Democratic Convention: Hillary Rocks and Brian Schweitzer Comes in 2nd

People of America, why aren’t you watching the Democratic Convention? Hillary Clinton’s speech was excellent and Governor Schweitzer, a person that I had not heard very much about was a dynamo delivering a rousing speech that engaged the arena and got people out of their seats. Other notable speeches were made by former Governor Mark Warner of Virginia and Senator Bob Casey Jr of Pennsylvania. Just about 21 million out of an estimated 112 million U.S. households tuned into the convention coverage at 10pm Eastern Time. How can we call ourselves a Democracy when we don’t even take the time to engage in the political process of our country? I hope that more Americans will tune in for the final days of the Democratic Convention and tune in next week when the Republicans have their turn.

What is the point of traipsing our military out in the world to fight in the name of democracy when we barely exercise the right ourselves. We can sit around and complain all we want or we can take the time to find out about our presidential candidates, learn about the Democratic and Republican party platforms and learn about some of the elected officials within each party. We cannot make assumptions and pass up our opportunity to learn more about the political process because we already have preconceived notions about each political party.

After watching the conventions, you may conclude that neither party satisfies your agenda or that you were mistaken about what each party represented. Maybe you will find out that it is OK to cross party lines when you realize that they are out of touch with your values. Maybe you find that your faith in your party is renewed or maybe you will conclude that there was a reason why you chose not to watch the whole convention circus to begin with. Whatever you decide, at least your decision is informed. A Democracy requires participation of and by its citizens and citizens cannot participate responsibly without being informed. If we are not going to bother to learn about and participate in our government during the election process then we are conceding our rights to the people that do. And perhaps we may not like what they sign us up for.