Responsibility and Accountability Part 5: Voter Responsibility and Accountability

This is Part 5 of a series on accountability and responsibility. This part looks at the voters and to whom they are accountable. As the graphic from My Comic Shop shows, voters are accountable to themselves. But they are also accountable to future generations to hand down a better country and world. Their responsibility is to elect representatives that will govern wisely and effectively.

When the government goes haywire, who is ultimately responsible? The voters. Just as Pogo said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” We, the owner-operators of the Republic, are responsible for what the government does and does not do.

But too many of our citizens sit back and complain and do not take their responsibility seriously. I suspect that the education system is programming out the sense to step up to responsibility. Our bureaucracy, though regulations that strip away the individuals’ responsibility for the outcome of their own actions, have also leeched away a sense of personal responsibility.

The actions for parts 2, 3, and 4 all included ways to strengthen voter resilience and decision-making. But we cannot wait for the government to take action on them. These actions frankly are not in the best interests of politicians and bureaucrats, but they are in the best interests of the Republic. If we want to save the Republic, voters need to take responsibility for effective reform.

The American Revolution happened because citizens took action. The American Revolution was not just the war from 1775 to 1783. It included designing and implementing the Constitution, and the societal revolutions that America undertook to build a free republic. Alexis de Tocqueville, in Democracy in America, highlighted citizen and small group/local involvement as a key American strength. Individuals and small groups settled the west. The Industrial Revolution and American prosperity are based on individual effort.

And it is just this individual effort the politicians and bureaucrats seek to suppress—unless it suits their agenda.

President Kennedy famously said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” This was a call to action by a popular and dynamic president. I am not sure we will get a similar call to action from current politicians. The lone exception may be Trump, but even there, I am not sure. Unlike Kennedy, that had the support of his party, I am not sure Trump does. Just look at the party members deserting him for Harris.

If We the People want to be happy with the reflection in the mirror. We need a grassroots effort to help our fellow Americans to become engaged and effective citizens that can analyze issues and make informed decisions for both today and tomorrow. This starts with taking back local school boards and reforming education.