Voter Suppression and Civic Vice

Our republic requires certain virtues in our leaders. Those who suppress the votes of their fellow citizens show none of them.

October 31, 2020 | Gary Hart | The Bulwark

Though too many Americans cannot define a republic, even while saluting “the flag for which it stands,” much continues to be written about Benjamin Franklin’s ominous warning when he was asked about the results of the Constitutional Convention: “A republic . . . if you can keep it.”

From republican Rome onward, republics throughout history have insisted on civic virtue as necessary for stability. Unlike other forms of government, the republic demands certain things of its citizens: not only loyalty, but responsibility, bravery, honesty, and public-spiritedness. Today, we settle for mere citizen engagement, a vague term with little rigor and less virtue.

In recent years we have experienced almost the antithesis of civic virtue. In our democratic republic, voting is, if not the fundamental republican virtue, at least an indicator of virtue. Yet we congratulate ourselves when 60 percent of eligible voters turn out. …