Every year, twice a year, we do our best to push you to the polls.
It’s your duty, we tell you. That is true.
It’s your responsibility, we stress. Also true.
It is your privilege, we encourage. Just being accurate.
But, this year, we are adding one more item to the list. It is your obligation.
Does that sound like just another synonym? Maybe. You might find it in a thesaurus in a list of things with the same definition. That doesn’t mean there aren’t subtle but important distinctions.
A duty is a task that you are given. It’s a chore assigned to you. Voting is the job that every citizen has as part of being an American.
A responsibility is one step further. Larger than a duty, a responsibility carries a kind of moral imperative. Voting isn’t just the job that you do. It is your share in the larger operation of government, which cannot function properly if people don’t do their part.
A privilege is the spoonful of sugar in this medicine. You should not vote because you must. You should vote because you can. In a world where so many people have no say in their government, it seems a sin to have the opportunity and discard it like a candy wrapper.
But an obligation? That word seems different somehow. It feels heavier. It has weight. It speaks of burden.
Maybe a little. An obligation is something you can’t — or shouldn’t — avoid. Debt is an obligation. So are taxes.
Voting, however, isn’t the obligation that comes with chains. Voting is a debt of gratitude. It is the thank-you note we write in return for citizenship. And we should write it with more than gratefulness. We should write it with grace — the freely given goodwill to do our part.
Perhaps that is hard in a presidential election year set to be as fraught as this one. Perhaps it is hard to do so in a primary where Pennsylvania’s participation is already moot in the most motivating race.
But we do not vote because we — or our chosen candidates — will win. We vote because we should, and because we must. It is our duty. It is our responsibility. It is our privilege. And it is our obligation.
Tomorrow is the Pennsylvania primary. Polls open at 7 a.m.
