I will shoot straight with you: I don’t care too much about “saving democracy.”

Don’t get me wrong. As a form of governance, democracy is the greatest system humans have devised to honor the will of the people. 

When functioning properly, it removes power from the hands of the few and distributes it among the many. Given proper checks and balances, democracy upholds the God-given dignity of every human.

Democracy is worth saving.

I just don’t care too much about saving it because “saving democracy” is a task too big to care about when I wake up in the morning. However, I do care about saving and enhancing public schools.

At their best, public schools teach students critical thinking skills and train them to function as adults. They value the dignity of every young person and show no preference for sexuality, gender expression, religion, economic situation, ability or racialized identity.

A robust public school system creates conditions for a healthy democracy.

I care about voting rights.

If democracy is about advancing “the will of the people,” voting is the mechanism that makes it tick. It is the opportunity afforded to every adult citizen to stand up and say, “This is what I value, and here is how I think those values should be advanced.”

Any attempt to restrict voting rights, as opposed to expanding them, is simply a way to take the power away from the many and place it back in the hands of the few. Partisan gerrymandering is anti-democratic, as are the many hoops we make certain citizens jump through to vote.

Allowing unrestricted amounts of money to flow into political campaigns ensures that the values of certain kinds of people (the wealthy) are preferred over others, which isn’t very democratic.

I can get far more excited about preserving every citizen’s voice and vote than “saving democracy.”

A free, responsible press is worth saving. Democracy relies on journalists with access to the mechanisms of power who report what they see to the public. It gives people permission to question and scrutinize what they are hearing from their leaders and demands that official sources of information be trustworthy and transparent.

Sign me up to save a free and responsible press.

Democracy depends on the rule of law and demands that everyone is held to the same standard. I can join a movement to respect the rule of law.

There is a reason Vice President Harris’ presidential campaign has generated more excitement than President Biden’s did, and I don’t think it is because he is old and she isn’t quite as old. Instead, it is because he gave the public too big of a problem to solve.

While the message that “there is an existential threat to democracy ” is true, it isn’t very motivating. In fact, it can be paralyzing.

The Biden campaign wanted us to know how dangerous Trump is. The Harris campaign wants us to understand how weird he is. Both are true. However, after a generation of political desensitization to how “dangerous” this or that politician is, only one strategy has any power left to move the needle.

A naked emperor who believes he is fully clothed is dangerous. But sometimes,  when the emperor has no clothes, the most effective thing you can do is laugh.

This would be a good place to acknowledge white male privilege and the silent requirements we place on minoritized individuals.

I believe Vice President Harris is a joyful person. Still, there’s a deeper reason why she is running a campaign based on joy rather than danger: As a society, we don’t allow women, and especially those we have racialized, to warn us about anything. We don’t believe them. We suggest they are “making things up” or “reading too much into the situation.”

Biden, even in his diminished state, could warn us that “democracy is at stake,” and we would likely not accuse him of being overemotional.

The challenge, though, is that “democracy” (like “white Christian nationalism”) has become an empty signifier. When it means everything, it means nothing.

As a person of faith, it is always tempting to give my life over to an idea. But ideas don’t deliver us from oppression and darkness. However, tangible acts of justice, mercy, and love do, and that is what I will fight for.

If democracy is saved in the process, then even better.