The Meaning of Democracy

Vote.

The Humours of an Election - The Polling by William Hogarth, 1755 (public domain - Wikipedia)

“The importance of the ordinary citizen is very greatly underrated—not so much by those in authority as by the ordinary citizen himself.” — Jan Struther, 1942

On this Election Day in the United States, it’s worth reflecting on the words of E.B. White.

White was a longtime contributing editor to The New Yorker, and in 1943 he wrote this unsigned piece for the magazine’s Notes and Comment section. The United States was engaged in World War II, still more than half a year away from D-Day.

The country had recently emerged from the Great Depression and Roosevelt’s New Deal, comprised of so many public works and infrastructure projects, had just begun to take hold as the war began.

It is in that context that White wrote “The Meaning of Democracy.”