Each of us holds the most important title in American democracy: citizen. Yet most Americans believe we are powerless to make government respond or hold public officials accountable. A 2015 Pew Charitable Trusts survey found that 74% of Americans believe that most elected officials don’t care what people like us think. But we can make them listen—if we fully embrace our rights and responsibilities as citizens in a democracy, and use the skills of effective citizenship to make government work for us. This is not just a theory. Americans frequently prove that we can make government respond. We, the people, are the beginning and the end of our democracy—and today, more than ever, we must build and flex our citizenship muscles to fulfill that exalted status.
