As our nation approaches Nov. 6, how many of us explicitly consider the real meaning of our responsibility as citizens in the presidential election year? We all have roles to play in the participatory democracy founded in the wake of the American Revolution. But how do we fulfill that formative expectation?
Four years ago, in the 2008 presidential race, political analysts broadly predicted voter turnout to be high by American standards. As it happened, the country tallied a record 131.3 million votes, with President Obama receiving the most votes for a presidential candidate in American history. However, that barely constitutes more than 60 percent of those eligible to go to the polls.
When nearly 40 percent of the eligible population decline to participate in the election of our president, isn’t it time to do something about it? The challenge: Find a better way to engage Americans in the purposes and potential of democratic citizenship. A rising number of voices, troubled not only by the level of participation, but also by the quality and character of American political discourse, believe we might strengthen democracy through better techniques of civic education.
We think so, too. At the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, we work within our historic frame of reference, the American Revolution, examining its sources and its consequences. Our focus is on all it took to create American citizenship — and the relevance of that work today.
History matters. America began as a grand statement of democratic ideals, an experiment in determining whether a free people could govern themselves, and achieve prosperity and happiness. For more than two centuries Americans would need to adhere to the nation’s founding principles — embracing liberty, justice, protection of property and rule of law — while continuously improving their democratic skills.
Any way you cut it, American democracy ultimately relies upon “good citizens,” roughly defined as informed, active participants in the nation’s civic life. That requires us to keep up with current affairs and comprehend our times in the context of our history, but also to engage the democratic process at some level.
That, in turn, sets up a threshold question: At what level? In America, citizen engagement varies dramatically. No one can easily answer that question for American citizens nor, perhaps, should even try.
As we saw in the second presidential debate, during which Gov. Mitt Romney and President Obama engaged with the public in a “town hall,” the issues that were front and center 200 years ago — the allocation of political power within America’s multi-layered federal structure, taxation and public debt — vividly confront us today. Likewise, these central aspects of the nation’s great and ongoing debate, once again, test us with the question of how we, the individual citizens of the nation, participate and work toward realizing the potential of American democratic values.
By focusing on our history, we can help illuminate how civic choices — taken by Americans individually and collectively — have shaped the course of our nation. For instance, we have begun linking discussions of history and citizenship on the Internet, inviting people to participate in the debate about the duties of citizenship and how citizens have helped achieved the promise of representative democracy.
Colonial Williamsburg also recently produced a webcast “The Will of the People,” exploring the deeply influential election of 1800 between President John Adams and challenger Thomas Jefferson. The “Revolution of 1800,” as Jefferson often characterized it, put the Electoral College on center stage, ultimately required 35 votes in the House of Representatives and marked the national division of America into a two-party political system.
The bitter period of uncertainty following the election heated political passions and fueled intemperate rhetoric. Treated to an unparalleled civics lesson, the early 19th-century American public began to debate questions of where power should reside in our federal system. That debate continues to this day.
In this instance and with so many other national questions, disputed and discussed continuously, we are convinced that there is a strong and growing interest in the connections between the ideals of the Founders and the issues we face. Our goal is to advance the public’s historical understanding of America’s founding principles; to use the past as a vehicle for gaining perspective on the social trends and political choices America continues to confront; and, to tell true stories about people who sought liberty and prosperity and were determined to build a government that fosters both.
Our enduring mission: That the future may learn from the past.
Colin G. Campbell is president and CEO of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.