Civic Engagement is about Showing Up

Decisions are made by those who show up. Yet, as a State Senator who represents 180,000 in the heart of the 5th district of Georgia, I can tell you that not many people show up. We all know the statistics: only about 60 percent of those eligible voted in the election that made Donald Trump the 45th president of the United States. And we know that just 80,000 people in three states tipped the Electoral College in his favor.

This past election horrified many Americans, including those of us who value respectful discourse, human rights, and constitutional values. Many of us wanted to give him a chance, but the first week only served to underscore the worst parts of Donald Trump the campaigner. He has sought to exploit differences between Americans, signed several Executive Orders that will likely violate the Constitution, and turned a friendly relationship with our third-largest trading partner into open hostility.

But we cannot allow ourselves to dwell on the continuous carnival coming out of Washington. Now is the time to dig in and engage more than ever — engage on the federal, local, and state levels.

The day after Trump took the oath of office, more than three million people of all races, colors, and creeds turned out to march against hate. For many of us, that was a beautiful sight to behold and a great launch pad for resistance that we will need to get us from a government elected by 80,000 people to a government that works for all of us.

For the past eight years, we had in Barack Obama a president who took his charge seriously and left without a major scandal. The first week has seen Trump sued for potential violation of the Constitution, reports that he is using unsecured email and phones, plus repeated lies from his office.

In response, Americans have lit up congressional phone lines, calling to voice their opinions on everything from his cabinet nominees to their feelings on Obamacare. These calls are another hopeful sign, but let’s not stop there.

In Gwinnett County just outside of Atlanta, dozens of protesters have packed County Commission meetings to voice their unhappiness over a commissioner who called my Congressman John Lewis “a racist pig.” The commissioner hopes they will just go away, because if they continue to show up, he will have to leave.

Those who support civic engagement and inclusiveness should look at that example and remember what the Tea Party accomplished. They were, and are, a small group. But they showed up, called, attended meetings, even the smallest ones, and got themselves elected in droves.

Think of what we can do if we all show up.

I can tell you as a local elected official, I want to hear from you. When I get a call, email, letter, or a constituent showing up in person, I take that as an awesome opportunity to hear from the people that I work for about what they really want. We get only a handful of this kind of communication every week. So take this as your invitation: call, write, and show up to talk to your local elected officials. Don’t stop with U.S. Congress and Senate; show up for zoning meetings, school board meetings, and sessions of your local legislature. Bring your neighbors and your friends and people you share common causes with online. If you have kids, take them. It is a great lesson in self-government at work. If you see something you do not like or your elected officials refuse to listen, look for a new candidate to support or run yourself. Now is the time.

What does it take to run for office? It takes making calls, knocking on doors, and raising money. You can do all of these things. And if not to get elected yourself, do them to help someone else get elected. That is how you make change.

I can tell you one thing I am doing right now to foster civic engagement: I’m looking to remove politicians from the process of redistricting. For too long people with a self-interest in achieving re-election and keeping their party in power have drawn maps with outrageous districts. They drew lines where people live nowhere close to each other but will dependably elect people of one political party or another. It is common sense that you should have the same representative as your neighbor, and it is ridiculous that we have allowed partisan politics to draw maps. I’m going to try to take politicians out of the process for drawing the lines that divide districts — the lines that break up communities, the lines that divide people, the lines that cut us down the middle and prevent us from being counted. The end of gerrymandering is one way I’m looking to bring communities closer together.

“In America, politicians should not pick their voters; voters should pick their politicians,” said President Obama, and you can say it, too. Say it to your local elected officials, all the way up to your Representative and your Senators.

And that is just one way to change this country. There are others. Just pick one. When you do, I promise you will not be alone. There were three million in the streets and millions more at home who are now ready to show up and be counted — and it’s the showing up that counts.

President Trump and cynical politicians like him win when we remain silent, when we don’t show up, when we fail to realize that we have more in common than we do apart. So let’s take the next days, weeks, and months to reach out and build bridges. You will likely make friends, learn new things, and enrich our democracy in the process. This is the very thing that has long made us the envy of the world.

All you have to do is show up.

Elena Parent is currently a Democratic member of the Georgia State Senate, representing District 42. She began her career as a litigation attorney before serving in the Georgia House of Representatives. She is a Political Partner with the Truman National Security Project. Views expressed are her own.