By Rep. David Meuse, D- Portsmouth
One of the saddest developments in recent times is the expert use of the tools of democracy by those seeking to destroy the institutions democracy makes possible.
A recent example occured in March in the tiny town of Croydon, New Hampshire. A combination of bad weather, indifference, and busy lives kept the vast majority of the town’s 801 residents from attending the annual school district meeting. The key item? A vote on the local school budget.
Undeterred by bad weather and with a specific mission in mind, a member of a libertarian-leaning group whose mission includes eliminating public education across New Hampshire introduced a motion to cut the school budget in half. A majority of the 34 people present, who included other members of the Free State Project and their allies, voted to support the motion.
All of a sudden, a largely forgotten school board had the full attention of a previously sleepy community. The reaction at first was shock. Then shock turned to anger. How could something like this happen in a town so proud of its K-4 school and so committed to going the extra mile to educate its children?
The answer was obvious. It happened because people skeptical of—and even hostile to—public education showed up and voted. Meanwhile, the vast majority of residents who value public education and whose children depend on it stayed home.
Fortunately, Croydon residents had one more card to play—the possibility of unwinding the vote if more than half the town’s voters showed up for a special meeting. In the end, members of a chastened but wiser community voted 377-2 to restore the school budget to its original level.
While Croydon’s victory is worth celebrating, it also presents a cautionary tale of what can happen when civic engagement lags and distracted voters fail to understand that not all of their fellow residents—or elected officials—share their values or their commitment to community.
This year in New Hampshire we’ve seen elected officials use redistricting laws as an opportunity to tighten the grip of a single political party. We’ve witnessed other laws passed to make absentee voting harder and to quash the ability of members of the public to fully participate remotely in public meetings. At the local level, we’ve seen vocal groups crowd into public meetings to make demands that often don’t reflect the will of a majority of other members of the community—and get the changes they demanded.
While we may not like the results, these outcomes all represent democracy in action. To win, you must show up and play. When you don’t, you run the risk of ceding control over the issues that matter to you to a vocal minority adept at using the tools of democracy to unravel things you care deeply about.
Increasingly, many of us wonder if democracy is “working” or “not working.” But the truth is democracies don’t take action or solve problems—people do. For democracies to work, voters need to take interest, show up, make their voices heard, and most importantly—vote.
Life rarely gives us the opportunity for a do-over. Our democracy offers multiple chances. But only if we’re willing to do our part.
