Civic duty!
My parents seriously impressed on me the concept of civic duty; that as a citizen of the US, you needed to do things to support it. Positive things; get involved in local political efforts, stay well informed and able to make independent decisions, register and vote in every election and understand the players and the issues, speak up when it’s necessary, support local efforts to make things better, volunteer as you can, that sort of thing.
The day I turned 18, I registered to vote and for the draft. (Luckily, the draft ended soon after and I didn’t have to go to Vietnam, etc. I would have made a terrible soldier.) I’ve been interested and involved in politics before and since - first as a Republican, and now as a Democrat. And I volunteer as a election judge in my local area.
My first shot at this was in Findlay, Ohio, then in Chicago - both times as a Republican. And now, in suburban Lisle, I’ve been judging as a Democrat for a few years. My precinct is heavily Republican, but split 50/50 in 2008 for Obama versus McCain. And in a few days, I do it all over again. And I voted early, because I felt I had to be focused on the voting proceedures on Election Day.
The ballot, actually, was pretty simple. Tons of local positions for this are filled by Republicans because no Democrat bothers to run. There was a very poorly framed constitutional amendment that set up recall for the Governor (after the Blagojevich debacle) - but you’d have to get so much in the way of bigwig politicians at the state level to sign off on it first that it’s fundamentally worthless, and I voted against that. Voted for a local community college bond issue. Voted to not keep any of the local judges. And I voted Democratic where I could, largely because I was appalled at the Republicans running.
The local congresscritter is in for life as a GOP hack. The Senate election is uninspiring, but the Republican is a way big hack and phony who lies stupidly about his easily trackable past accomplishments. If that’s his idea of high-minded civics, I’ll pass. And the Governor’s race is between a flaky, goofy old good-government type who stumbles around some, and a hard-right Republican who has a clear agenda - and not one I care much for.
Frankly, the real issue in this state is that it’s broke because people on both sides of the aisle were wildly irresponsible or crooks who were willing to spend and borrow like mad, but totally unwilling to make sure that the state could pay its bills or straighten out taxation (or allow for raises, just cuts). Practically every mom and pop pharmacy collapsed because the state wasn’t willing to pay up on any sort of reasonable time schedule for Medicare and Medicaid prescriptions. Mom and pop couldn’t issue drugs and get paid in two years, maybe and still stay in business.
So I do my part. I have a sign on my front lawn for the Governor; I asked the organizations for the Democratic senate and house candidates for lawn signs, and I never got an answer. I keep informed, speak up, and support honest elections as a election judge. Not as much as I’d like to do, but it’s about my limit these days.