Five key stories about democracy

Americans are exhausted — living through noise, chaos, corruption, and manipulation. But exhaustion creates another danger: surrender. When citizens become overwhelmed by government, they can believe they have no power to change it. That is when they need to remember the power of self-governance itself.

The Constitution was not written to make Americans spectators to their government. It was written to make them participants in it. The power of self-governance belongs to the people. It does not disappear when a president overreaches, Congress fails to act, or institutions are pressured. It becomes more important.