their governments and
are brazen enough to hold them accountable. But then, who are we
Americans to expect that of Afghanis and Iraqis when so few of us
exercise that power on election day, never mind the rest of the year?