Am I a Good Citizen?

I think I might be a terrible citizen.

Well, maybe not a terrible one, but certainly a bad one.

I might not even be a bad one, but I don’t think I’m a good citizen. I can’t be. Can I?

Yes, I vote. But I almost never do enough due diligence to really know the platforms of all the candidates. I don’t think I’ve ever fully researched a candidate’s voting record. Not even on the key issues or even the ones I really care about. I know some stuff about them. I get a general feel for their politics. But I don’t really know them enough to feel truly confident in any choice I make.

Don’t get me wrong. I do try. I try very hard to study the candidates. But there’s so many primary candidates. I mean, in 2020, there were 29 candidates for the democratic nomination. And you know what Yoda said about trying!

My own representatives? I can name my two Senators and my House representative– if I really think hard about it. But I couldn’t’ name my city council members, save one. I had to look up my state senator to remember his name. Freeholders? Give me a break.

Being an informed citizen? I don’t read the newspaper every day. I try and watch the news, and from varying sources. I’m certainly not consistent about it. I surf the web and YouTube, because it’s easy and convenient and costs no money. I tried to force myself to read the New York Times every day two years ago. That lasted exactly three days. Then life got in the way.

I’ve never run for office. I’ve never volunteered in an election campaign or worked a polling station.

I don’t participate in a neighborhood group. I’ve never mentored a student. I’ve never marched on any capital or physically, in person, protested an unjust law. I am the VP of my Condo board, though!

I try and recycle, though I get the feeling my efforts are fruitless. I’ve never composted my food scraps. The lady grows herbs and tomatoes during the summer in a pot. The earth is certainly not healing due to my efforts.

I have given to charities here and there, but it’s certainly not a significant budget item in my financial plan. I don’t support any major charity, at least on an ongoing regular basis. My name isn’t going up on a building anytime soon.

All these shortcomings tell me I’m a poor excuse for a citizen. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I’m unique. I believe my level of civic engagement is probably par for the course of a typical American. And to me, even with all my “trying”, I’m a sh*tty citizen, nonetheless.

The problem is, I really don’t know what it takes to be a good citizen. What are the criteria? What definitive list of steps do I need to take to qualify? This was something I started thinking about over the last week. And then a few things happened.

First, while surfing YouTube on political topics, I stumbled upon an old Jimmy Kimmel video making fun of people who were adamantly opposed to Obamacare – and yet supported the Affordable Care Act. I could not believe my eyes. How could a group of people, so hell bent on opposing a policy, not have any idea what it was?

I remember at the time of the debate surrounding trying to get Obamacare passed, I saw a statistic that shocked me. “One-Third Don’t Know Obamacare and Affordable Care Act Are the Same” was the headline. It made me think of one of my favorite quotes about American politics.

“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”

Winston Churchill

The second thing, had to do with a discussion I had with my friend regarding the “rampant and widespread” voter fraud he thought was taking place during the 2020 presidential election. My first question to him, was “have you actually read any of the lawsuits? Or at least the Judges’ summaries? Because you do realize none of them are actually claiming voter fraud in their lawsuits.”

I had this conversation because this excerpt from one of the Judges Summaries really stuck out to me.

That week, I had spoken to five different Trump supporters, all who “knew” voter fraud from mail in ballots was a fact, and not one had read ANY of the 36 judges’ opinions (not even the summaries) – and thus didn’t know that none of the cases actually claimed voter fraud. They all had only listened to the plaintiffs on news opinion shows (which we know are very different from the nightly News) where they made all sorts of claims, free of the burden of being under oath.

I’m a real live Moderate, so I try and see both sides of any political argument. I hold a good number of conservative views, a good number of liberal views, and some really non-traditional views. I’m part Black, part White and have ancestors who were members of Native American tribes. I’ve been poor, middle class and relatively well off – never rich though, at least by American standards. Generally, my views are as widely varied as my background. So, I was honestly attempting to appreciate the position of my conservative friends on this issue, because it simply seemed ludicrous to me. And thus, it really made me think.

1. What is my responsibility regarding this case/scenario/political situation?
2. How much responsibility, as an average citizen, do I have to research, from various nonpartisan sources, what is really and truly happening?
3. What duty do I have to spread the truth?
4. What duty do I have to not spread, or prevent from further dissemination, untruths and disinformation?

It was this entire conversation about voter fraud, coupled with the hilarity surrounding Obamacare during that push to get it passed and subsequently the following push to get it repealed, that made me really consider, or re-consider, the concept of citizenship.

What does it mean to be a good citizen? Even more importantly, what is the responsibility of a “good” citizen? What does one have to do to be considered good at ‘citizenship’? And what must one NOT do to be including in this group?

So, I put together a project to find out.