2000: “This is the most important election of my lifetime” – Washington Post
2004: “The Most Important Election of our Lifetime” — The New York Times
2008: “This is the most important election of our lifetime” – The Guardian
2012: “The most important election ever” – Politico
2016: “At least once per lifetime, an election actually IS the most important” – Washington Post
2020: “Why 2020 is the Most Consequential Election Ever” — The Atlantic
September 27, 2023: “This Is Going To Be The Most Important Election Since 1860” — The New York Times
Sensing a theme? Since I came to the United States, as a refugee from Iran, I have noticed a distinct pattern: Every couple of years, we are told this is THE most important election of our generation (which I seem to hear in the dramatic “Bachelor” franchise announcer voice every time).
I clearly understand the singular importance of elections — and the very real stakes in each one, especially this cycle. But these repetitive headlines should remind us that our country was founded on the core principle that no individual should ever wield enough power to demolish our democracy. A democracy does not rise and fall with one person.
And yet, it seems that with the run up to each presidential election, there is messaging that one candidate could be the one to unravel the very fabric of our union. Given our nation’s founding, how did we get to a place where we are seemingly teetering on the edge of democratic demise every election cycle?
I believe that we have come to rely too heavily on our elected officials and have forgotten that we are also part of our government, that our elected officials work for us, and we have the incredible power of change — even if it takes much, much longer than we hope.
As we approach Election Day, I want us to remember that democracy isn’t over at the ballot box. And democracy does not just live or die with our representatives. Democracy is also on us. At the end of the day, our government will thrive or fail depending on whether or not we show up.
I worry that in a world where activism has become synonymous with an Instagram repost, some of us have deluded ourselves into thinking that we are doing our part when we double tap, that we are activists when we repost an infographic or that we are affecting change when we write some regrettable comments on other people’s posts.
Every election cycle, I am asked about the impact of voter apathy. I am told that voters don’t think their vote matters and repeatedly hear the incessant falsehood that nothing changes. But change happens everywhere — all around us. And in an effort to debunk the very false narrative that we can’t effect change, I was determined to find the leaders holding up our democracy. People like Chelsea Miller who founded one of the nation’s largest youth-led civil rights organizations. Or Lauren Kunis, who at VoteRiders is helping to provide voter ID solutions across the U.S. Or Tevon Blair, who is educating, mobilizing and empowering students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to drive social change on their campus and in their communities.
In effort to honor the doers, to share with the world the profound ripple effect of their leadership, I created The Democracy Heroes, in collaboration with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and in partnership with I Am a Voter, Headcount, and The Rockefeller Foundation. It’s a list of 25 changemakers, each one breaking barriers and building solutions to ensure all marginalized voters have a seat in our democracy. Each of these honorees used their challenges and their strengths to include more of us — to make sure that more are represented. They are among the people holding our democracy together.
These Democracy Heroes inspire in me, and I hope in all of us, a yearning to do more. Participating in this gift we call democracy, is the most important work we can do. It is not perfect and it is not complete. But as someone who fled a dictatorship for the opportunity to live in the U.S., trust me, it is a privilege.
We don’t have to let headlines make us feel hopeless, panicked and afraid. We don’t have to let algorithms divide us.
I hope in this lead up to the election, every single one of us remembers the incredible power we have — not just with our votes, but with our actions. That instead of feeling rage at our screens, we can feel hope in our communities. Each of us has the potential to use our lived experiences to ensure those who face the challenges and injustices that we did, may just have it a little bit easier than we did.
Democracy is not singular. It is not about our individual interests. Democracy is about the collection. We the people.