Democracy is not a spectator sport
The unique American democratic experiment, more accurately labeled representative republicanism, contains the seeds of not only its own growth and nourishment, but also the seeds of its own destruction.
We see those seeds taking root with each passing year, as fewer and fewer American citizens take to the ballot box and exercises what I believe to not just be a civil right, but also a civic responsibility: voting.
“Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves,” President Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said. “And they only way they could do this is by not voting.”
Libby’s citizens have the opportunity to exercise that right this November, when four seats on the City Council come up for election. On one ballot we have three council members to elect, from the nine candidates who have chosen to offer themselves up in service to their community for the next four years. On the other ballot there is one candidate for the remaining two years of former councilwoman Robin Benson’s term. From these 10 people we will select the group who will represent the voices of the people of Libby in decisions big and small, decisions that have the potential for lasting impacts on our lives, our families and our community.
The City Council doesn’t have the authority to declare war or modify our income taxes, but it does have authority over a number of issues with significant impacts upon our daily lives; it sets our water and sewer utility rates, decides which streets are paved and maintained, determines where sidewalks and other public improvements are made and passes ordinances that impact how we do business, manage our property and live our daily lives. It is also the level of government with which we, as ordinary citizens, have the greatest opportunity to interact and, because of the relatively small size of the electorate, influence.
Regardless of your personal political leanings or thoughts about the management of the city, I implore every eligible citizen to get involved and vote. Try and take a few minutes to get to know the candidates and decide which of them best represent you. In order to help facilitate this discussion, The Western News is hosting a candidate forum a 6 p.m. Wednesday evening at the K.W. Maki Theatre in Libby. We have extended invitations to all candidates to participate and hope they will join us in sharing their visions and thoughts with you, the voters. This is an opportunity for you, the public, to come to one place and see and hear the people who would represent you and to ask them the questions on your mind.
Representative democracy is not a spectator sport. In order to flourish, or even survive, it requires the active participation of its citizens. The French political philosopher Charles de Montesquieu said it best, “The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.”
— Bob Henline is Editor of The Western News