Chapter 1: The Democracy Gene

“The Democracy Gene” is the first chapter from the book E Pluribus Unum describing how Americans can move through the period in which where we currently find ourselves and arrive together, intact, on the other side of this time. To do this, we must call upon three strands of our nation’s democratic DNA: citizens - each of us as individuals, community - many of us citizens together, and civics - citizens as intentional groups creating democratic institutions.

E Pluribus Unum: Chapter I - The Democracy Gene
By Jac Charlier

Here’s what we know - our country is in a time of disruptive change because of rapid ideological, economic, political, and social - especially gender and racial questioning combined with a fierce resistance to that very same questioning. Much is being challenged in our communities from sea to shining sea. Here’s what else we know - answers as to how we got here, what this means, and where this is all headed are few and far between, and we don’t know how long it will be in getting to both those answers and the other side of this time.

For some, the response to this span of increasing uncertainty is to lay low and keep out of sight, hoping it will just go away. For others, it’s to avoid contact as if it didn’t affect them or a variant on that to ignore it altogether as if it wasn’t happening. Still for others, it’s to attack while decrying “the other” who does the same. Still others may protest, rally, fight, run for political office, oppose those running or already in office, be (even more) partisan, resist (from their side), and a flurry of other efforts. We’d probably like to know that some or all of these actions are the “right” things to be doing. But the simple truth is, we just don’t know, even if now we believe with real zeal that we are acting with a (pro)claimed (moral, religious, political, racial, etc..) certainty. Only time and perspective can reveal that.

So in a time of not knowing, what do we do? After all, this is also a moment of huge opportunity: there’s a ton of energy, passion and intensity all over the place being poured out and poured into thereby transforming the predictable “public square” into a much more turbulent “civic crucible.” What can help us withstand the crush, the pressure, the shifting, the motion, the combining and the recombining of the crucible? For us as Americans the answer lies in what we inherited from the birth of our nation. it’s in our uniquely American DNA, what I call the “democracy gene”.

This gene which we each posses no matter how we each received it, lies dormant until something signals for it to come alive. Only then and not before, will we feel it excite our blood and stir our bones. Still, once the Democracy gene is triggered, we must use it so it can change us. It’s not enough just to have it.

How then do we do allow our genetic code to carry out its mission? What must we do to overcome our past selves, with the old normal, safe, quiet, hesitation, fear, confusion, reserve and calm that we knew so well? We start by coming to believe and then acting over and over and over on the foundational democratic ideals that make our American democracy the one the world looks to:

• As citizens, we hold the highest office in the land - no agency or organization is better or more than the citizen. Citizens are to stand tall and carry the weight of responsibility as the occupiers of the most enduring and challenging role in our democracy.
• When we gather as citizens, we gather as equals - we do not outrank one another and we do not yield to those with titles including elected officials because of that. To be equal means just that, equal in the most common and plain understanding of that very simple yet eternally powerful word. Citizens are to live with honor in how they treat other citizens and defend those not being treated accordingly.
• It’s our democracy, it belongs to us, to all of us - we fight over money and laws but at the end of the day our American democracy still belongs to every citizen - this is something we cannot gain through elections, politics, parties or donations, it is something we cannot lose or take away from others. together, citizens are to, in the words of the American Legion Preamble, “combat the autocracy of both the classes and the masses”.

These ideals, repeatedly put into practice, change us from our prior ways of thinking and being into living a new life, the life of a citizen. And this new lifestyle guides us - individually and together - to the true north of our American democracy. It speaks powerfully to what we now need to do to achieve our shared, better future - live our lives out daily as citizens - boldly, equally, responsibly, together.. And while it does not predict that future, it portends at least a better one.

Now that we know what we are to do, next up we’ll tackle how we are to live this kind of life. That’s about understanding citizens and democracy through the dual lens of individualism (a core tenet of early American life) and community (a core tenet of later American life). Until then, if you feel that something within is wanting to break out, if you know that there's something inside stirring to be free, if you are aware that something has been feeling just a little different lately, consider that it’s all OK, it’s just something in your genes.

Jac Charlier is a Chicagoland community and civic leader. He has a successful track record of creating citizen-led initiatives to solve shared neighborhood challenges. Early on in his volunteer neighborhood work friends gave him the nickname “Citizen Jac” for his passionate commitment to improving the life of his fellow citizens through building community. Jac can be found on Twitter @CitizenJac, on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/jaccharlier and even by email jac.charlier@gmail.com.