What are the main challenges facing democracy today?
The main challenge facing democracy is the lack of civic engagement on the part of the young. To put it bluntly, we are increasingly living in a gerontocracy. Democracy only works when there are enough stakeholders in a democratic society and an understanding that when too many people fall to the bottom–or don’t participate–it drags the middle AND the top down with it. Why is this happening? Because our current leadership is limited by their ideas on both sides of the aisle, and ideas have a very short shelf-life in a world where the only true universal is that the world is entirely subject to change. In other words, nothing is permanent. Leadership must be young, dynamic, courageous, innovative, and flexible because the world changes around us very quickly. Most of our leadership couldn’t explain what variables are with respect to coding, how sophisticated the digital world is, or how to approach our 21st-century information-based economy. I’m not entirely certain I see a vision for progress. It’s time for the young to take the country by storm. That’s why–out of my sense of civic duty–I’ve decided to run for my local Board of Ed. election.
