Independence Day and Civic Engagement when Democracy is in crisis

I don't have the energy to write about this in depth.  SCOTUS ("The Supreme Court Has Kicked the Door Wide Open to Jim Crow–Style Bigotry," The Nation), voter suppression, gerrymandering, authoritarian tendencies in the Republican Party, Trump and insurrection, State Legislature preemption of the ability of local government to act ("States Are Silencing the Will of Millions of Voters," New York Times), etc.

Signing of the Declaration of Independence

Yes, to have democracy you need to practice it.  And I believe our civic institutions need to seize on every opportunity to promote substantive civic engagement.  Which isn't easy, is time consuming, is subject to blowback (e.g., the conservative push against school boards) etc.

Margaret Sullivan's column in the Guardian, "On the Fourth of July, a few reasons to feel encouraged about US democracy," quotes a law professor, Asha Rangappa from Yale:

"Get engaged locally,” urged Yale University’s Asha Rangappa told me recently when I interviewed the former FBI agent for my podcast, American Crisis: Can Journalism Save Democracy? That could mean runing for office, signing up to be a poll worker, volunteering at school, participating in the arts. 

Rangappa wants more Americans to “cultivate the habits of democracy”. Those habits are developed when people leave their social-media echo chambers, get out into their communities, and simply talk to each other.

Yep.